Sorry if there's a solution for this somewhere but I've been looking forever... If I do /plugins, Essentials isn't there. There's no indication I even downloaded it except that it's in the plugins folder if I look...

I've tried moving the files around and unpacking stuff and... basically I've given up. Please help me.

You don't have essentials installed.

Paste your startup log in pastebin please

http://pastebin.com/USAu2HtL

?? Sorry this is a mess; I don't know what exactly you're looking for. As far as I can see only the beginning of it looks... useful.

How exactly do I "install" it though...

1. Make sure your server is not running.
2. If you haven't done so already, move the downloaded jar files to your plugins directory.
3. Start the server.
4. If you made a backup of your config.yml file, stop the server and edit the newly generated config.yml file with only what you need, from the backup.
5. Start the server.
6. Enjoy!

Thank you! Turns up I wasn't moving the .jar files...