Why is your blog running so slow?
Aug 31st
So after the post on Friday, I decided to do a little research on the load times of some of the popular blogs out there. I even decided to compare results from one of my past posts about speed called “Are you fast enough?” and here are the results below.
I used the iWebTool software and I had to test some of them a few times just because the times for some were unusually high. The problem is that iWebTool now limits how many times you can use the tool but ofcourse, I waited and tried again. Well, for starters, lets take a look at the results from the research from this time along with a column that compares time from the last post from over a year ago.
| # | Domain name | Size | Load Time | Previous Time | % Change |
| 1 | stephenfung.net | 34.79 KB | 0.29 seconds | 1.17 seconds | 403.45% |
| 2 | ryanshamus.com | 108.75 KB | 0.67 seconds | 0.74 seconds | 110.45% |
| 3 | ianfernando.com | 48.18 KB | 0.68 seconds | 1.12 seconds | 164.71% |
| 4 | johnchow.com | 48.71 KB | 0.78 seconds | 4.6 seconds | 589.74% |
| 5 | marketleveragetv.com | 11.02 KB | 0.87 seconds | no previous data | - |
| 6 | slyvisions.com | 66.64 KB | 0.92 seconds | no previous data | - |
| 7 | balkhis.com | 46.96 KB | 0.95 seconds | 1.24 seconds | 130.53% |
| 8 | tylercruz.com | 56.9 KB | 0.96 seconds | 1.6 seconds | 166.67% |
| 9 | freddietaylor.com | 60.87 KB | 1 seconds | no previous data | - |
| 10 | dailyblogtips.com | 24.45 KB | 1.02 seconds | 0.59 seconds | 172.88% |
| 11 | imwithjoe.com | 30.85 KB | 1.05 seconds | no previous data | - |
| 12 | zacjohnson.com | 76.71 KB | 1.05 seconds | 0.46 seconds | 228.26% |
| 13 | thenetfool.com | 71.61 KB | 1.15 seconds | 0.76 seconds | 151.32% |
| 14 | jonathanvolk.com | 65.34 KB | 1.19 seconds | 1.54 seconds | 129.41% |
| 15 | betshopboy.net | 39.43 KB | 1.4 seconds | 1.15 seconds | 121.74% |
| 16 | dereksemmler.com | 78.72 KB | 1.48 seconds | 1.25 seconds | 118.40% |
| 17 | ninetynineways.net | 59.89 KB | 1.52 seconds | no previous data | - |
| 18 | enkayblog.com | 44.09 KB | 1.54 seconds | 1.05 seconds | 146.67% |
| 19 | melvinblog.com | 50.29 KB | 1.63 seconds | no previous data | - |
| 20 | standoutblogger.com | 41.37 KB | 1.66 seconds | 0.84 seconds | 197.62% |
| 21 | franklinbishop.com | 25.55 KB | 1.97 seconds | no previous data | - |
| 22 | theuniversitykid.com | 92.4 KB | 2.03 seconds | 0.6 seconds | 338.33% |
| 23 | datmoney.com | 42.45 KB | 2.05 seconds | 1.63 seconds | 125.77% |
| 24 | msdanielle.com | 68.05 KB | 2.12 seconds | 1.25 seconds | 169.60% |
| 25 | webtrafficroi.com | 105.66 KB | 4.33 seconds | no previous data | - |
The Conclusion
As you can see, I didn’t have the information for quite a few of the blogs but for the most part, it seems that most of us have seen a decline in change. What that means is that over a year ago, our blogs would load faster than they do today. I am one of those who saw this decline whereas several others, the best of whom, is JohnChow who improved the performance by over 500%. StephenFung was not far behind with a little bit over 400% in improving his load time.
Out of the performers that did worse than last time were TheUniversityKid and ZacJohnson. This could possibly be a result of different advertisements, maybe an increase in ads or even a new design that is more graphic heavy. It could also be an issue with the servers at the time. In the previous post I mentioned several ways to improve upon a slower running blog and I hope to do the same for my blog and hope to document that for others as well.
