Here's my technique, which works like a charm for me: Switch to the aux camera, pull back away from your scene. Create the spotlight. Set y-tran to 0.25, and x-tran to 0. That will usually bring it into view close to the ground, roughly centered in your scene. If it doesn't, try also setting the z-tran to 0. If THAT doesn't work, pull back a little more until you see it. Name your light so you won't confuse it with others, later. (CTRL+i on a PC brings up the dialog box where you can name the light.) Then set "point at." Switch back to the camera you're going to use at render time, and adjust the trans setting to your liking. I also find the aux and top view cameras very useful for placing objects.