What makes a good website

John Gruber gives his motivation for trying to make money as an independent web author using the Google AdSense program.

I totally agree with his statement on what makes a good website. I couldn’t have said it better:

Less markup. Less scripting. Fewer navigation elements. Fewer colors. Fewer graphics. Omit needless words. This is how you make a good web site. I know this for a fact.

Such design goals, however worthy, are notoriously difficult to sell to clients. A good web site costs a lot of money, and for a lot of money, most clients want a lot of web site. Lots of scripts. Lots of graphics. Lots of needless words.