hi. first post, and some questions!!!

hello everybody!

this is my first post, but i joined up about three weeks ago. there's lots of stuff on here to read, and my problem is deciding on ONE thing to start with. the last few weeks i've been changing my mind multiple times a day, and at the end of the day, still being no closer to actually starting!

so... i've decided on a blog that i'm going to use amazon on. i've bought the domain, i've bought hosting, and just finished customising my wordpress theme to how i want it to look.

i have about twenty articles written up already on my computer, so they're ready to go. i'm ready to put them on my blog, but have a few questions.

they might sound stupid, but here i go...

1. where exactly are my keywords meant to go? in the actual articles... but apart from that?

2. what does 'ping' mean? when i did a test post on my wordpress thing, it had an option for it. and i've seen people mention it on here. but what does that actually do?

3. how do you put those little icons on your posts, the ones that allow people to "like" on facebook?

4. i have written the articles myself. actually, they're more like reviews, but i don't know how original they sound. the product isn't out yet so there's only limited information. does that matter?

5. what about adsense? if i put adsense on my site alongside amazon, doesn't that risk people clicking on the ads and then buying it from them, instead of clicking on my amazon links?

thanks a lot everyone... i know i want to know a lot of things, but i'm a beginner and determined to get started. even if i fail at first! ;-)