It's a great game, but it definitely requires a bit of investment.
There's really no shame in reading the guides, for one. Cornering, etc. that might be considered "exploiting" are all good in the books of most players simply because the game is nigh impossible without half of them. Fighting the Iron Knight without tricking up his ranged attack, or god forbid, melee attacking? HA.
The biggest thing is that the levels always reset to the same way as they started, so memorization is big as well. Surprise will kill you *quickly*.
Get some kind of ranged attack as well. While bows does work, I've always found that magic seems to be more effective against more enemies. Even if you have a tiny mana bar and the basic magic missile, it'll be helpful.
Also, get a shield and run around with it up. Going around corner? Shield. Jumping down somewhere? Shield. You can attack while having your shield up as well, which can come in handy at times.
That being said, make sure that you always can move at your fastest speed, and learn to dodge. While it might be tempting to outfit yourself in the biggest armor you can find, it only helps so much. If I remember right, that means keeping your equip burden under 50% of your max. Remember the Rogue's Creed: why worry about minimizing damage with armor when you can simply not get hit at all?
In all, don't worry if you die. It'll happen, and you'll lose a LOT of souls in the process. Just remember: you'll do better next time.
(Oh, and look up the Cling Ring and grab it. It's easy to get, and *very* useful).