Which Corp/Alliance to join for benefits?Follow

will start with. only corporations can join alliances, and its even then, usually after a period of diplomacy between the ceo and the alliance holding corps ceo plus member ceo's...
as for which corp to join.. well for that you need to look around and find one that suits your interests.. when it comes to clones i think you'll find that they are skill dependent... though you can only create clones in stations where you have good standing or at least.. where they don't hate you ;D
perhaps you could be more specific in what it is your looking for from a corporation.. and what it is you actually want to do ?

how strong/tough the npc rats are is dependent on the sec level, in high sec (.5 - 1.0) the rats arent that tough, but, for a new player they're probably a bit too tough to solo, you might find that although you can kill them in .7, or maybe .6, the ones in .5 are just too much, a lot of it can be the setup you have on your ship. perhaps if you post your ship fit on here, we can help you out. though really this is the kind of thing you can get in game, usually in corp chat etc. as to which corp to join, there are so many its impossible to list, but even someone in the starter corps should be able to help you out, quite a few there are probably vets or between corps etc. joining the recruitment channel is probably a good start to finding one anyway. the top right hand corner of the chat box has a chat icon, if you press that it expands out to show you the channels.. recruitment is there. click on that and then watch the wall of text roll by.. its a popular channel, but if you advertise yourself in there then you should get a few invites. .. also, if you venture into low sec, (0.1 - 0.4) you can be attacked by other players, its not so bad on the gates - as long as you dont hang around, but in the belts, your sure to get podded, and in 0.0, its practically a certainty, even on the gates. the corp im in is based in 0.0 and is basically pvp only, probably not a good place to learn the ropes ;D

Just dont fly with them... seriously.... thats an embarassing killboard!