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For a low level trying to reach a high level, I would actually suggest using Poolbound rather than Bloodbound (IE - using White rather than Black).

Apparently Black does not outperform White until very high levels - levels you are not likely to reach in your first few attempts.

What I like to do (and I'm sure it is less-than-optimal) is to set up a mana farm spot, a kill trap spot, and then have a tower nearby (for killing wraiths, spectres, and spires, as well as for knocking down any ill-placed monster upgrade things). Make sure that the mana trap has room for 6 amplifiers, the kill trap has room for 6 amplifiers, and the tower, ideally, has room for 8 - though this is less important.

Due to lack of starting mana, though, work backward! Start by figuring out where stuff will go, but place the tower first, and an amplifier by it. Gem them up. That ensures that you are not losing mana by banishment costs or by losing orblets. Then, when you are able, place your mana farm trap, and an amplifier or two by it. Gem those up! Then work on the kill trap (place it, place some amplifiers, and gem those up).

For just starting out mana farming, you should have the Amplifier skill, at a minimum. Once you have that, you are really good to go - you just need to find a stage that has the red (chain) gems, yellow (critical hit) gems, orange (mana leech) gems, and either the white (poolbound) or black (bloodbound) gems. I forget the order that you gain gem skills, but once you have the gem's skill you should always start out with that gem type available, and you should have most of those by the time you get amplifiers, anyway (or at least, I did, though I went ahead without getting a few skills, going back for them later).

Your mana farm trap should be a combination of Red, Orange, and either White or Black (Blue is optional). Your amplifiers around it should be either solid Orange (if using White) or Black/Orange (some suggest pure Black, I have not tested this). Your kill trap gem should be a combination of Red, Yellow, and either White or Black. As with the Mana trap amplifiers, the kill trap amplifiers should be either solid Yellow (White in trap and not black), or Yellow/Black.

I have found that opening the computer's calculator helps here. When you have everything set up, look at your kill trap gem. It will have a minimum damage and a maximum damage. It will also have (in Yellow) an indicator for how likely it is to critical hit, and what the critical multiplier is. For example, it may say Damage: 1,176-3,555, and a bit beneath that, in yellow, 80% chance to deal x14.22 damage. Rounding DOWN, take the maximum damage and multiply it by the critical multiplier. By "rounding DOWN" I mean to take the maximum damage, and round it off - to 3000 in this case. I also mean to round the critical multiplier down - call it 14 (its not big enough in this example to worry about rounding this too much). Take that 3000 and multiply it by 14, to get 42,000. You can safely enrage monster waves as long as you do not exceed (by much, that rounding down provides some safety margin if you go over) 42,000 monster HP.

A bit later on, after just hitting U a few times on that gem, it may say Damage: 114,557-445,367 and the multiplier (80% chance to deal) of 427.63 ... in this case, take 445,000 and multiply it by 400 (or 420) to see the amount of HP you can safely enrage each wave to. The more you round down, the wider your margin of error - but when that reduces the amount of bombing you can enrage each wave by, it does cut into the experience you earn. But, it may be better to be safe than sorry.

If you do it right, you will see a whole lot of monsters giving you a bit (and ever increasing, as you increase your gem levels, as well as skill levels) of mana as they walk pas the mana trap only to die in the kill trap.

Forgot to mention earlier - Bolt spell on a trap makes that trap's attacks ignore armor. Quite useful if you lack Barrage.