I'm just getting into this, so iv'e got the n00b experience on my past few trys. I just took the cutting at 45, dip straight in hormone (i used olivias), and i used one of those jiffy puck trays walmart has with the 25 pucks and a holder with dome. Didn't use a mat, nutes or anything else. Just keep um moist (not soaked) and under 24hrs of light, and the dome thing on the tray, and 5-10 days most had roots. I lost maybe 5 of 25 if that. If anything I ended up with way more then needed. Make sure your shits sterile and don't dip the clones into the bottle of gel, scoop the gel out with a measuring spoon or something. I also purchased some disposable scalpels for future use, bit easier to handle then a razor, those razors with 15 snap off blades work good tho.
I did also make a bubble cloner with straight water and aquarium parts from walmart, left it bubble 24hrs, it definatly showed roots faster, but required bigger cuttings, and alot of the ones around the edge didn't show roots because the air pump wasen't big enough or something. I also started to get some weird white film forming inside the cloner, heh. I can see why so many people love the bubble cloner, but i'd start off with rapidrooters/jiffy pucks first.