PP said pretty much what all race does. But in details
Tax; Compared to the 2 other paths, you pretty much can`t go hybrid. Put all into housing ( 5 industry for missions ). Put 5,000 loyalty on a cluster/large before popping it or it will cost you too much. Like PP said, 20-25k c2 with a few U.Large will give you a nice high income. Careful about the food though! ( High base PR )
CG; Consumer Good. It will ALWAYS sell no matter what. But compared to the other 2 ways, its the slowest one imo. Research Industry all the way and get high land :)
Mineral; You don`t care about the size of your clusters, you just want planets count. Mineral miner also let you use your land in industry to add a small income in the same time. It wont affect your mineral production ( 5 industry rest mining )
Also a factor if you want to hoard planets or not. Mineral Miner make most profit from it considering they dont need the land at all.
( Careful! If you choose to cluster your hand-made c2s into a c3 it`s at your own risk of losing them! )