I won't hire pirates to escort my freighter because they don't draw any hostile fire. I made a run with a very powerful pirate once, and I ended up taking more damage from the Navy crossfire from having him on my wing than I would have if I made the run alone, even considering that he broke formation to take out some Xenos that jumped me in Galileo.

Killing Xenos will only make the Xenos mad at you, and the good guys will like you a little bit more. If you want to become a pirate, you need to attack police, navy, and/or civilian ships. Here's a hint though: don't wait to become a pirate - just start pirating. Take out some Transports or Trains and sell the loot, eventually you'll achieve notoriety. Since the Liberty police and navy like you in the beginning of the game, you get some free pirating done before the navy starts being hostile toward you.

Bah, people who kill Xeno's simply to make every other faction are wasting a lot of time. Attack bounty hunters and navies on sight. That'll make all criminal factions love you to bits.

Avoid using trade lanes after that, and stick to jump holes instead of using jump gates.

If you group up with polar opposite (IF the game lets ya. High lvl good players simply cannot group up with high lvl pirates. If they somehow manage, by using nuetral players to group with, they will have a lot of trouble getting into formation or getting missions). Your enemies will still attack you, and their enemies will still attack them. However an added twist comes into play. When your wingman kills one of your allies, those same allies will turn on you too (and any kills your wingmen get seem to affect your rep too).