Ever since Icloud started, i cannot get purchases to go to my ipod. Why?

If has nothing to do with iCloud, unless you subscribe to Apple's iTunes Match service and you deleted all of your song files from your computer's local hard drive. iCloud by itself does not change how iTunes works with iPods. iCloud is a way to keep data in sync between your computers and iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch). As long as song files are stored on the computer's drive, it will work with iPods (just like before iCloud).

This document shows the four types of shuffle. Which one do you have?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1719

Which method (from the above document) do you use to load connect onto the shuffle? So, what no longer works?