A "primer" on soldering...

The blog post is a good tutorial. At Step 5 - 6 you also might consider touching the solder to the tip of the iron, depositing a very thin film of solder on the tip, prior to touching the tip to the component lead/solder pad. This helps the solder flow more quickly on the joint. Also in Step 9 after the excess length of the component lead has been cut, you might consider very briefly flowing a bit of solder over the bare lead which has been exposed by cutting the excess length of the lead off. Doing this may help prevent the solder joint’s failing over time as a result of the bare lead’s oxidizing. Repeat Steps 4 - 9, starting each solder joint with a freshly cleaned and tinned tip. And it might be worthwhile cleaning any excess rosin flux on the circuit board with isopropyl alcohol and a Q-Tip once all the soldering is complete.

Investing in a solder sucker is is a great idea. Having a couple different gauges of solder wick and a small tub of rosin flux also comes in handy, if you plan to do soldering/desoldering or kit building on a regular basis.

Practice, practice, practice!  I have done it a couple times without practice and the results were not great.

A good magnifier lamp is quite helpful.

Always heat all surfaces to be soldered to the point that THEY melt the solder. A proper solder joint will be smooth and shiny (leaded solder) or smooth and dull (lead-free) NEVER pitted.
If the solder bubbles and pits, turn down the iron's temp.
If resoldering old solder joints, you can use a little flux and or add some fresh solder to rejuvenate the old solder. (preferred method: remove the old solder first).

My Dad always told me to keep my tip clean......