I'm a new diesel guy myself, and have not quite got the perfect recipe for compression and priming just yet. Most of my conversion engines tend to like a 1/2-3/4 turn more compression from the run setting and a good fat prime to hand start. The "diesel flick" takes some practice to master - the "lazy flick" of a glow engine doesn't work very well on a diesel. It's gotta be a swift flick. I've found ringed engines tend to need more compression added to start than an Ringless (ABC/ABN/AAC) engine because the cylinder pressure bleeds off a little more when flipping it over.
What I do to hand start my diesels is this; prime fuel up to the carb, add about 6-8 drops of fuel to the carburetor, add 1/2 turn more compression and flick the prop 4-5 times. If no fire, add 2-3 drops of fuel and flick again. If no fire, add 1/4 turn compression and flick 4-5 times. Once I get to about 12 drops, I stop adding fuel and add compression a little at a time flicking between adjustments until it fires. Once it fires, I just keep flipping. A flooded diesel won't start. Most of the time, I've gotten ignition before a third compression adjustment.
Some me folks prefer electric starters and just prime and spin it up until it fires and just run it at the run setting until it warms up and tweak needles and compression until it runs smooth. Either way works fine for the most part, you just need to be cautious of flooding the engine and causing a hydraulic lock which will inevidably bend a rod in some cases.