Here are some tips:
-Farm
-Vote
-Participate in Global Chat
-Build
-Fish
Find some other things to do by yourself.

 

Well most residents tend to aim for mayor. Personally I would do that too but there are far more better plans such as buying a melon sword which costs 500k~. I would start by actually taking an advantage of the resident rank. Allow me to justify my point, you can make trade signs so you can set up a mini shop that offer good deals and at the same time allows you to make profit. You can also start to interact with other users and developing bonds with them so they can assist you. For me, go for a melon sword as it will make profit in the long term.

 

I would attempt to get co-mayor with a town, you can sell plots, get money off of them and well, practice for when YOU own a town. I co-mayor a town called Achilles and its actually very nice!