Just bought this, and it is awesome.
Not managed orbit yet, however, im returning my astronauts home after each mission into space 
Had one almost deadly mishap when during transition between stages my solid fuel jettison action decided to blow up my entire ship except for the command pod and parachute, so he survived.
yea Jeb is a tough one
are you playing the "career mode"?
if so start is hard, but if you land be sure to EVA with your Kerbal and take a sample of ground and use the experimental thing you have (also use that before you launch also gets you SP)
Also EVA when outside of the atmosphere.
As for a tip to get into orbit (idk what parts you have but still as a general rule)
go straight up till you reach around 13.000 17.000 meters, keep your acceleration around 100 m/s till you get there there (so slow down if you can when not using solid boosters)
once you get there throttle up to full power and tilt your ship slightly and move it 45-50 degrees heading east (90 degrees)
switch to map mode, pull up your hud and control it from there, once your Apoapsis hits around 100 km turn off your engines and tilt your ship to 90 degrees. Once you start closing the Apoapsis throttle up again, once you hit around 2400 m/s you should have put yourself in orbit