Hope you enjoyed today’s post. How do you compare to the rest of us? The tool can be accessed at iWebTool by clicking here. Have a great Monday and a great start to the week everyone! Stay tuned for my next post!
Your Blog Isn’t Being Noticed
Aug 28th
Thats right! Not to be rude or anything, but a reader decides within 5-8 seconds whether they want to be on your blog or not. That’s a staggering statistic and that makes me think about how many people I am probably missing out on because of it. There are some things that just turn people off and I hope to discuss them here.
1) Ads – Okay, so I’m not going to knock on JohnChow or anything just because when you’re an established blogger, you can do whatever you want, and your readers will still be supportive. Your readers still have a lot to gain so they’re not going anywhere. What I’m talking about is people who have no business having ads on their blog anyway. These are people who believe in ad space SUPERmaximization. When theres not enough room and LOTS of ads. You can’t do that. You have to have a little white space to appear a bit more organized and clean.
2) Slow Website – Sometimes your website runs slow because of hosting issues and sometimes your blog is just graphic heavy. There are ways that you can help your blog perform better. You can optimize the graphics on your blog to load faster or even switch to a hosting provider that has better, faster servers. Sometimes there are widgets and javascripts running on your blog that also help slow it down. An example of a widget is the Entrecard widget. Tomorrow I will have a post that tests the speed of some of the most popular blogs in the blogosphere.
3) No Design/Customization – It takes a little effort but its good to have a blog that is customized. It helps the visitor know that you’ve spent some time on it and aside from that, even if youre a fairly new blog, it makes you look professional – as though you’ve been around longer. Having a default theme is so 2004. Readers now look for customized themes and eye-catching designs. As a marketing expert for product packaging would say, its not really what you sell, but how you sell it and thats what counts.
I have listed a few things that come to my mind when I wonder what would be the most obvious reasons why readers are turned away from your blog. These go hand in hand with how fast/slow your blog loads. In a few days, I will have a post about what you do in terms of the content you put out that turns away your readers. Hope you guys have a good weekend! Stay tuned for tomorrows post!
Can I Get My Rankings Back?
Aug 27th
Before I decided to take a hiatus time and time again from blogging, my rankings were pretty high and I was doing quite well. Now that I am coming back to blogging, I want to see how long it takes for me to get my ratings back. I’m not sure what my exact rankings were but Technorati was in the 150′s or 200′s in terms of authority and Alexa was around 100,000.
Im not a newbie in the blogging industry and this gives me the advantage because last summer, I experienced a similar situation and I had to pretty much start back from scratch. In case, you don’t remember, Last year, I decided to finally purchase enkayblog.com and this meant starting back with no Alexa Rating, no Page Rank and no Technorati. I was able to build everything back up within 2 months.
This time, things will be harder. Why you ask? Well, things are a bit different. It seems as though the blogging industry has slowed down. A lot of old friends are now gone and so that support is missing. Furthermore, the economy has affected some of the bloggers and aside from that, some bloggers have decided to move away from blogging and onto other things. All this makes this time around a bit harder.
What Am I Getting At?
Well, basically what I am saying is what I have preached for several months now – you have to have goals. Setting this goal for myself means that I need to, and will, try harder and harder in order to be where I was, if not better, than I was when I decided to step away from blogging a few months ago.
Why are Goals Important?
Well, in simple terms, goals help motivate you to do better things. They help you to keep at it till you are able to be where you want to be. By having this goal of wanting to reach my previous status as a blog, I will do everything in my power of achieve it. It helps motivate me and remind me of what I want and then it is up to me to do all that I can to achieve that goal.
Can I Do It?
I hope that I am able to do it and this will be a process that I will document slowly as time goes on. I really think that if I am able to put out great content and get the link backs and audience support that I can achieve this goal. How long do you think it will take me? and if you’ve gone through such a hiatus before, how long did it take you?
