There are literally books devoted to answering that very question. I would suggest finding one of them (like home recording for dummies or modern recording techniques or something like that), they usually work well and you can always go look up the answer immediately instead of waiting for a reply. The best tricks to making something sound good is have a good room, good speakers placed correctly and a good idea of what you want your song to sound like beforehand. Also make sure the performance is the best it can possibly be. The better the source, the better the end product.
