Bill:
If you are a complete Noob to 3D printing, and it sounds like that's the case, here's a couple of suggestions that I wish I would have had when I started:
1) If you don't have Home limits installed on this thing, do it now. Zeroing the nozzle to the bed can be enough of a pain in the Tukus under normal conditions, no reason to have to do it every print.
2) Nozzle leaks, I used to get them all the time too. I found this method of installing the nozzle on YouTube. With the nozzle and the heat break removed from the heater block, chase the threads with a 6mm tap. (You don't HAVE to do this, it just makes your life a little easier.) Install the nozzle, just finger tight - no need to wrench on it yet. Now back the nozzle off 1 flat. Install the heat break, all the way in until it bottoms out on the nozzle but just finger tight. Now get out the wrench and tighten up the nozzle. Since I started using this procedure I haven't had any nozzle leaks.
3) Zeroing the nozzle and leveling the bed. These are VERY important to getting a GOOD first layer. If you don't have a good first layer your odds for a successful print aren't great and they just keep going downhill.
I use a Post-It note to set my initial nozzle height, I got a boat-load of them a few years back. With my shaky hands I can't read my own writing any more so I have to use them for something. Anyway, set your Z-axis Home limit so that that the Post-It note will just slide between the print bed and the nozzle. You should be able to feel the resistance as you move the paper. I'm not going to tell you that you need the sticky part up and away from the nozzle because we ALL know that - now. You'll need to go through this procedure EVERY time you mess with the nozzle or move the hot-end in any way.
Once you've got the initial nozzle height set in the Home position move the print head to various locations on the print bed, at least the other 3 corners, and level the print bed to the nozzle's Home position. Check it with the Post-It note, you'll want the same resistance as you had at the Home position. You'll either use the leveling screws, if you have them, or you'll have to shim the print bed to get it level. This may require several iterations, check nozzle height at Home position, level bed, check nozzle height at Home position, level bed... You get the picture.
Try a test print to see if you got the nozzle's Home position correct, you MAY have to tweak it to get it set correctly. You'll know when you got it right, the filament will firmly adhere to the print bed. If the nozzle is too close to the print bed the filament will smoosh out around the nozzle. Yup, smoosh is an official 3D printing term. The sweet spot for the correct nozzle height is really pretty narrow. Too close and it smooshes out, you get great adhesion, but your print height will be off and you'll spend a lot of time cleaning up the flash. Too far away and you get poor adhesion to the bed, your parts have a better chance of warping, and you might not get complete fill between the filaments of the first layer.
Long winded, but I hope this helps,
Don