Money is all good and well, but...

Now that I've tackled the money topic now for something must more fun
Blogging isn't my only online hobby; that would just be silly :p
I also love graphic design, and I'm fairly clever at what I do, so I guess I'll share my tips

1. MS paint is fun, but not useful- If you are looking to get started in amateur graphic design you definitely should download a program with more capabilities
Luckily I know a few good ones
- http://www.photobie.com/about/about.php
-http://paint.net
-http://www.gimp.org
Of course I saved the best for last ^^ I use gimp for all of my graphic design. You should have a good feel for what you want to do if you are going to use gimp, but it is a very good quality program, which you can download for free

2. Now that you have your program, you'll need brushes and fonts- Brushes and fonts are the spice of graphic design. A good brush can add life to your picture while a good font can make everything look professional
Again, luckily for you I have good sites for both fonts and brushes
First the brushes
Amazing free brush collects
Then fonts
http://www.dafont.com
I'll be sure to add a tutorial or something to show you how to download and configure all your goodies later ^^

3. About the file types
When you create images you should know what extensions to use
.jpg- pretty basic 24 bit pictures, no transparency
.png- (my favorite) 24 or 48 bit, high quality, allows transparent images
.gif- Good for animation, not much else

Now I could keep going on and on about these things, but I'll save that for another post ^^