Your biggest issue was not having the top vent open. It kills the fire, so your temps would have dropped quite rapidly with that closed. Don't ever use lighter fluid, stay away! It will make whatever food you cook taste awful! Use a chimney starter as already mentioned. Load it up to the top with a mixture of lumpwood and briquettes, light some paper under the bottom, and leave it for about 20 minutes. You'll know it's ready because the coals ash over with white. Then you put them into the bottom of your Weber (use the charcoal dividers if they came with the BBQ) and then you can cook both direct and indirect.
I wouldn't use both lumpwood and briquettes. however you are spot on with leaving all vents open for a hotter burn. leave the lid on at all times too. you don't need to check the food every 30 seconds.
lumpwood is ready to go in a chimney within 10 minutes. briquettes can take up to half an hour. using both won't work right unless you have 2 different starters.
cheap briquettes are useless also, i've used everything to get them to burn and nothing. i've found weber to be in the middle to better range. i personally use big K and buy from waitrose. you can buy the stuff in blue bags off ebay for a decent price. 12kg and 24kg bags of restaurant grade is what you are looking for if you don't have a waitrose nearby.
i'd either use 1 on it's own or use 2 different chimneys to get you started with the lumpwood burning for 10 minutes and briquettes for 30 minutes. briquettes will take a lot of paper, firelighters and kerosene to get going. i tend to pack it all in layers. paper, firelighter, briquettes, kerosene, paper, firelighter, briquettes, kerosene until you hit the top and light at the bottom and leave in a place which isn't windy (in-between 2 wheelie bins and a wall usually).
the hassle of briquettes i tend to exclusively use charcoal and lumpwood now. still yet to find a decent brand or source of cheap briquettes.