Starting Back The Blog
Aug 26th
I’m sorry to those of you who I have disappointed with my lack of blogging but I am more than glad to say that I am finally back for good. School has started back up again and my internship has finally ended. I look forward to get back to blogging and I have already noticed that several other bloggers had also taken a little break and Im not sure what their reasoning was but it does help to know that it wasn’t just me as I had expected.
Now that things are a bit settled, let me start out by saying hello to a few good friends from the past.
RomanDock – I realize that Nick hasn’t posted in a while and its crazy for me to even think about the fact that Nick isn’t blogging as he once used to. Nick was one of the first readers of my blog over 2 years ago and even though we never really met personally, it was always refreshing to see his comments on my blog. If you see this Nick, you need to come back to blogging, if not, atleast stop by whenever you can and say hello!
Balkhis – Syed had slowed down in the middle with the blogging but he seems to be going strong at it still. Syed has a very successful design company and so slowing down on the blogging might be helping him focus on his design company.
MelvinBlog – Melvin has been a good contributor at the blog and its good to see that he is still going strong with his posts. I really wish that I had the time to devote to my blog as Melvin has been able to do so successfully. I really have a lot to learn from Melvin because of his ability to continue to put out such great content time and time again.
Normal Joe – Normal Joe cannot be stopped. That was my opinion months ago and that is my opinion today. I don’t know if I’m day dreaming or mistaken but I did think that Joe did slow down a bit a month or two ago but he is back up there giving the big guys a hard time!
The Net Fool – Jim over at The Net Fool has also been able to put out good content. There were some slow spots but things have still been on the upside for him and thats good to see. Jim is a student, just as I am, so its good to see that level of output even with all the responsibilities he has.
Saying Hello!
So, I’ve decided to say hello to some of my other blogger friends:
Ben Pei over at Pei Profit
Dina over at Market Leverage
Eric Schechter over at Clickbooth
Franklin Bishop over at FranklinBishop
Abhijeet over at Life is Colourful
ZK over at WebTrafficROI
Tina McAllister over at TinaMcAllister
Freddie Taylor over at FreddieTaylor
Paul Briggs over at SlyVisions
BetShopBoy over at BetShopBoy
John Chow over at JohnChow
Jason over at DatMoney
So, Just wanted to say hello to everyone and see how you all are doing. If I forget you, I apologize. I tried to remember everyone from memory and after a couple months of hiatus, it does get a bit difficult. I hope to be able to give you guys a lot of cool and great articles time and time again and hopefully a few surprises as time goes on too! Have a great rest of the week, its already Wednesday!
Back in Houston from Training
Jun 6th
As many of you know, I was in Atlanta for training for the past week and I finally returned home on Friday. I am an accountant and no matter what field you’re in, its always crucial to be well trained to perform the tasks that you are expected to complete at your job. As part of my training, I was involved in several hands-on projects, presentations and instructor guided learning seminars.
One such company that provides great training is known as Countrywide Training. Their onsite training provides its students to learn from a live instructor and ask questions that they may have as if they were actually in the class itself. Countrywide training also sets up training programs for companies in the event that you need to train more than one individual at a time. They send over a certified instructor to a company’s location to train its staff on a variety of topics.
One of their several different training programs includes Microsoft Office. This training helps employees become proficient in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access. Being proficient in these programs is a crucial goal for any staff at any level in their career. Their training programs include other IT specific training courses and even several different types of certification programs to help elevate your staff to a higher level of technical knowledge. So, if you’re looking for some training programs then you should probably look into something like Countrywide onsite training.
As far as my training, I am finally back in Houston and ready to begin work on Monday. This will mean that I won’t have as much time to devote to my theme design, but I’m sure Ill have time on the weekends to do so. Training in Atlanta was tedious but it helped me become proficient with the software and corporate culture of my company. I will have a post this week that will talk about some of the things I learned about work ethic, that we, as bloggers, can apply to our blogs in the blogosphere.
