The outer edge of the Bubble, in areas too thinly populated to be profitable for Powerplay, is where it's easiest to carve out your own personal empire. Or "empires".
Your biggest problem will be finding a communist faction out there. For the randomly-generated indie factions, communists are much less probable than anarchists, democrats or corporates. But if you've already found one, go for it.
When you've found a system you want to try to work in, land at a station and check the traffic reports. A typical fringe system will have less than 10 visitors a day. More than that, and someone else might be working that system. It might pay to watch the influence boards without you doing anything there and see if the boards are moving without your input. If they're not, the system is yours for the taking and shouldn't require too much effort on your part to flip. But if someone else cares about a faction in that system, you'll likely end up working against each other with neither side making any progress.
