question about putting in a distributor and timing on a sb

[Lil Ape]

When I put my distributor in after I installed my new manifold. I did it by setting the #1 piston to tdc and set the harmonic balancer to 0 degrees on the timing tab. Then I dropped the distributor in with the rotor pointing at #1 cylinder. Then started up the truck and took my timing gun and set the timing to 15 degrees advance. My question is when I set the harmonic balancer to 0 degrees on the timing tab, did I do it right or should I have set the balancer a few degrees advaned first, then drop the distributor in? Is thats whats called initial timing? Im still learning on how to set timing
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