Well, if you want to separate the really good advice from all the noise on the sites, I'd recommend that you read the postings by those folks who 1) have been recognized by others as having given good advice, and 2) have been around a while. Hightest (one of the forum members here) has been making mead for a long time, and has taken the time and trouble to post many of the tips and tricks that he's learned in a FAQ that you can get to right from this site. He, and folks like him, consistently offer the same good advice over and over, and it works.
As far as your question about pasteurizing honey, let me say this. It isn't necessary, and doing so will degrade the aroma and the taste of the honey. Honey naturally is so high in sugar concentration that no harmful bacteria can live in it. Concentrated sugars, like those found in honey, draw water out of their environment (they are hygroscopic), so any hapless spoilage bacterium that happens to land on honey will essentially be dessicated (mummified), unless it has natural protections that keep that from happening. In almost all cases, the bacteria that do survive on the surface of raw honey don't spoil your must because they can't then stand the diluted honey found in must (they get too wet). So, the bottom line is that honey is naturally antibiotic to anything harmful to your must. So, if you dilute your honey and PROMPTLY pitch yeast, nothing else will have a chance to grow in there until your yeast dominate. Pasteurization is not needed.