Tsk, tsk, tsk.. When does it ever end? Our quest for money online.. We freelance, we design, we affiliate, but somehow some of us just can’t seem to get a break, while some others get it all. Yet, we never give up. We’ve been told too often by the big guys just to persevere, and work hard, and in time everything will fall into place. Everything they say sounds so great and inspiring because, after all, they are the internet’s top players.

I’ve done my share of e-book reading (just recently actually), and I would have to say that about most of them are just as useless as a McDonald’s burger. Some, however, do seem to help, but some just tend to tell you what you already know, of course, in a very sugar-coated way.

You know what I would love to do? I would love to review an e-book and be completely honest about what I think about it, get downright dirty, but I doubt anyone would ever dare to have me review their product, but who knows, someone out there just might be interested at proving me wrong.

Now you are in luck, I went through the same ordeal as you and I spent days and days to perfect a single method. Following tutorials that were badly written only made it harder for me, but I persevered and eventually formulated my own personal way of making these babies. Now, I will share with you this very easy guide on how to make a Web 2.0 glossy text design with Adobe PhotoShop.

Step 01. Open a new canvas.

You can have any width and height for it, just make sure it is big enough for the text you intend to put on it. It can have a transparent background or any background color you want.

Step 2. Click the text tool icon.  You can find this icon on the left side of your PhotoShop window.

Step 3. Click on your canvas and type in your text. In this tutorial, I used the words “Web 2.0″, and am using a font called Elementary SF Black. It is not required, but advisable, to use thicker fonts rather than slim ones.

Step 4. Now, duplicate your layer by right-clicking on the current layer and clicking “Duplicate Layer…”.

Click OK when a small window with the duplicated layer name pops up.

Step 5. You now need to rasterize your duplicate layer, so right-click on it, and click “Rasterize Type“. After successfully rasterizing the duplicate layer, it should now look differently from before:

Before (not rasterized):

After (rasterized):

Step 6. Now that your duplicate layer is fully rasterized, from your keyboard press CTRL + click on your duplicate layer’s icon. Remember to do it at the same time.

Press CTRL +

After doing so, we have successfully made a selection around the text on our duplicate layer. On your canvas, it should now look like this:

Step 7. Now, on your keyboard, press D, press X, then press ALT + Backspace. Press each key once at a time, except for ALT + Backspace which you have to press at the same time.

On your canvas, you will now have something like this:
 

 Step 8. Don’t fret, you didn’t ruin the design, it’s supposed to go through an ugly stage for a while so have no worries.

Now, click on the Elliptical Marquee Tool icon (this took me forever to find so I’m going to make it easy for you).

On the left side of your PS window (together with all the other icons), the Elliptical Marquee Tool icon should look like this:  But if you can’t find an icon looking like such at all, look for an icon looking like this instead:  Right click on this icon, and click “Elliptical Marquee Tool“. There you go, you have it now. On to the next step..

Step 9. Using the Elliptical Marquee Tool, trace it over half of your text image on the canvas. Kind of like this:

Step 9. From your keyboard, press DEL. After doing so, you’ll find your work looking this way for now:

You can now go ahead and deselect the area, by pressing CTRL + D.

Step 10. Right-click on your duplicate layer, and click “Blending Options…”, and make your Blending Options Opacity around 40%, more or less.

I’ve ended up with this look, so far:

Step 11. We are basically done unless you want to add strokes (a border) around our text, and this is why this step is here. Right-click on our original layer (not the duplicate one), and click “Blending Options…“. Check the box under Stroke, and click the word “Stroke” as well so we can modify it to our liking.

Now, make your stroke size 2 or 3 px (your choice really), and your stroke color white (you can use gradients for this as well, but I’ll leave for you to discover that eventually).

Now let’s step back and take a look at what we have created. This is how Mine ended up looking:

How did yours turn out?

Now since PayPal comes into the picture, it becomes a whole different ball game. I start to care all over again, perhaps it is because of the measely $206.00 stuck in my unverified account? How did I manage to get it there in the first place? Well, I never expected that in order to withdraw my PayPal funds into my bank account I would need a credit card to verify my account with first, and so I accepted payments online without knowing what was in store for me eventually.

I was dismayed upon finding out that I could not withdraw my money from PayPal, it took me about a week to recover and learn to blink again. $206.00 might just be pennies, but I need those shiny little pennies! It seemed like hope was fading away in the corners and at rapid speed too. I decided to do something about it..

Research, I bet you expected me to do some. Well, it didn’t take much of it for me to learn about USA Bank Accounts. It’s what they’re called, but you don’t actually go to a real bank in the US in order to open an account with them, you can simply get one online. And what really makes them special is the fact that they automatically give you a debit card along with your account, which can be used to verify PayPal with! I was ecstatic upon finally finding a method in which could actually help me with my dilemma. However, their service is not free. In order to open an account with them, there is a price to pay, but a small one at that. Prices vary from $15-$50, you can pay using Paypal (how ironic), e-gold, moneybookers and other methods. I guess you’d have to be a registered user in either one of the payment processors mentioned in order to pay for that account.

Also, my curiosity got the best of me when I heard about VCCs, or otherwise known as Virtual Credit Cards, and I just had to stick my nose in and see what it was all about for myself. Nice, VCCs can be bought at very low prices, the lowest I’ve seen was at $6. They will provide you with a VCC number, as well as the expanded use number needed (after you’ve added the card in your PayPal account) after 12 hours. VCCs are starting to look very attractive to me already, however I would have to wait until I get enough money in my newly formulated e-gold account (which has nothing in it so far) just so I can finally buy myself one.

My quest continues…