Watch the tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb2bbfiNBXA
First, some helpful properties shortcuts:
Show only Anchor Point property (for lights and cameras, Point Of Interest): A
Show only Audio Levels property: L
Show only Mask Feather property: F
Show only Mask Path property: M
Show only Mask Opacity property: TT
Show only Opacity property (for lights, Intensity): T
Show only Position property: P
Show only Rotation and Orientation properties: R
Show only Scale property: S
Next, how you use them:
Anchor point can be altered/moved in cases where you need something other than the dead center of an object to be the anchor point. For example, if you're animating a bouncing ball, you might want the anchor point to be at the edge of the ball rather than the center so that you can be sure to align the ball with the ground evenly every time.
The opacity property is useful for fading objects into or out of the composition. If your opacity is 100% at 1 second and 0% at 5 seconds, after effects will use the full 4 seconds to fade out. Keep that in mind, and change opacity keyframes accordingly.
Note that you must click the little stop watch button next to these properties in order to add/animate keyframes. Otherwise, you're just blanket statement changing the opacity or position or whatnot. It will not happen automatically over time in an animation. It'll just change.
The position property is used to change an objects position throughout the animation. It typically curves the path if you move anywhere other than straight left, right, up or down, so be sure to grab the vertex tool and change the point to an angle rather than a curve (if thats what you're going for).
Rotation and scale are pretty self explanatory, just remember that after effects uses the full time between keyframes to animate that transition. In other words, if you want to rotate an object 360 degrees, don't waste your time trying to add a million keyframes to do so. Simple set the start and end of your rotation, and after effects will work its magic.
For more, visit the link at the top of the page.