I think that WILD is the best way to iniate lucid dreams. First off, if you do it right your automaticly fully concious in your dream, second off, even the time that I did fall asleep while trying i realized i was dreaming within one minute of the dream.

Instead of counting, I also have the book Expoling The World Of Lucid Dreaming, i imagine where i want my dream to be, with as much detail as possible, then i put myself in the dream. I think of nothing else but this and after a few minutes i feel my legs and arms beinging to numb. I try to clear my mind at this point and not think about anything if possible, if i start to feel tired then i do a few math problems in my head. Then soon enough i start seeing dots of color, soon swirls of color. After a little while i usually find my dream setting, the one i pictured earlier, be careful not to come in too fast. What i do is i watch for about 25 seconds, reminding myself that i am dreaming, then raise my hand up and look at it. When i do that my whole body seems to drop in and im off. I try to set up what im going to do before i enter the dream, and i'll usually remember that "oh yeah, i'm going to try flying tonight" and the fun begins.