In the past simply buying crypto (esp. Bitcoin) - and maybe trading it, the high volatility can give you nice gains if you time it right - has always been the more lucrative option, compared to the same amount invested in some 'mining contract'. Even IF they pay out and are not a scam.

Mining Bitcoin has become a very tough business - I would not waste any time with it, no matter if you mine yourself or use one of the cloud mining scams, errrrr, 'services'.

For various alt-coins, esp. Ether, mining is still a viable option, but it is worth it to read up a little and mine yourself (one or several good ATI graphic cards, mining on one of the respected mining pools). If you live somewhere where electricity is cheap, you can earn quite a bit that way.

I would always advise AGAINST using ANY of those questionable mining sites, 90% of which don't even mine... (Genesis does mine, but if you really calculate any of their contracts, you will find that actual profits are symbolic or zero, and always worse than the options mentioned above).