Live and online are definitely different animals and it has taken me over 5 years to get to a point where I don't feel I am throwing money away online despite being up a ton live.
The biggest difference between micro stakes online and normal live play is that players are way more likely to be willing to play very loose for all their chips. Live that is fairly rare, online it is fairly common at the micro stakes. If you play a very TAG style online you will find your opportunities to push at pots with premium hands is actually a lot more profitable than live because of the loose action you will pick up.
Also, people tend online aren't always paying very close attention to what is going on at the table, some because they are multi-tabling, some because they aren't very good at poker and others because they have the TV on in the background etc. So making notes on your opponents helps a lot and will give you an edge over guys who are not doing it.
I think you are very astute in your analysis on what items prevent people from paying attention online. I, myself, usually multi-table & I feel that 3 tables I don't miss that much to be a negative, but 4 or more tables & I miss too much.
I would definitely recommend keeping notes on personnel. I play on Bovada which notes R almost useless, because once they or U leave table the notes are erased. I also play on Carbon & I keep a plethora of notes on people.
Keeping notes on a person is an immeasurable advantage I think that a cornucopia of people do NOT take advantage of. I can't tell U how many times I won a pot based on the notes I had. I've called this player down a multiple amount of times with king high & it's been good.
It seems impossible for me to win big online. Always when I am deep stacked and antes are high my chips seem to disnegrate in air. My personal belief is that I can not read the opponents.
I would strongly recommend keeping notes on people. That will definitely help you take the appropriate steps to win pots against players.
Also I understand that winning big is a huge adrenaline rush, but don't try for the home run every time. You can get 4 singles & that equals a home run. Small wins do add up to a big win collectively.
I have the same problem. I'm way stronger in my live game. It's one reason I'm trying to play more online because I realized I rely so heavily on my live reads. I think if there's a way to work through it and really become good at betting patterns it will help with the live game. While the trackers are great, you're never going to get anything out of them for your live game.
I feel in live games egos really dictate the amounts U win/lose. I also truly believe that U will have bigger wins/losses live vs. online play.
In live play people hate to be bluffed & that is where their ego gets them into trouble. They don't want someone to show them up at the table & be embarrassed. Their ego will tell them "I know I'm beat, but I don't want to be bluffed by this guy & have people at the table laugh/smirk at me, so I'll call". In online poker a huge percentage of people don't know each other so they don't have a problem of being bluffed. If I got bluffed definitely take a note of it though to make sure it doesn't happen again.