*Question* Banners

I was just wondering what the best program to create banners is, and do you have to have a good knowledge of designing stuff to be able to make one? I see that everybody shares around here, and I would like to try and make some worthwhile contributions. Any help is appreciated.

The best program is prolly adobe photoshop CS but you have to read tutorials to do all the cool stuff but eventually you'll get good at it with practice
I suggest downloading a free 30 day trial of Macromedia Fireworks MX to get a good feel for the whole banner making thing but you can also download a free trial of photoshop
this is the site www.download.com