well, I'll let pros like Miko chime in, but here are some thoughts:

1) Southern exposure is better than northern.
2) As I said before, irradiate the soil to get rid of white flies and their larvae. Scoop off the top 3 inches or so of soil, microwave for 3 minutes or so, let cool and replace.

Ooh, I'm not a plant pro. I grow stuff, but a lot of it dies. Mudpuppie and stewriffic know a lot about the green stuff...

Dude, I don't claim any panaceas either. For the whiteflies, which are stubborn as all get out, I'd try either a combo of these management strategies.

Also, move the non-infested plants away from the infested ones. The basil may be a goner; it loves light, and an eastern facing window might not cut it in the winter.

Get the whiteflies under control and see if you can find a new basil plant, tossing the old one.

I'm not sure what's up with my basil either. I've been watering it, but no new sprouting has occured and one of the leaves is all sad looking. I'm hoping it'll just perk back up in the spring when they can get moved back outside. My rosemary hasn't exactly been looking chipper either. :-/

(Maybe I've actually inherited the black thumb from my mother.)

I just cleared out a whole BUNCH of pots, left the plants that where doing well (and didn't seem to have a big-ass whitefly infestation - everything else put picked at and soaked in bug soap) and now I have 4 small pots and 2 large ones with nothing but soil and sand in the. I' gonna let the dry out. Should I start fro seed this time once the white flies are ALL GONE? The plants from the farmer's market see to die . A lot., or bring in bugs. The Sage, rosemary, Oraganeo, and (oddly) Pineapple Mint, are all doing quite well - If I can keep those alive, what should I be looking at? I' primarily into herbals, but a colorful houseplant wouldn't be amiss.

Wow, I just like, forgot to hit "m" in that last post.

In my experience with killing many plants and nurturing many more, indoor basil plants just aren't meant to be. They're nice while they last but I don't try too hard to revive them.
The best tip I learned is to trim the new growth instead of the old for a heartier, bushier plant. I wouldn't cut down to the root, but down to just above the first leaf group on the basil. Don't know about mint.

Seeding now might be a good idea so that by the time summer comes you already have young plants and can harvest real mature leaves instead of seeding later and wasting the summer season on growing the plant itself.

Try tarragon if your oregano is going ok and try chervil maybe. Oh and lavender, but I tend to kill that. Still, it smells nice before I do.

My trials with cilantro and parsley ended in disappointment. They just need too much light for NY, I decided.

I have no wisdom for you, I just came to commiserate. I can't seem to keep anything alive, yet I keep trying. My most recent acquisition is a fern for the bathroom. My bathroom has some light but not a ton, so I figured a fern would be perfect. I've only had it a couple of weeks and it's already looking all shriveled and sad...I moved it to another room of the house with more sun, but it's still getting worse. I think some people are just doomed to have their plants die as soon as they get them home from the nursery!

Seconding what rmless said about indoor basil. Indoor herbs in general, really, I haven't had good luck with.

And charleena--aloe is pretty much invulnerable to everything but overwatering. Pothos is hard to kill too, and might do better in the dim light. Also, lots of plants that just came from the nursery need to be repotted--it's pretty common for plant-store plants to get rootbound.

(All that said, I'm definitely no plant expert. I'm a little bit into aloes and succulents now, and I've got a couple orchids and some of those indoor-air-quality houseplants, but until recently I pretty much killed every indoor plant I touched.)

I'm envious of those who can grow indoor plants of any kind. Between four cats and a dark house, it's not going to happen for me.