I think you are talking about Limit Hold'em here...
I'm talking about Low-limit, No limit Hold'em (aka, .05/.10 NL to .25/.50 NL games)

Would your advice be to get to the flop as cheaply as possible, and play from there? .. Basically, call with hands that have a good chance to become a monster (aka: call with 98s, and stay only if you are just 1 card from a flush/straight)

I started losing money about the same time I started raising more often before the flop... But it's only been about a week, so might just be a bad run..