Web of trust in Southwest Ohio, USA

[Jason Barnett]

Although I have read through the man page as well as a few web sites, I 
am still quite new to GPG.  I searched a bit and found this newsgroup 
and hope that you folks can help me with these questions.

- Can someone give me some advice on how to get started building my "web 
of trust?"  I think I understand the basic concept; meet someone in real 
life, verify they are who they say they are and exchange signatures. 
But can someone give me some practical tips to get started?  (BTW I live 
in southwest Ohio, USA).

- Is there a site where I can search *all* of the archives at once?  I 
found http://lists.gnupg.org/pipermail/gnupg-users/?1106184443 but I can 
only search within a one month time frame (and I hate to post questions 
that have already been answered).

- I realize that not every person I email is going to use GPG / PGP so 
I'd like to at least sign every email that I send.  What exactly is 
supposed to be in my signature?  Is it the encrypted version of the 
email I am sending?

Thanks in advance for whatever help you can send my way.  And if any of 
you are PHP developers feel free to drop me a line some time.  :)