My thoughts.
This breaks down into three phases;
1. Credibility building
2. Establishment
3. Expansion
[Credibility Building]
We should join an alliance where we feel we can make a positive contribution; join something that's stable rather than nascent, and then learn our way around space. The north is notoriously stable ever since the great northern war, and MAX DAMAGE campaigns aside, areas like Branch, Tenal and Venal really don't get a whole lot of traffic.
What I do in the 'swarm is basically act either in fleet roles as an ECM specialist, or more often play insurgency roles in a cloaking ship inside enemy territory. This fits my playstyle, and I use ornan with his capships to be my cash source and mobility agent (esp once he gets on with the jump drive calibration set).
What I suggest you guys do is get further down the (cap) ship production route; get good at it with researched BPCs and then go offer that service to an established alliance; Morsus Mihi, TCF, will all have their producers, but for a small float you can probably get a piece of the action.
Pick a station system that's not a dead end near to you, make sure it's well stocked with materials and gear, use evemap to get somewhere that has half decent space, but to be honest at the beginning, you'll be lucky to get anywhere between -0.1 and -0.3. Go mine the hell out of the low-end high-ends that are available, and make it so that your station is a trade hub.
Take jita prices, and offer a small, perhaps 2-3% markup. Make some money on flow. If you're in an alliance where actually things are marketed at effective mineral prices, then forget the markup, do the pricing for good will, and make your money on self produced items, capships and rigs. People in rorquals and carriers, get those jump calibration skills up and get one or two guys into a jump freighter so you can bring in decent volumes of gear. When we get here, I'll start talking about WHAT people need in 0.0; but realistically, look at your alliances' fleet reimbursement policies and then bias towards those.
Mine and Buy minerals at a discount (especially if you're deep in 0.0, people will fill a buy order that's 60% of what they'd get in jita, purely because they don't have to carrier jump it 20 jumps - especially if they know that they'll be able to use that stuff as ships or modules).
Start going on alliance ops, don't let it interfere with the strategic plan, but if anyone has a flair for command, or covert operations, then let them indulge it to build stronger bridges with the alliance. Always monitor the alliance you're in for signs of flakiness or randomness.
[ Establishment ]
Once supply and demand stabilises, and that system becomes a bit of a trade hub because it's so well stocked (both in terms of services as well as in terms of goods - pick this station sensibly, caldari is probably the best type, then you want the associated services to be good, definitely a medical + refinery + repair + production - but you may not get that much luck) you look to take over the management of the station.
This is where real cash starts arriving because you take a small but useful cut - check for stations around and play oligarchy with this; set the same station refine tax as them - do what the petrol stations do; differentiate on services (strength of market) not core commodity.
At this point, start building caps seriously and get the alliance to put orders in - make sure the alliance you pick has a cap reimbursement programme - note that TCF have a LOT of cash from the southern dysprom moons they were taking advantage of for years, so as a result, I would bias towards them or MM - they are also very active in the european timezones; which means you won't have to worry about BoB (who are euro heavy). For every 5 or 6 alliance orders, put an order onto the main market, do this at a markup - approximately 30% over what you're selling to the alliance. This will get the 'just cashed in timecards' mob, as well as the 'more ISK than I know what to do with' people.
[ Expansion ]
This is where things really start kicking off; start providing jump bridges built, maintained and fuelled by the corp; focus on getting POS mining deathstars in place, effectively become part of the infrastructure backbone of the alliance; maybe take on a second station system 'deeper in' (which also means more trusec). All of this will be tied to growth .... At this point (and probably before) people will want to join us in droves. Don't let them. Cherry pick people who will fit in and who have the right playstyle and background. Grow by growing on the forum, so continue to build the community around the forum, then let that trickle into the corp. Fast growth kills tightly knit groups quicker than anything; and we don't want all our hard work reverse taken over.
