i'm trying to make a billboard- how in the world do I get the sizing correct ?

sooooooo frustrating !!

you can copy a billboard that you see around the site and paste in your editing program to get a correct size ~ however anything 480x90 and under will do

If you mean the 1MB limit then you will need to adjust the image quality on your program to get it under that limit, compressing it into a jpeg usually helps

Thank you so much! what would be a decent (free) editing program ?

I use Paint Tool SAI, it has a nice size slider that lets you reduce or increase the image quality and size. If you don't feel like getting a program just for this feel free to send me the image and I'll see if I can reduce it for you. =)

OMG, Thank you so much !! i'll send it to you now :)