Hi,
I really need help. I've read through all help-pages and forums but either I didn't understand them or they were useless, so please help me.
So here's my problem...

I downloaded several sims here on this page. Then I saved them under Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\SavedSims as the guide says. But to see the sims in the game correctly, I have to download the Custom Content as well. So I downloaded some of them too and saved them in an folder named "Mods" under the "The Sims 3" folder.
Now there are 2 problems:

1) When I started the game I couldn't see the CC I already saved, although I saved them in that folder. What did I do wrong?

2) The creators of the mods show the different CC you need for their sim plus the sites where you can find them. But on some sites I can't find the button to download or any other option to do something like that. So where do I find some of those CCs?
(anyway is it possible, that you must download, extract and save every single CC?)

These are my problems. I really need help and I would be very glad for any kind of advice.

1. Be sure to put your CC packages in a folder called "packages" WITHIN the mods folder. SimPacks need to be installed via launcher. Double check to be sure you didn't just throw them in the "mods" folder or "overrides" and not the "packages" folder.
2. I recommend asking the creator of the sim for clarification. You could link us to a sim you want to download and we can see if you can figure something out.