Vote at www.ecocitycraft.com/vote then /kit starter do the main votes then ask around in /ch tr for a 10x10 plot get one then make a house. Make sure the town has a farm(s) use the farms, invest in better tools. FARM FARM FARM FARM ALOT! Get resident repeat and find new ways.
Vote, buy a fishing pole, and sell the fish you catch to the server through the '/sell hand' command. Make sure to have the fish in your hand when selling ofc. Once you get around $2-4k try to rent an hour's access to a farm, preferably an auto-harvest wheat farm, or a reed(sugar cane) farm. They make the most per hr which is around 12-18k and no tools are required.
You can also contact ECC Freecycle in the User Competition section of the forum. With a simple application we can find you some tools that will help get you started on a great mining adventure. Or a PvP one, if you're in to that.