When you HOT compost you do 2 things mainly. You use green plant material, wood chips, wheat straw and a form of nitrogen ( urea or poo) to feed microbes. When the microbe colony is strong it will break down the material and be rich in microbes. As the population of the microbe colony gains into HIGH numbers the pile will STEAM and produce heat. When a compost pile is "cooking" correctly the temp in the center of the pile reaches 140 degrees. When the pile reaches 140 degre4es it pasturizes the compost naturally.
Yes you do need to water and flip the pile to keep it moving along like it needs too. This is also why you may have heard of compost piles self combusting, because of the heat of the microbes. If a pile is working correctly it will take 2 weeks to cycle. If you smell an odor it is from the nitrogen being released, it will pass in time and when the pile cools wil have a real nice "earthy" smell.
I do grow mushrooms also and here is a great link to penn state that can better describe in detail what is going on. If do a bit of looking around at that site there are compost recipes. I know its mushrooms but trust me plants just THRIVE on it.
There are beni's that live at differant temps when the pile is cooking. The penn state goes into a bit over kill about that but the info is there.
http://extension.psu.edu/plants/vegetable-fruit/mushrooms/mushroom-substrate/microbial-activity
Here very soon you will beable to find 80 lb straw bales around for fall. here is a link that uses 4 of those to make compost with very easy to get materials you proboly have around your place now, or can get with a trip to a store for not much money.
Again it is mushroom but plants will enjoy this aswell. When they mention compost activators if you have a beni product for your plant mix it 3X the rate you do for you plants use that to water the pile with the first time so you have the beni's working for you. Alot of beni products now have N and P fixing bacteria, IE they the bacteria make Phous and Nitrogen.
http://whatbethat.com/ mushroomhandbook/
I have used
Happy Frog soil conditioner to grow mushrooms many times because I didnt have a place to make a small compost pile. It will work for plants and mushrooms, neither one will know the diffeance if it has the proper ratio's.