I'd suggest spending some time reading through traffic generation threads on this message board and other webmaster boards. There's a thousand different ways to generate traffic, this particular board focuses mostly on free sites and link lists.
As far as gaining affiliates, get involved in the community and find out what webmasters want/need for promotion and make it available. It always helps to have high payouts too...
Unfortunately there's no cookie cutter answers to your questions. It's going to take time and research on your part to find out that works best for you and your business plan.