fitzpatrick welcome to the Forum. Here are the answers to your questions based on the #s in your post.

1.
If your talking about Affiliate programs try these: cj.com,linkshare.com,shareasale.com,reporting.net, kolimbo.com,affiliatefuel.com

2. If you try google adsense I wouldn't stay away from the ones I selected and Independent programs. The more programs (the more links) the better.

3. Stay away from traffic Generators! all they will do is get you banned from search engines and or usless untargeted traffic.

4. Google will not optimize your site, you have to learn how to do that on your own.

5. the only sites I would trust is my own sites, and search engines and some link exchanges with similar Page rank on google toolbar.