“We’ve heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare,” says author Robert Wilensky. “Now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.”

There are tens of millions of websites out there. And a good many of them, in modern parlance, suck. They possess poor navigation, are overwritten, and are just painful to look at. While I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a web designer, I have learned a few tricks along the way. Here are seven suggestions to keep in mind as you stake claim to your little corner of the Internet: 

• Contrary to what you may think, the first thing most visitors to your website look at is not images, but content. They are there primarily to learn and gain information. Make sure to present your text in inverted pyramid format (the most important first). And make sure your headlines stand out and are unfettered. Will they tease the viewer into reading more?
• Viewers tend to filter out the clutter. Research shows they largely ignore banner ads. If you do run ads on your website (after all, they pay the rent), placement along the top and left side of the page usually get the most attention
• Keep your paragraphs short. Web pages are like the front pages of newspapers; viewers go to the top left corner of the page first and tend to scan quickly over the bottom portion of the page. Try using varied font sizes to promote the more important points
• One-column formats have been found in eye-fixation studies to be better accepted (read) than multiple columns. Your goal is to make viewing easy. Remember that the person staring at the screen can close his or her browser with just one click
• Remember that we read content on the Web in linear fashion. Don’t try to cram every bit of information on a single page. Link to other pages and let the viewer continue to click through depending on how much detail he or she is after
• Viewers tend to spend a lot of time exploring buttons and menus so make sure they are well designed. They tend to work best when spaced along the top of the page. And drop-downs are a good and familiar way for viewers to find their way around your website
• And finally, white space is not your enemy. You don’t have to fill every square inch of your website with images and text. Space it out. Providing bulleted lists is a good way to draw the viewer in

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Has life dealt you any setbacks along your journey? Here’s some advice from two guys who have shared your experience:

Lee Iacocca went to work for the Ford Motor Company in 1946 as an engineer, but it was in sales that he distinguished himself. He quickly rose through the ranks and in 1964, at age 40, was named president of the Ford Division. He is credited with helping to design many of Ford’s more popular cars, including the legendary Mustang. He eventually ascended to the top of the pyramid and was named president of the Ford Motor Company. But clashes with Henry Ford II led to his eventual firing in 1978, the very year the company posted a $2 billion profit.

It seemed Iacocca’s stellar career had hit a dead end. But that personal setback turned out to be a blessing. The following year, he took over as president and CEO of the struggling Chrysler Corporation and returned the company to profitability. He served in that role until 1992 and, along the way, authored several best-selling books and headed up the foundation that restored the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. He’s considered one of America’s most successful and respected businessmen.

Here’s a little advice from the chairman of the board: “In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.”

In 1976, at age 20, college dropout Steve Jobs and his friend, Steve Wozniak, started a company in a garage. Despite a few failed attempts, they turned Apple (named in memory of a happy summer Jobs spent as an orchard worker in Oregon) into a major force. Just 10 years later, the Macintosh computer had catapulted their start-up business into a $2 billion company with more than 4,000 employees. Unfortunately, Jobs was fired from the company he started after a battle for control with CEO John Sculley, the very man he had recruited from Pepsi Cola to run his company.

During the next five years, after licking his wounds, Jobs started two new companies, NeXTStep and Pixar. Pixar, of course, became the famous computer-animated film company that made blockbuster movies such as Toy Story, and eventually merged with Disney.

By 1996, 30 years after its creation, Apple was experiencing intense pressure from Microsoft and was posting billions in losses. Guess who was brought back to right the ship? With such innovations as the iPod and iPhone, Apple is considered one of the most successful and innovative companies in the world.

Looking back, what did Jobs learn from that experience?

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick,” he said. “Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.”

Good advice. And thank God for adversity!

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