How do you level a clan in Blade And Soul

My friends and I have been talking about looking for a clan to join that we'd be more than willing to help, but we don't understand clans. Out of all my friends, I'm the only one who played the chinese client but I didn't know much chinese so I never got into the clan making aspect.

How do you level a clan (rank?)
Is it difficult to build a clan with ~6 members only (current amount of us friends who have R4PG BNS Gold Store)?
Is there a benefit to being in your own clan, or should we just join a clan (cerulean) that's established on our server already?

If it's the case that we should just cut our losses now, is there an established clan that is looking for members who can guide us as we reach the endgame content?
(Not sure on exact number just yet since launch is coming and we don't know if some will be able to make it onto Poh)

My friends and I are leveling crafts and gatherers, if that means anything, and I'm teaching them about the pvp quests

Creating a clan is easy, but level up a clan need people to contribute as the level grows with the help of BNS Gold. Sure, you can make a clan with 6 people, it mean you will need each person to contribute more if you want to rank up the clan. But that's enough for clan crafting(contribute)