I came across [this](http://lifehacker.com/5856506/how-to-create-a-personal-information-encryption-scheme-to-easily-hide-your-data-in-plain-sight) article discussion how to make a password secure by adding your own "encryption" scheme to a selected word and create you password.

For example, if my cipher was to add four zeros, switch every word in the alphabet with it's reverse letter, and attach with my favorite number.

Examples

* Google = `0000tlltov7`
* Stack = `0000hzxp7`
* etc...

The idea here is to simply remember the cipher, not the password. The clear text comes from the name of the website/company(Apple, Microsoft, Google)... but is this a better way than creating passwords?

Sure, every password is unique and extremely difficult to brute-force, but the the *scheme* exposes it all. If an attacker were to find out my scheme, they would know all of my passwords. When is it better to use password ciphers? When is it better to use normal passwords?