One Hour Rule

This is something I abide by and I know a fair few other LLaMas do too.  Primarily used when starting at part time/amateur sides, this involves only signing players within an hours drive of your club  (For non-contract and amateur players 30 minutes).  The method for determining this would be to look at the birthplace of the player and also how local to yours their previous clubs are. 

Own Player History

Your own players history is also a great way to gauge  what transfer moves are viable.  For example I have often started with  Stalybridge Celtic in the English sixth tier who are based in the Greater Manchester area.  A quick look at my own players history shows that they have quite often played for other clubs in the locality (Ashton, FC United etc) and often have been released from larger clubs like Man Utd, Oldham etc. 

It is worth remembering however that if your club has generally signed players from much greater distances in the past then you know it's realistic to cast your net further afield.

TravelTime Map

The 'one hour' aspect is fairly arbitrary but it's a good yardstick of how far a player would travel to earn a part time wage and the following tool does the hard work for you.  

Simply enter the name of your club/town and set the time to an hour and choose car as mode of transport