Really dumb question

[Michael Bosse']

I am new to gcc and the g++ compile tools... so forgive me if this is
directed to the wrong list. I just downloaded, compiled, and installed
 the common c++ 2 library. The demos and tests work perfectly. However
I have written a small program with the library, and I am having
trouble getting it to link properly. I simply ran configure make make
install without specifying any directories.  The compiler seems to
have trouble finding the libraries.