You need to compile the source and then, rather than do the usual 'make install', run 'checkinstall' . This creates your .tgz package and installs it for you. The great thing about this is you can manage you system in a consistent way.

For what it is worth I use swaret using only the official slackware packages, and supplement this with other software by compliling from source and using checkinstall. I then have a system built from .tgz packages that are easy to manage and I can easily keep current with all updates by setting VERSION=current in /etc/swaret.conf and running swaret --upgrade -a every once in a while.

CAUTION: As mentioned earlier, people screw up by not reading the changelog. In a swaret context you can:

#swaret --update

this get the most recent package list and changelog, and then

#swaret --changelog

to read the changelog before diving in.

All the best.