[need help making gold]

I'm looking for a way to make my little logo look like actual shiny gold instead of just gold color (. I apologize for being such a noob, I just don't have much experience with graphic design. :-/

Something similar to this: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photoshop-text/text-effects/gold/

Is there a tutorial somewhere? I found this one (http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photoshop-text/text-effects/gold/) and it looks awesome for photoshop. Can I do this exact same thing with paint.net?

[feather plugin?]

Thanks!

[feather plugin?]

Thanks. I thought I read that it basically just used a version of blur to it instead of a gradual fading to transparency? Is it really an actual feather?

[feather plugin?]

Where is the feather plugin? Once I updated paint.net it's gone. Is there an updated version of the effect? A TRUE feather effect, not just a blur?

[text question and cropping question]

Thanks! Yeah I tried the search feature but sometimes I don't know what words to search for.

[text question and cropping question]

I need to make a simple brochure. I have photographs of myself which I need to cut out from the background so I can place it on the brochure. How do I crop myself out without making it look bad around the edges? Is there a tutorial on here?

I also need to do a bunch of writing, but I see the text option is really basic and you can't do much with it. Is there a text plugin somewhere?