This represents a tricky topic. Some of it, background for characters, was dealt with in Step 5. But other things remain.
Names: names are tricky things, especially in a setting like Middle-Earth. My suggestion is to borrow from other people's work. Use the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, the Books of Lost Tales, or any of the ICE MERP supplements as sources. All of these are good resources. However, the best source of 'new' names for Middle-Earth is Quenya Lapseparma, a massive article that translates real world given names into Quenya. Alternatively, you could try the Hobbit Name Generator. I don't remember the adress, but Google should.
Flavour: Tolkien went to a great deal of effort to create a world, which can lead to problems. Become familiar with his world. Read the books. See the art. At the very least watch the Fellowship of the Ring. But be prepared for your GM's vision of the world to differ from yours. Don't jump down their throat if you disagree with something they say. Actually, that one is a pretty good general world; I'd still be playing 7th Sea if some people played by that rule...
Attempt originality: so it's not always easy. Acccepted. Just try not to make your character a clone. try to come up with sensible reasons for why the characters are doing what their doing AND why they're doing it together.
Buy stuff: your character starts with money; spend some. This is not D&D. Money does not have to be an end in and of itself. Comfort before gold, as Hobbits say*. Money is of some importance, but it is rarely dealt with in the corpus; don't let it take up too much of your time.
* they do now.