BHO woes

The other day I got my first vial of BHO, but have not had any success with it. I don't have an oil dome or any weed to mix it with, so I've tried the following methods:

• Hot knife. This seemed to work (produced a lot of vapor/smoke) but I didn't get high.

• Smoked in a bowl on top of a layer of ash. It just bubbled and melted into the ash for the most part (I tried smoking a ball of this black oily ash mixture as well). I could sometimes get it to vapor by holding the lighter at just the distance away, but not enough to get high.

• Smoked in a bowl mixed with a little bit of tobacco. I thought this should work, since the glowing embers of tobacco seemed to be hot enough to make the oil smoke.

• Mixed with a tiny bit of kief, rolled into a little ball. I was actually able to get a small buzz, but that was probably the kief.

• Smeared on the outside of a cigarette.

I've now wasted almost all of it trying different things. I feel like I must be doing something wrong. Any ideas?