Hey Axioms,
I wish you the best for your journey!
Some advice:
Social
+ Create Social profiles (Facebook, G+, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest). With tumblr, I recommend creating a sub-domain and linking them together. (
http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/custom_domains). Let me know if you need a quality tumblr theme. I have a bought one, and it wouldn't be a problem to share it with you. (it's called bloq, and I think it looks extremely professional.)
+ Link from your website to your social profiles
+ Every time you post an article, share it with original content on your Social Profiles. Make sure you re-write the text you share it with for each profile
+ Go to
http://www.markething.me/ and create a free account. Go to the blackhatworld thread from the creator of markething me, add a review and add your name. I'm not sure if he's still doing it, but last time I checked he gives 50 free points per review

+ Use markething.me to create a few g+ shares and other signals. Just a few per article, like 5-10
Email marketing
+ Offer a newsletter signup for quality content. Create a X-Step email newsletter where they get like 2 emails a week with valuable step-by-step information
+ In the email footer, create a small incentive to connect with you on your social profiles. Something like "Want to know more? You can easily reach us on our social profiles" with links
+ Send out a weekly email with snippets of the last X articles you posted in that week
Forums
+ Dependent on your niche, I'd recommend to search for the biggest forums where your targeted audience hangs around.
+ Check their stats on alexa.com and choose the best ones you can find. Create your profiles and interlink them with your site and social profiles
+ Look if you can get their RSS feed and a place where you collect them. Look through the forums and just try to be as helpful as possible. NO MARKETING YET
+ Once you've established yourself in these forums (if you're somewhat active, you should achieve that within one month), try to help people and later point to your website, and tell them they can get more info there. Link to other reputable places with valuable information too, so it doesn't look like aggressive marketing. Don't overdo this... just keep helping people and add a good looking signature link once you're allowed.
Tumblr
+ If your niche is appropriate for tumblr (some good info on tumblr user statistics:
http://www.businessinsider.com/tumblr-and-social-media-demographics-2013-12), get yourself a tumblr bot and auto-follow/like on a daily basis. Unfollow them about once a week so your following doesn't become too big (once you have about 1k followers, you always try to be lower on the ones you follow compared to your followers)
+ Post highly valuable content on tumblr. Try to think in terms of going viral. Something in your niche that can be meme'd or is simply funny.
Monetization
+ DO NOT limit yourself to adsense. You probably already have read the phrase "Never put all your eggs in one basket". Well, that's not only counting for traffic generation, but also for monetization. Adsense has a reputation for banning users (I personally have no experience with it tho), so I think it's a good idea to have backups. For example, when you write an article for a long tail keyword, research if there are any valuable (!) products to promote. Don't just promote one, but give objective advice on several different ones. Don't directly sell to your audience, but stay objective. Seriously, people love objective advice, even if you actually sell something in the end. Just make sure you give pro's and cons and do your research.
Well, I could keep on talking, but I think some of that stuff will already keep you busy for quite some time. None of those info's are anything new, but in case you didn't know them already, I thought I should share it. Let me know if you want to know more or need help with something!
Keep working my friend, it will pay off in the end! Just don't give up... ;-)
warm regards,
neocortx