You need a bright light, very bright, upwards of 100w output would be ideal. A 'daylght' bulb would certainly help but not essential as your camera will correct the white balance pretty well on it's own. The light will need to be somewhat directional so a desk lamp or similar would be perfect. You will then need a nice diffused reflective surface, a room with a white ceiling and white walls would be the money shot. Not too glossy though, matt white is where it's at. Point the light at the ceiling above the product to be photographed and then use your camera with a tripod.
The results will be surprisingly professional even with a compact camera.
I've not tried making a light box but there are a few good guides on the interwebnet and the results from them are superb. As astro has said lighting for photography is a degree worthy subject in it's own right, it's taken me the best part of 5 years of hobby photography to get my head around it all.
The basics are thus:
Even, diffused light. Any object receiving light directly from the source will have massive contrast which you don't want. By diffusing the light you create a much more uniform illumination of the subject.
Diffusers can be really simple, from putting a layer of grease paper between the light source to the subject all the way to hyper expensive precision engineered flash optics. Bouncing the light from a matt painted ceiling will diffuse the light very well, I use this technique with my speedlight (pro flash) at weddings etc. White walls reflect the light which has reflected from the ceiling and give that nice uniform coverage.
As you will be inside and have low light the camera will automatically keep the shutter open for longer to get the correct amount of light into the sensor to give a good photo. If the subject moves when the shutter is open the photo will become blurred, therefore, use a tripod to hold everything steady when then photo is being taken.
To avoid your pressing of the button shaking the camera at all, use the timer feature. I.e. set up the photo, turn the flash off (VERY important!), set it to timer (as short as possible really), press the button and then stand well back and sit low if you can to avoid disrupting the light bouncing around the room.
Any questions you know where to find me!
EDIT: You won't go far wrong, ahem 'investing', in lightroom, a piece of software from adobe. I can give you any advice you need on using it, I have been using it for 3 years now for developing photos and am pretty au fait. I can of course also master you photos for you at a special forum/mates rates!
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