Great game to a point, great graphics if you can run it, mostly ok community, although the trolls there beat any other.
Don't ever pay anyone any isk (money) to join their corporation/alliance, its a scam.
Don't take anything from a yellow can in space that is labelled (free stuff) if you do you will find your ship blown up and you in a small pod wondering wtf.
Get started with missions level 1 as this will be a good way to start earning some money.
Invest in drone skills (mainly if you are going Gallente ships).
If you want to join a corporation go to forums and look in the recruitment section, good there specially for new players.
May be worth setting your autopilot route to safe only (1.0-0.5) this makes sure you don't fly into any none friendly space and most likely get quickly blown up.
What race ships are you planning on flying?

yes the scam is bad within this game ...

do not trust anyone ... they all want to steal from you, blow up your ship or rape you
there is nothing for free ... if the offer looks too good to be true its 99.9% scam.
Always check 3times or more before you do something.

as said above DO NOT shoot others and DO NOT loot yellow cans/wracks until you know what you do, DO NOT move below 0.5 and DO NOT fly a ship which you cant afford to lose (pvp is always on)

if you want to do mission running (like dailies in other mmorpg without limits) I would maybe aim for a drake (caldari bc) and then tengu. Minmatar is also nice forpve and pvp. Amaar only good if you stay in amaar space. And gaylente (especially pirate ship rattlesnake for those who wants pve afk). It doesnt matter which race you choose in the beginning, because you can train everything afterwards so now worry there.

Also incursions are great for making money but its a bit far away for a beginner.

mining and trading can get boring really fast, but some like it. I didnt :p

for mining you definately need a corp or if you want to mine 'solo' you need at least 2 or 3 accounts to do it efficently (its normal for eve players to have more than one account ... avg 3 accounts for a player).

good ship for mining endgame hulk ... first train up to a 'mining cruiser' for your race (the one that gives you bonuses on mining yield) and then mining barge like the retriever. after that hulk.

For hauling a 'industrial' ship would do if you have 2 accounts (pick one from your race) > endgame orca for hauling and boosting. so if your cargo is full > drop it in space > other account/player picks it up with the hauler and brings it to station.
If you want to mine solo with one account you should get back to station if your cargo is full and unload it. yes you can 'jetcan' but people will 'flip' the can (steal from you and put it in their own container to hope that you will loot it back so that they can blow you up). so dont do it.

a good mining guide is I think 'haladas mining guide' http://www.eve-wiki.net/?title=Haladas_Mining_Guide
there should be also a better pdf version out there (v3). Also there should be a pdf beginners guide out there, but I cant find it.

edit: yes there are many guys out there that want to blow up your ship, so be carefull ... so again DO NOT loot from things that are yellow and DO NOT shoot/target a player < if you follow this you wont die silly for a while :)

edit2: also press 'escape' > 'general settings' > 'inflight' > 'auto target back' > set it to '0 targets' so that you dont accidently target another player which is targeting you and shoot him (they like to do this) and then you will get blown up by 'concord' (police) and lose your ship.

I've heard a lot of mixed and after playing for a while, I kind of agree. The community is pretty toxic and the learning curve/time required to be relevant is quite high.

another tip for the beginning: do not try to earn money with mining in a frigate ... it sucks and takes way to long.

after you finished with the tutorials you should do missions. lvl1 with the frig or the destroyer you will get from the tutorial. then lvl2 while training and earning isk for the cruiser and then lvl3 with a cruiser, maybe battlecruiser to earn more money.

after that you can go mining (maybe after you have trained the retriever). mining in a frig and cruiser to earn money is a waste of time in my opinion. you will earn 4times the isk with mission running in the beginning.