I have a few tips for you:
- Stick to simple white design.
- Use no more than 4 colors other than grey scale (white, black, grey). Actually 2 would be perfectly enough for text information intensive sites.
- Design the site as if it’s a chapter in a print book.
- Plan blank areas.
- Be goal oriented and GET RID of EVERYTHING that’s not closely contributing to the goal. You achieve perfect by having nothing to peel off instead of the other way around.