kitcorsa on "how? Remove images and create excert for a blog real"

Ive created a page which has a list of all my blog posts but im having a little trouble getting it to do what i want.

I want the page to display a list of my blog posts then separate them into page of 10 at a time, ie page 1 2 3 4 5 etc etc

I would like the featured image on the right then the exert text of 500 characters on the right, i have style this as such.

Problem i have is:
1) how do i remove any images from the content so the exert just shows the text from the post and no the images (as i have a feature image)
2) how do i make an exert of 500 characters with a read more link??
3) split the posts into pages of 10 posts.

my code is?

<div class="post-entry <?php if ($thumb_small <> '') {echo "timbg";} ?>">

				<?php if($thumb_small<>'') { ?>

		<a class="featuredimage1" href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><img src="<?php echo $thumb_small[0]; ?>" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" /></a>

		<?php } ?>

			<?php the_content( __( '<span class="read-more">Read More</span>', 'Hero' ), $stripteaser  ); ?>
			<div class="clear"></div>
			<?php wp_link_pages( array( 'before' => '' . __( 'Pages:' ), 'after' => '' ) ); ?>

				</div><!--post-entry end-->

followed by the comments code

thanks