sicilian woes

Well, after playing chess for almost a year, my rating has slowly creeped up a touch, and now, more often than not, after e4, c5 is becoming a somewhat standard response.  This wasn't a problem months back because it seemed black was using the sicilian thinking along the lines of "this is suppose to be black's best try, so i'll try it" and after some logical play by white, black would slip up in some way and i could win the game.  Now, that isn't the case anymore.  Black seems to know what black's doing, and i'm getting called out.  I've tried the smith morra gambit.  Most of the stuff i read on the gambit says white gets about nothing for the pawn, and black is fine.  Personally, my results with it are mixed at this point, but in one of the last games i played where i used the gambit i fell into a terrible position a pawn down.  I've tried closed sicilians, trying to get into a grand prix attack, and those haven't worked out so well either, which could easily be the result of faulty play on my end.  My best results have been open sicilians.  My question is: is it still good enough just to know the ideas behind sicilians, regarding white's development, or should i go one step further now?  Once again, i'm not that highly rated for turn based (mid to low 1600s at the moment) and i'm sure i still run into people using the sicilian just because they hear that's the way to go, but i do try playing players that have stronger ratings than i do, and more often than not i get the impression that i'm being outplayed.  I want to get better.  What's the next step for white after knowing how to play the sicilian basics?  I have no interest in using this as black, at least not yet.  My focus here is with the white pieces.  Thanks again for your help.   

You could try the King's Indian Attack against it. This is a system where White plays e4, Nf3, g3, Bg2, 0-0, d3, Nbd2 and aims for a kingside attack.

Thanks for the line, but isn't that transposing somewhat?  Or at least, trying to?