xeno industry should be a lower priority, imo. especially if you play with auto upgrades. the xeno lab/factory are just a 5% improvemetn over the basic version, but cost an additional 45 manufacturing (i.e. +150% compared to the basic building). i usually turn off the auto upgrade straight away and leave my plant at the basic level for quite a while - early production is too valuable to waste it on an the overproeced xeno lab/factory upgrades.

i only pick up the xeno industry once i have the other early "must haves", and i usually plow through to advanced construction and institutional research to unlock the manufacturing and research capitals.

xeno commerce and commerce specialization (supportive population) are pretty high on my early priority list. interstellar travel is very useful early on (+1 move for all ships). the follow up interstellar specialization (transport specialization) is pretty useful too (allows for design of custom double module constructors with some spare room for other useful stuff like an engine)

some of the tech trees also have some "low hanging fruit" that are worth picking up really early. a prime example would be the hive in the thalan tech tree - makes sense to pick that up as the first tech.

universal translator can be useful if you meet someone early on.

Here's another early game trick I use.  Don't build any scouts.  They're not very fast, they can't fight, and they can't explore anomalies.  My favorite explorers are constructors.  Constructors are faster, they can begin mining resources immediately.  And each starbase constructed adds to the range of your other ships - notably colony ships for new colonies, and survey ships for investigating anomalies.

As I mentioned, you can never have enough money.  As I said, the production planets can pretty much take care of themselves, but the non-production planets need help - especially the research colonies.  You need to spend money to pay for research buildings and to pay for commerce buildings.  The two factories alone are simply not efficient enough.  If you have to build 8-10 buildings on many planets, you're going to need money - a lot of it.

Also, buildings & ships have upkeep maintenance.  the more of each you build, the more it will cost you.  I like having auto-upgrade always on, and that gives you more effective buildings - but again, you have to pay for it.

Sometimes during trading, you may have to sweeten a deal with money to make it go through.  I'd rather pay money outright than pay credits-per-turn.

Hope this helps.  Post any other questions you may have.

P.S., There's a YouTube video on Beta-5 strategy where the guy playing the game admitted that he messed up and regretted not going for XC much sooner.  He was trying to build buildings and he simply ran out of money.  Personally, I like to have about 3,000 bc at all times, 5,000 to 6,000 is quite common for me.  The bottom line is that you would always like to turn extra credits into improved efficiency.  It's all good.

Thank you guys. I will attempt to adjust my strategy. 

As for how to specialise your planets, the decision is usually not too hard IMO. the key thing to realise is that manu planets benefit from being in close proximity since shipyards can have multiple sponsors. research and wealth planets get no benefit at all really.

also, due to overheads, it's usually better if research and wealth world's are of higher class.

finally, I tend to prioritise research over wealth. usually at a ratio of about 3 research world's for every one wealth world. which usually leads me to the following rough guide (I still take planet bonuses and my empires needs into account)...

1) is the planet close to other planets? If yes, manufacturing! otherwise it must be on its own, proceed to step 2...

2) is the planet high class (12+) - if yes then research. If no then wealth. 

again, that's a very rough guide, and local factors like planet and colonisation bonuses come into play fairly regularily, along with empire needs.

and finally, as someone mentioned - build factories on research and wealth specialised planets! I usually go for at least 2 and a solar plant. preferably 3. This, along with farms, is where the overheads come from.

as for approval buildings, I usually consider them last resort. I'd rather beeline for +approval techs, or build star base modules, or get the tradeable resource.

interesting that you push so hard up the tree.

I actually find the choice at #11 (growth vs production) to be a tough one when you are not the yor. big advantages and disadvantages to both IMO.

anyone got thoughts on which is better? early game and late 

If you have the Dense trait (more mass can be packed on ships) pick up the tech that lets you build "Small hulls." This means you can now pack colony modules on a much cheaper frame.  

The best strategy that I have found when I play with the Terrans is...

• Turn Earth into 100% science and research Interstellar Travel.
• Rush a cheap colony ship and settle Mars. Rush more colony ships as you see fit but leave about 1000 credits for maintenance costs.
• Turn Earth into 100% production and build 3 factories and then three labs, turn Earth into 100% science.
• Build only factories on Mars and then start building colony ships. 100% production and 100% shipyard once all factories are built.
• Research Xeno Commerce and then Supportive Population with Earth and then turn Earth into 100% production and add some more factories, perhaps raze the science buildings or some of them at least, usually keep one for now. Once you have good number of factories to build colony\constructors in a turn shift all production to military.
• Settle planets and build constructors for space stations surrounding Earth and Mars with several of them.
• Settle about 10-20 planets... all gets one factory and 4-5 labs at 100% production and then turn them into 100% science.
• Research Xeno Entertainment, Interstellar Tourism then research Trade techs depending on how much income you need, this saves worlds from being turned into Wealth planets for a while as you expand.
• Don't upgrade factories and labs to second tier, those just cost unnecessary credits in maintenance and practically give you nothing in return... wait until you can upgrade to at least tier three buildings and you already have most of the planets you can get in the early game.

By this time your science should be skyrocketing and Earth/Mars pumps out one colony/constructor per turn... might consider another manufacturing planet for more expansion or military ship production. Research are so high by this point that you unlock technologies faster than you have time to use them so its basically downhill from here...

Don't settle Mars first.  It's more important to get your first ideology point and get the 3 constructors from Pragmatic, which you can then upgrade to colony ships.  

This little trick SERIOUSLY speeds up your expansion in the early game.  

As Terrans you also get Colonizer which means all of your new worlds can start with shipyards, which means they can immediately start spamming colony ships the moment they colonize.  

Where is Supportive Population? I can't seem to find it.

ON EDIT: Never mind -- just found the search function.

that guide isn't really a good way to learn the game. contains a lot of misinformation and bad advice. you're better off playing by your own strategy.

One of the first ships I designed was a 'double' constructor, which has proved to be cheaper to build and quite useful.  If you start with the 'pragmatic' ideology you get a 'double constructor' benefit as well.  By combining these two things, you can create an extremely robust starbase system quite quickly.