1) Crafting it by far the best way to make gill but it takes time to get there. Next best would be farming valuable items, followed by leves.

2) Best way to get a party is get a linkshell and best way to do that is shout in Uldah. Most linkshells are in need of ppl, so getting into a linkshell should not be hard.

3) Character building is about all you can do atm. So you have go into it as your preparing for what is to come. There are some bosses in Faction leves and World NMS at higher levels but that is basically endgame atm.