Add blog page to wp website

I followed the instructions in WordPress for Dummies on how to add a blog to your wordpress website. I have not been able to get this to work. It tells me to start a new page, title it “blog”, go to the settings and select reading, and choose the blog page under static pages. I end up with a page that has the same permalink as my home page. Then I try to get a link to this page to show up on my home page using a custom field. I have been able to do that, but the link goes back to the home page because of the permalink problem. I have trashed the page and started over several times. It’s just not working. I don’t know what I am missing.