general help

for the most part, you will have to pull your cerebrum out of mothballs (represented by the mundane world we live in), blow the dust off, and spend some good quality time with it.  however, there are a few valuable tips that may assist you in your quest for the ultimate ego boost:

1.  the object of the riddle is simply to proceed to the next level. the level number designation will always be located at the top center of the page. this is very important, because if a new page does not display the proper number designation, it is not the next level. 

2.  there is a loosely organized tale to be told in the kelly clarkson riddle, but it will not be evident until the later levels, so don't bother trying to figure it out early on. rest assured that it will all make complete sense to you later on. 

3.  the riddle was designed to be enjoyed by everybody, fan or not. the theme of the riddle is obvious enough, but specific knowledge regarding kelly clarkson is a mere fraction of the riddle. in most cases, it's not even necessary for accomplishing level progression, particularly in the later levels.  

4.  always remember, the kcesearch and google links provided on many of the levels are there for a reason which is germane to that particular level (and not just because google coughs up money to the riddle's creator every time someone uses it). a good rule of thumb is that if it's on the page, the level may require the use of it.

5.  much like david münnich's brilliant notpron riddle, this is not a mere point and click game, and it could likely be classified as difficult;  level progression can occur through any number of methods. the earlier levels are somewhat of a primer, and they are deceptively easier than the majority of the riddle.

6.  don't ruin the torture --er, fun for yourself by looking for the walkthroughs that will inevitably spring up all over the internet.  and stop yelling at your monitor, it won't respond anyway. there's nothing impressive about cheating your way through the riddle, and it will be obvious who did and didn't cheat at the end anyway, so give yourself more credit than that. 

7.  usernames and passwords are only functional for the particular level in which they are required. they will never have spaces, underscores, dashes, commas, etc., and the answers will only contain letters and/or numbers. the location, interpretation, translation and/or determination of usernames and passwords is an intrinsic component of the riddle.

8.  unlike usernames and passwords, url modifications are not restricted to numbers and letters. also, a visible url for a subsequent level is not necessarily relevant to the current level. for that matter, the visible url for the current level isn't necessarily relevant to the level either. here, too, the interpretation, translation and/or determination of url modifications is an intrinsic component of the riddle.

9.  for a spoiler-free nudge in the right direction, the official message board of the kelly clarkson online riddle is located here. when all else fails, check the forum's level threads, or even the chatroom. but don't waste time begging for spoilers; there are plenty of spoiler boards full of cheaters already, the official forum is designed to help people who want to succeed on their own. 

10.  kel is fine.