EVE New Citizens Q&A

I'm a pretty new player with a couple weeks experience and ~1mil SP under my belt. I've of course done all the tutorials, careers agents, and Sisters of Eve epic arc and found I enjoyed exploration as a fun solo venture. I've done a lot of research on exploration, but there's a few things I have questions about as I settle into the day-to-day stuff. I'll explain my current methods, and I'd love critiques on what I could do better as well as general critiques to my character.

My character sheet:http://eveboard.com/pilot/Vomar_Starbender

My fit (the first one, Arbitrator Starter):https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=2377160#post2377160. I also fit 2x Medium Gravity Capicitor Upgrade I for rigs.

What I do: High-sec exploration in Guristas space. I found a little island requiring at least one jump through low-sec, so I've been hanging out there scanning down the ~10 systems. I'm usually only able to do 1-2 hours at a time, once or twice a day, so I find between scanning/running I don't usually exhaust those ~10 systems in a 24 hour timeframe. I ignore Grav/Ladar/Mag/WH sites, and only do Radar and non-drone combat, looting all wrecks and ignoring salvaging anything lower than medium. Then, when my cargo hold is getting a bit full, I make the trek to Jita (about 7-12 jumps) to sell everything.

My questions:

• Should I be moving around more? I've heard both sides of the fence - people saying to get to know an area and others saying it's more profitable to keep mobile.
• I hear about people setting a route through 20-30 systems and scanning them down. Is this for an all-day play session or something? Because it can take me 10-20 minutes to scan down a system (depending on the number of signatures) and then another 20-60 minutes to run the sites, longer if there's a lot of combat.
• Because I have a cruiser, I'm now locked out of DED 1/10 and 2/10 sites and their unrated equivalents. Is this a big loss? It feels like my list of available sites is narrowing because 1) I don't have the signal strength to scan down the lowest strength radar sites, 2) I can't do 1/10 or 2/10 now, and 3) I'm already ignoring so many other signatures as well as anomalies.
• I can work my way through 3/10 plexes, but it takes me a long time and the payoff hasn't been comparable to Radar sites yet, especially given the amount of time required. I haven't tried any 4/10 but I'm not sure I could do them. Is this just my luck of the draw so far? Should I continue to try combat sites?
• (Last one, I promise!) Do you guys typically set up sell orders wherever you finish exploring for the day/week, or do you transport the goods to a bigger trading hub? I've been going back and forth to Jita and I'm wondering if that's normal or worthwhile.

Thanks in advance for reading and responding. Again, I'm also very open to general critiques on my SP spread so far or ship fit.

1/10 - frigate
2/10 - frigate & destroyer
3/10 - frigate, destroyer and cruiser
4/10 - frigate, destroyer, cruiser and battlecruiser

You'll get faster as your skills (player and character) improve. I can do a 6-8 system scan in about an hour, that's with finding nothing except radar. Combat sites take longer depending what they are.

Looting and salvaging anything except the overseer/faction ships is a waste of time. Won't be more than what you get in a mission, usually less.

If you're worried about the lower sites then depending on how far you move around, you can keep a fitted frigate in case you find a lower site. I've personally only every found two 2/10 sites, one had a decent drop, one didn't. Too small a sample to be significant though.

Thanks for the advice. I've heard about the DSP Guide, but I only keep it open for reference of the relative difficulty/rarity of the sites since I'm still training Astrometrics to level 5. Once I can use the Deep Space Probes I'll be able to eliminate 50% of the signal strength values and move through systems faster (at least that's the theory...). Still use Core Scanner Probe I though, after I pad my wallet a bit I'll upgrade to Sisters.

I use the 5+2 pattern (I'm assuming that's the one with 7 probes forming the 3D cross pattern) and I usually skip one range value when narrowing down. Just last night I tried the 4AU around celestial idea and it seemed to work well...good to confirm this. I haven't been doing this for very long so it's probably just my inexperience that's slowing me down.

Personally, i wouldn't make the trip to Jita. At least not that often.
Chances are, you can sell off your stuff where you are. Even when you might get a little less ISK for it, it should still be worth it since you can use that time you would've spent travelling by clearing out another one or two exploration sites. With some patience and the use of sell orders you even get more for your loot than in Jita, especially when you find some meta modules that are used for ship fittings. For example, all kinds of prop modules, damage controls or shield extenders. Other things won't sell via sell orders, a good option for those would be refining them and selling the minerals. Typical modules to refine instead of sell are smart bombs, hull repairers and many types of ammo.
Courier contracts are another option you could look into to save some time otherwise spent on pointless hauling.

As for the question if you should move around more... it depends. It sounds like you can fill your online time with exploration already quite well. Once you can scan faster and run the sites faster, you will want to expand. You can either roam a bigger route or take the plunge into LoSec. A longer HiSec route is of course safer, but the jump into LoSec will be more rewarding, both in terms of ISK as in terms of gameplay. But it sounds like you can wait on that descision a bit longer.
You can also start keeping different ships around to be able to run more different sites, like a Frigate or Destroyer for 1/10s and 2/10s, a Cruiser for bigger sites, maybe even a Venture to empty gas fields.
Once you start accumulating wealth, scatter a few frigates set up for scanning, hacking and salvaging in your area. This will allow you to fit your other ships for combat and do the sites faster while at the same time give you access to those sites you aren't able to scan out yet. Setting these frigs up is fairly cheap and if you do have a sort of "home area", preparing it like that could be worthwhile in the long run.

EDIT: Oh, and get T2 drones as soon as you can afford them. They will help you clear the sites that much faster.

the serpentis 4/10 has an overseer bs with a strong armor tank. i once wasted several 1000 missiles on him because it was in an incursion system.