Make Your Blog Load Faster
July 20th, 2009 | 
Author: So the other day my mentor, Craig Desorcy, says, “Tiff – you aren’t doing what I taught you to do with your blog and now it’s loading too slow.” Oops! Then I get an email the very next day from a subscriber who says, “Tiff why does your blog load so slowly? None of the other blogs I subscribe to load slow like that.”
Double oops! I’m going to teach you how to make your blog load faster, too.
The email from Craig reminded me that I had to fix it, but of course I put it off (I was just too engrossed in Season 5 of House, MD). And the customer email reminded me of my mentor’s butt-kicking, so I quickly went and fixed it.
Here’s how you do it:
Went you’re making a post, you’ll see a line of icons at the top of your blog. There’s one that looks like apage that’s been split in half. On my blog, it’s to the left of the ABC check and to the right of the broken link icon.
So what you do is leave about a paragraph of content (or two) and then click that icon and it inserts a MORE tag. That means your home page of your blog will have the snippet, and then it will say, “Read the rest of this entry…” with a hyperlink to the full entry, as you’ve clicked to get here.
That’s it! Sneaky, quick tip from my mentor that helps you read my blog faster. Thanks, Craig! Here’s a video of it:
Tiff 
Posted in Internet Marketing
Thanks Tiff for the name dropping
You know, I hope people don’t get the wrong idea. This “Read More” tag is just one way to speed up the loading of your blog’s main page. It’s not the end all be all. There are other factors that goes into a fast loading site/blog. Crappy hosting? Heavy images? Etc…
The other benifit of using the “Read More” tag is, it lets your readers read snippets of each post. This falls into the department of “User Experience”. Something totally worth optimizing your blog/site for.
If you have 50 posts on your main URL it means I have to scroll through all that content to see what each post is about. What if I am not interested in most of it?
For those of you into speed here you go
http://analyze.websiteoptimization.com
The more tag is a blogger’s blessing
Craig
Gasp! Not interested? In what *I* say? LOL. I kid, I kid. Thanks for kicking my ass in gear Craig.
Wow. Thanks Tiff for jumping on this! I love your posts, and *this* time it loaded like firecrackers!
Good job- and keep the info coming! You rock!
Rita
Great! Thanks for reminding me Rita.
I knew this was coming… “But Craig, your blog loads sloooow”
Yes, I know and it’s being fixed.
For those that need to know, I’m running way too many plugins that use Java scripts and it’s bogging the site/blog loading time down. Especially the slide-in box.
This was not the MAIN point I was trying to get across when I chatted with Tiffany. The main issue about using the “Read More” tag was the “User Experience” factor. It’s the main reason I use the tag and speed is secondary.
blog on,
Craig
Great tip…you know I was looking for a plugin for that-and couldn’t find one! Thanks a whole bunch! Always great tips at Tiff’s.
Thanks for the tip, Tiffany. There’s also the factor of using tooooo many plugins, toooo big images, toooo much java and toooo many posts on the main page.
I usually put 1 to 5 posts (and use the more) because I have lots of images but I also only use a few plugins and it keeps the site loading fast. Just because there are plugins doesn’t mean you have to use them.
Some people use way toooo many plugins, java plugins at that, and that will really slow down a page load cuz if pulls from the server. Just use the plugins you need will help pages load faster. And cut the number of posts to under 10 on the main page with the more tag, of course.
Sara
Right all that is too technical for me. LOL But Craig mentioned that in his comment. The More tag is about as tech as I can get. I’ll leave the rest up the experts. Ha!
Wow, thanks!
I had wondered how to do that. There are so many icons at the top of the blog writing area, and I don’t know what most of them are for.
Maybe you could explain a few more of them sometime.
Thanks again, Tiffany.
I’m gonna finally know what I’m doing one day if I keep on following you around!
Mike Stokes
Baton Rouge, LA
See it’s those little things Craig teaches me that NO ONE else ever did. How would anyone know unless someone teaches it?
The “More” button is a real find – I was blogging for ages before I noticed it.
You could use the “Post Teaser” plugin too.
and for speed try the WP Super Cache plugin.
Keep pluggin’ Away
Be warned – WP Super Cache can cause major problems if you de-activate it. Quick Cache is a better plugin for most people.
Tiffany thank you for the excellent tip. I have one of my sites that takes a little longer to load, so I am off to the grind to put this in all the posts. Thanks again for the always useful tips and good luck with your new PLR ATM site.
Hey Tiff,
WP super caching plugin works but it’s a bit complicated to get set up correctly. These days, I like the W-3 caching plugin. (find it also at wordpress.org with all the other plugins)
thanks for the great post!
Another tip for WordPress users is to get a cacheing plug in. Most of them make static pages from content that doesn’t change often (such as sales pages, etc…). Most of the plug-ins (like WP Super Cache) will give you substantial control over which pages get cached, and how often to update.
Good stuff, and it does make a big difference, especially on shared hosting plans.
Just a thought!
The more button is nice but can also be a pain in the butt when you’re pressed for time or “auto-blogging” or you just forget to do it… why manually do it when you can get a Limit Posts plugin to automatically do it for you? Just write your post and publish!
Cache plugins are a help also and there are a number of them out there to chose from. Some can be quite complicated, others can be a little more “automated”… just chose one that works for you…
And of course, images and videos will always slow down a site if they are too large or too many… optimizing your pics and using video services (save bandwidth) can help… just try to avoid putting too many on one page…
There are many little tweaks and things you can do to improve your site, and it can’t hurt to use a website analyzer like Gary recommended.
Hope this helps someone…
Linda =}
Oops… meant Craig, not Gary! Think I need more coffee… LOL… =}
Ah thanks Linda!
Thank you Tiffany for useful post! This is exactly what I’ve been looking for, I have the same problem with my blog. Going to fix it now.
Thank you indeed,
Aigul