We've done it - with a lsightly older child admittedly, so there wasn't much actual pick up. However i read up on it at the time...
You get baby nice and relaxed - sleepy but not asleep.
You put baby in cot.
Baby cries.
You pick baby back up.
As soon as baby is calm again you put back down - all the way down ? even if she starts crying en-route. Make sure you completely let go of her before picking up - I counted to five...
Baby cries.
You pick baby back up... and repeat ad infintum - until baby either
a) gets too tired to continue and gives up the fight
b) realises what the deal is and decides to get on with it. (difficul to know which is the case!?)
Then you go downstairs and have LARGE glass of wine.
We integrated a bit of shhh patting in with our slightly older baby when the crying wasn't so desperate and she would stay lying down.
I think, from a straw poll of friends who've tried it and own experience, that the first few nights are generally bloody awful (we had 3 nights where it took 2 hours - but it might have been worse as our DD was a bit older) but they quite quickly seem to get the drift.
FWIW I wish we'd done it sooner - we've had some bad patches since we did it at Christmas, but we saw a marked improvement from the first night of doing it after about 3 weeks of 45-minute wakings.
It's worth while. You have to stick at it though...
The Baby Whisperer website is indeed v. good. And they don't charge you an extortionate amount to post on their boards - unlike another site which shall remain nameless...
db
xx