Getting Fire hot enough & maintaining temp

So i have my NBBD that i bought used off of craigslist. I have cleaned it out and have now seasoned it now twice. Since my first smoker is an electric one i figured that i need to practice getting the fire going and regulating the temp. So the first time I tried it i used news paper on the bottome of a chimney starter with some lump coal and got it only up to 250. The husband stated that i needed to dump it as it would cause the heat to go up. So i did and put a few pieces of wood chunks on it. Of course the temp dropped due to opening it up to do this. could only get it up to 160 after that.

The 2nd time I tried it again I put paper on the bottom with quick start fire starter in the chimney starter with some lump coal in the top with some more paper in the middle and more lump coal. I got it up to 300 and then i do in the fire box and flipped the chimney and got the coals spread with some new coal and some wood chunks. It seemed to stay at the 200 for about 3 hours.

So my questions are the follow:
1) is this the best way to get it going?

2) once i get teh fire going and throw wood chunks on the coals how exactly do i get it to maintain a constant temp?

3) the vent on the door for the fire box how does open more or less create more heat.

Thanks for the help very excited about learning and want to smoke some chicken tomorrow.

Incase you need to know it is an offset smoker

So if i am understanding this correctly then just do the chimney starter like i did. With the vent/intake open all the way. once all the coal is burning red then dump it put the wood chunks on and a bit more of the lump coal. and then close the intake some. Thenk in about 2 or 3 hours throw on more wood. Is this correct?

Thanks one last question. Everything i have read states that I should get the temp up to about 300 to 350 when the fire is going is this about right?

Thanks for all the info. My MES is so easy to do. I am really excited to learn how to actually do one wiht fire. Today I am going to do a comparision with the 2. Going ot do some chickens and onions and Garlic today on both of them. So excited.