Finally gave up googling and decided to just ask people with real experience.
The main problem I keep running into is not knowing who to trust or where to even start. There's a ton of conflicting advice out there and half of it feels like it's from people who just want to sell you something.
I've tried a few different things already with mixed results. Some were complete time wasters, others were okay but nothing that really clicked.
Looking for real opinions here, not just the same top-ten list everyone copies from each other.