Creating a custom Home Page

Hey Guys,
I am working on setting up a custom home page for my site via panels 3.2 and Views, but it's not appearing. Basically, the view displays the

Latest News
Latest Editorial
Most Views
Last Commented
etc...

I've checked the button for "set as Home Page", and set the Path to mysite.com/front (for some odd reason, it won't let me leave that field blank). I've enabled all of the settings within panels and views, and the page manager.

Will the panel not display if there isn't any content? Perhaps someone has a short tutorial that's up-to-date on this matter?

Thanks
Devon