Hey guys, happy to report that my cloning success has improved dramatically.
I now use Root Shooters (similar to rapid rooters) as my medium because you can't really over-water these things, which was a mistake I was always making with rockwool. I also don't like rockwool due to the environmental concerns. Root shooters are basically just a peat and perlite amalgam that is molded into a little spongey cube and pre-moistened and pre-fertilized with a very gentle nutrient charge.
I also picked up a thermostat for my heating mats, and set it at 75 degrees f. I stick the little probe from the 'stat into an empty cube so I can get perfect temperature control at the root zone. Since picking up this little gadget, I am no longer cooking the crap out of my clones and making them wilty and mushy in just a few days. More than worth the $50 price tag.
I take my cuttings much longer than I need them and stick them in a cup of water overnight. This allows the cutting to such up a bunch of moisture which I find really helps to keep them from wilting initially.
The next day I trim the excess foliage off the cutting, and make my final cut just below a pair of nodes that have been trimmed flush to the stem. A quick 30 sec dip in my rootech rooting gel, and then into a root shooter. The humidity dome stays on until they root because this helps me keep a stable temperature for the clones that wouldn't be possible due to the massive fluctuations in ambient temperature we have here.
I keep the cubes moist by filling the tray with water for 30 minutes or so when they start to dry out. I let them soak up all they can and then drain off the excess. I usually do this two to three times before they root.
Rooting usually takes 8-12 days, and I no longer have clones that look yellow and sickly.
For a guy who killed nearly every clone cut at one time, I am now seeing about a 70-80% success rate. This is huge for me, and while I have a lot of learning to do before I master cloning, at least I now am able to start more plants from clone instead of resorting to seeds all the time.
I will move on to a homemade aero-cloner eventually, which is a lot more 'set-it-and-forget-it' than my current tech, but I just wanted to master the basics first.
I'll admit that I'm a ways off yet, but certainly a massive improvement from a few months ago!
Hopefully this will help someone else who was struggling as much as I was.
Just remember that if you think you can't clone right now, all you have to do is follow some basic rules to get the environmental conditions right, and success will happen.