As far as crafting / gathering go. To a new player, I would strongly recommend keeping up with Botany/Mining/Fishing as you go along, and keep when you procure for crafting. I don't discourage you from trying to gather crafting early, but it IS a money sink and requires a lot of dedication to get it to a point where it starts being truly useful, so I would suggest waiting and getting serious about crafting at a later point.

My leveling advice. Follow storyline and area quests. Supplement with leves and hunting log and area FATES (if possible) until you get to 16-18. Then you can also intermittently run level-appropriate dungeons until you get what equips you need from them, get exp, and learn group mechanics. Be sure to do your random duty finder daily for a HUGE exp chunk and money.