Oh, the second link, that was my thread I started and how I grew mine was SOOOOO simple. Some strains stay nice, short, and thick, while some grow tall, lanky, and stretched out. If you want things to stay small and chunky, you want an Indica dom. strain. Avoid Sativa's, they grow tall and lanky, hard to control.

But my pictures there on the original first post of the thread, I didn't use any training on my plants. I grew it from seed instead of clones. I find that starting from seed you get a much hardier plant that from clones, but it has its pros and cons. I just grew it, in soil, kept my CFL bulbs about 1.5inches away, to keep things short, and I flowered after a short veg time. I didn't tie my plants down, or top, or nothing! Just an up and out grow. I topped it, and if you look at my pictures down below, those were taken about 3 weeks after I cut the top bud off. I did this because the bottom buds were not fully grown, so I cut it to get more light. Stayed nice and small.

But some tips on keeping your plants short and thick:
-Get an Indica dom. strain
-Keep your plant as close to the bulbs as you can without burning it
-You can top your plant at the 4th or 5th node to encourage more horizontal growth
-You can LST(Low Stress Training) that means tying, bending your plants main stem so more light can be reached to the bottom budsites
-Set up a SCrog. This method there is a lot to learn, but you will get maximum yeild in small spaces
-and cut down veg time. Shorter veg time=shorter plants, but also a smaller yeild, but the potency should still be there.

Good luck!