Hey Alex...
I guess half the battle trying to make text look good is choosing the right font.... there are plenty of free fonts on the net if you need some... like here for example
http://www.1001freefonts.com/main.htm (but beware of a lot of "pop-ups"
)
One of the easiest ways to then sex it up is to apply a "style" from the p/shop style pallet to the layer with the text on it...
These also work with pics, and gives some interesting images...
If you want different styles to the ones in p/shop.... they are editable if you go to the Menu "Layer", go down to "Layer Style" and to "Blending options". You can also go to this Abode site
http://share.studio.adobe.com/axBrowseProduct.asp?p=2 and download various styles, brushes and almost anything for p/shop...
Hope that helps in some way..
Cheers
Les....