Hey there
To get your coloums to look a little better try using the float method.
Firstly have a div that specifies the width of the main content then nest the two column divs inside. Making sure that it is the parent div that has the bgcolour specified.
CODE
<div id="main">
<div id="content">
</div>
<div class="links">
</div>
</div>
Then let's say the width of #main is 600px make #content 400px and float it to the left like below. The links coloumn will then end up to the right of your content column.
CODE
#main
{
background-color:#;
width:600px;
}
#content {
float:left;
width:400px;
}
Hope that's clear, I'm not so hot at helping people.