Place the drum skin on the shell of your drum, making sure it is the right size for the drum shell; it should not hang too far over the edges. Wipe down the rim off your drum and place it on top of the skin so that it sits along the edge of your drum shell so that the lugs fit in the appropriate holes around the shell.
Tighten all the lugs with your hand first. Once the lugs are hand tight, stretch the skin by making a fist and pressing down in the middle of the skin. Hand tighten all the lugs again after stretching.
Tighten your skin using the drum key. Tighten the lugs one at a time using the drum key. Don't tighten by going around the drum in a circle; instead, tighten a lug and then tighten the one opposite that lug and continue to tighten all the lugs in this fashion.
Once the skin is tightened using a drum key you can now tune your drum to the right pitch.