Is the word of the day. I have been trying to make my blog load more quickly as several people have told me it takes forever, which I have noticed myself.
In the beginning when I first started blogging, I signed up for a zillion different blog directories thinking it would drive more traffic to my blog. All of them had little java script badges to put on my blog, which I dutifully did.
I've heard that these things slow down your blog, so I looked into whether any of these directories were giving me any traffic, by checking my sitemeter. I found there were only a few that actually drove traffic to my blog so I took off the rest. I'm hoping this will help!
If anyone has any other suggestions I'm all ears! I am still quite new at this (and not a little technically challenged) and I have seen that some blogs with lots of "bling" take a long time to load, but others don't. Perhaps it depends on whether the blog is hosted by Blogger, Wordpress or Typepad, or is a personal website.
Today's Haiku:
Blog loads so slowly
Watching paint dry is faster
I may fall asleep.
14 comments:
So that's why. I agree, simple is better.
Look at the Google interface. while other search engines cram more and more into their presentation page, Goggle keeps there clean and simple, and is my favorite, takes no time to load.
I was wondering if any of those directories helped and was thinking of putting some on myself. I'm glad you gave me a heads-up on that.
I'm not sure if anyone has any trouble loading my blog, but I do have a few things like the clock and occasionally I played around with animated gif's. I did have a Bush countdown clock that I had to take off because it slowed things down.
It usually only took an extra few seconds to load, not that bad. I just figured it was my crappy laptop.
I agree, Nick, simpler is better. I still think my blog loads slowly even after taking off a lot. We'll see if anyone has some suggestions as to what else might be causing it!
Mary Ellen, I took off the Bush countdown clock too since I thought that was slowing things down. I'm glad my blog doesn't take too long for you!
The biggest slowdown my blog has were four Blog World Report awards from Robert. I was very proud of them, because they were based on votes from other bloggers, but I took them off. You are loading a little quicker. The two items that generate waiting status during the load are your Recent Readers and Recent Viewers applets.
Your blog loads fine for me. And looks great by the way.
I have no problem with your blog, but those with You Tube and other marvels load extremely slow, and cost visitors.
Tomcat, thanks, I suspected those may be slowing it down. Unfortunately those are the two blog directories that are actually giving me some traffic, and I've found some really interesting bloggers myself from seeing who was on my blog. So I guess I'll have to suffer with the delay! ;-)
Catherine, thanks for the compliment on my blog and I'm glad it doesn't seem slow to you.
Larry, I have definitely noticed YouTube clips slow things down so I avoid posting the full clips. If I do post one I change it to a link after the first day or so to keep it from being there too long. indefinitely.
I've never had a problem with your blog loading too slow..
;)
I think a lot of it has to do with what kind of Internet connection people have. I've never noticed your blog taking long to load at all.
If people have dial-up, then any blog is going to take time to load. Especially if they have images.
And you're right about those directories. Crap.
I fell for the hype about traffic, but it's only hype. Even when they do visit they never comment.
Of course, I do have you as a "buddy" on Blog Catalog.
I am sure you got this adivice already but files like pictures, videos, and music take up a significant amount of space and will effect your page load times. The more test and less other stuff will make loading quicker and really the best way to get traffic is "wording". Using combinatons of words via a search engine will drive your traffic up.
Good luck.
The more TEXT you have - is what that line is supposed to say.
Sorry.
I noticed that "gif" seems to be a loading problem at your site.
If you could do without some of the bottom sidebar items, your site would load faster for all who visit.
I've found quality blog material is what brings in readers. That, and free drugs.
Thanks for all the great comments and advice about the loading issues from everyone, and glad to hear not everyone has the problem. I'll look and take off the "gif" items. Every little bit will help.
I think I've gotten the most traffic due to finding like-minded people like yourselves, exchanging comments, and links on your blogs and other blogs with similar subject matter. The problem with these big directories is they're so huge your blog gets lost and they're so eclectic there isn't a niche for you to fall into so it's just luck if anyone ever comes across you.
Oh, and of course the drugs, so true, Evil Spock.
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