We seeded the lawn on a new house 12 years ago.

What worked for us was:
1) Tilling the soil. But, we had hard clay, and very little topsoil, and
added some composted manure. If the soil is decent, no reason to do this.
But, make sure there is some loose soil on top. Might just need to rake it
with a dirt rake.
2) Rolled the area with a half-full lawn roller so the soil was not
hard-packed, but also would not tend to runoff when watering.
3) Spread the seed. Check the coverage on the bag, then put on twice as
much.
3b) You can spread some starter fertilizer here, too. I don't think we did
initially, but did later for patching an area that was dug up.
4) Raked very lightly so the seed was mixed slightly with the soil.
5) Rolled the area again so the seed gets good contact with the soil. After
this, the seed should be barely covered by soil (actually some will be
covered, and some will be exposed, but all should be rolled down into the
soil).
6) Cover with a mulch - very lightly. You don't have to do this, but it
helps keep water from evaporating, helps keep birds from eating the seeds,
and helps hold warmth in the ground. The grass seed likes warm moist
conditions to germinate. When we first seeded, we got straw from a farm not
far away and spread that lightly.
7) Water, water and water some more. Soil should ALWAYS be moist until the
grass is growing.

I'm sure there's many ways to do it, but I think the more of these steps you
take the better chance of success you have. And the mulching can reduce some
of the watering work.
It sounds like lot of work.. and it is.. but our lawn was nicer than any of
the sodded lawns around us, especially when it got dry.

"Bob" wrote in message
news:QsYAa.1012235$F1.122520@sccrnsc04...

"The Filers" wrote in message
...

The next day I spread grass seed on the ground which was very wet
because of rain the previous night. Then each morning I have watered
the
area well. Some people tell me that I need to cover the grass seed with
topsoil otherwise they say the seeds won't grow...other people tell me
that
this is the wrong approach and that the best thing to is to keep the
seeds
exposed, but well watered each morning...

Watering the seed very lightly a few time a day will work better. You
don't
want it to dry out, or just sprouted seed may dry and die. The seed is all
on the surface, so deep watering won't help much.

Bob