The direction I should go with development, how to monetize effectively, and how to get the traffic I need.To help move things along, you might want to specify what type of advice you are looking for...
Would it be better for me to pay someone from like fiver to set up the site for me? I only have a little experience with html and have never done anything with wordpress.Find some hosting that includes a free copy of Softaculous CMS installer. That lets you set up a basic website in about 2 minutes. It takes a lot longer to customise it of course.
You might want to look at WordPress as a CMS. There is a lot of free support for that.
You will need to join Google Analytics and include their code on all pages. This will help you to analyse your traffic.