Skipsta
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Posted - 2006.02.14 00:55:00 -
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Edited by: Skipsta on 14/02/2006 01:03:34
A few tips:
Production Efficiency is the most important skill for manufacturing. Don't even consider building stuff with a skill level lower than 4. If you want to make serious money and undercut your competitors, then PE 5 is essential.
Learning the market is more important than learning the ins and outs of industry. If you can to differentiate market gaps from areas where there is so much competition an item isn't worth making, then you will save yourself millions in the future. Trade skills however, are not as important - in fact the one skill "Trade" is all you need to train up on to be a profitable manufacturer.
Time is money. Don't be fooled into thinking that mining veldspar for 3 hours makes the tritanium for your modules free. You could have spent those 3 hours mining something more valuable, or even ratting. Leave low level mineral mining for the afk guys in barges 
Don't just go out and buy BPOs. Use the escrow system and search for BPC packs. You will save having to do material research on your BPO's. you will also be able to obtain a diverse set of items to make at a far lower price. Only buy a BPO if you are certain it will make money - many (in fact the majority) don't.
Place buy orders, especially for tritanium. That way you dont waste hours ferrying it to the station where you plan to manufacture from. Its always worth paying a little more if need be to have trit delievered to your doorstep. Minerals like Zydrine however, are worth flying around for the best deal, although you will be suprised how a buy order placed in a station where people refine Jaspet can pick up cheap zydrine for you.
Ships usually sell for highter margins than modules, cruisers are a good place to start. Ammo and shuttles are however a good way of learning the ropes. You can actually make a lot of money out of making ammo in a low sec ratting system, but of course there are risks involved. Ships tend to sell better on the fringes of empire space, people who get their ships destroyed in low sec tend to snap up the 1st thing they see when they hit empire. For this reason if you can sell reasonably priced ships in systems which lead to low sec pipes (Esa, Rens, Agil) then you will have an easier time of unloading your products.
Final tip, use a spreadsheet to work out exactly how much you stand to make from an item before you make it, or indeep aquire the blueprint. If you don't want to make your own, you can obtain an excellent one here: Linkage
Fly Safe 
P.S to actually answer your question about selling sbuttles, don't insta sell. Always set up a sell order by right clicking "sell" on the time, and selecting advanced. Make yours the cheapest in the station, but never fill someone elses buy order, unless they are offering an amount which still makes it profitable for you. 99% of manufactured items I make are sold with sell orders. You do not need a special skill trained to set up a sell order in the same station as you. Always remember to set the duration of the order to 3 months - although you should have to wait that long If someone undercuts your shuttles, just dock at the station and undercut them
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