The rank isn't hard to get, for me it's the money. The promotion missions came quick and easy for me, just tootling around imperial space taking up odd-jobs on the way, and before I knew it I was a Baron. It helps to travel a lot and get friendly with more than a handful of imperial subfactions. Haven't bothered going for any alliances and they still wanted me in the officer's club. But I can't handle trading for any length of time, just too monotonous and unrewarding for me, a number getting slightly bigger every now and then just isn't action. The 30-something million I need to raise for the ship, insurance and outfitting is going to be some grind, but thankfully a bit less so now that I heard about messing with rings until you get a good pirate spawner.