It has come to my attention by a few bloggers that tell me my blog is very slow in loading.
OH NO !!
I have found several blogs...some of my favorites....that take too long to load. Once some of them load, the photos seem to roll and jump and often times, it is hard to get it to stay still long enough to link up to a meme.
I did a quick research on the WHYS of this slow loading and this is what I found...
the photos we are using are so large that it causes excessive slow loading..
too many blinky widgets causes VERY slow loading...
java script seems to be the biggest culprit...we have too many buttons with the html addresses..these are known to cause a lot of slowness...clocks, weather indicators...all these add to the slowness of your blog. Anything, like the snow, that is added to a blog, compounded with all the other "blog stuff" is beginning to cause a lot of problems.
We all know how irritating it can be, when we only have a little time to be on the computer, to come across these slow loading blogs. Often, we just skip them...sooo...SLOW LOADING causes LESS VISITORS !!
I am going to redo my blog...I am sorry to give up all the cute buttons..I've already turned in my clock, temp. gauge, snow. Would you please tell me if this helps my blog to load faster ? And, please let me know anytime you have a problem with it so I can FIX IT....
2 other things that have been mentioned to help with slow loading is to keep your posts on the first page under 5 posts....and if you keep your background widget at the TOP of your page, always, it will help. If you know of something else that will help us, would you PLEASE let us all know.
ANOTHER THING....I've noticed there's lots of WORD VERIFICATIONS
that let you post, then, it clicks off, I think I am done, I click to go to another site and just before the screen changes, I see the WORD VERIFICATION come on...but, too late. I have missed posting on a lot of blogs for this reason. I am so sorry if this has happened on your blog.
31 comments:
I turned off the word verification on my site, and have seen many people doing that now....I've not had a problem with "spam" because of it-and it makes it less of a hassle for folks to post.
I know the photos make it slow to load, but wow, they really MAKE the post. I guess keeping fewer posts will help. Thanks for the ideas.
seems like your blog loaded quickly when i just came.
That is all good info. Thanks for letting us know.
I'm with you, if there is some problem, I'm hoping someone will let us know so we can try to fix it.
Oh, and that word verification thing popping up as you are clicking to leave? Been there. Very frustrating.
I really do not like word verification at all. Often i end up spelling it wrong and then have to do a new word. maybe in too much of a hurry?
Must be some reason people have it.
Now, check and make sure i do not have it on at my place will you??
Blessing and hope you are having a great weekend.
barbara jean
BJ, the thing that I find is when someone adds "sparkles" "snow" cutsie things it slows down tremendously. I agree that I seem to avoid those blogs because it becomes jerky and hard to read for the pauses. Thank you so much for "cleaning up" your blog. It does help sooooo much and I appreciate your concerns. Yes, it loaded MUCH faster and easier.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Sharon
I hadn't noticed that you were terribly slow to load until you cleaned it up and it comes up much faster now. I use a free program, Photofiltre, to edit my photos to a smaller amount of pixels. It usually doesn't even affect the size of the photo but it does make it load much faster. I have done the same thing with word verification that you have, seenat the last minute that it was there and I am not going abck to retype the whole comment. I have found that most of the spam has been on older posts so I turned on comment moderation for posts older than 5 days and it has pretty much taken care of the problem. I hate word verification. A lot. Thanks for letting us know all the things that slow us down!
Thank you for sharing the info, I'm headed to my blog to check out the speed next. I have a satellite connection (country life), and the beautiful extra large photos on some blogs take so long to load I receive error messages.
Have a fabulous day!
WOW! Faster than a speeding bullet! Your blog IS loading faster now BJ.
It appears you did a good job of fixing it. I've always wondered if mine loads ok when people pull it up. It was very slow a while back so I eliminated alot of "pretty sparkly" stuff!
Loved the old photos of your daughter's wedding. You're as pretty as the bride!!
Hope all is good with you in your world! Big hugs, sherry
Wow! I'm with everybody else - I'm headed to my blog to make some changes. Like you, I've been so frustrated with blogs that take forever to load and at times I just don't wait so I miss a lot of neat things I know I would enjoy. You've done some very helpful research and I think we should pass it on so we can all enjoy visiting each other often. I'm headed to my blog to change the word verification - I've also had the problem of it returning. Many times. One particular style keeps coming back at least 3 times and I often refuse to comment on those blogs. Thank you, my friend. Your blog came up immediately this morning. You've done us all a great service by telling us what we are doing wrong. Be back soon!
~Adrienne~
I've never had a problem with your blog loading slowly. I guess it would also depend on the speed of one's computer. Don't take away all your stuff. Gotta keep your personality on here too!
Justine :o )
Morning, Dearness! I've never experience slowness on your blog, BJness. But I'm about to pull my hair out on that silly blog button. Maybe I'll just do what you said and ask folks to copy and paste.
I know exactly what you're talking about. I hate those word verification thingys. I am surely going to cut down my posts down to five. Thank you so much for all of his help!
Happy Sunday,
Shelia ;)
Aaaaah, a chick who GETS it!! Yessss, in my tutorial on blogging I warn against these things. I'm very good with computers and give a lot of advice and help to my eBay group AND to many, many bloggers. The biggest thing is the music. Yessss, I know ya love it, ladies, but if you watch your bar at the very bottom (status bar) of your browser you'll notice that "playlist" on there is the last thing to load. I absolutely love the music but it will slow you down like nothing else. Also all the "blinkies" that we think are so cute are "byte hogs"! So are large photos. Everything you put on your blog will have to load and when you have so much stuff on the sidebars that slows you down. I know lots of women who refuse to go to ones that have music.
That being said I'm on the fastest cable network available with a very fast computer but there is one very, very popular blogger that has so much stuff on her blog it has never, ever loaded all the way for me. While I love seeing her creations I can't take all that time on one blog. I'm at 10MB speed with my internet and if I can't load it all on then most of you on a much slower internet aren't either. Clean it up, chickees, and you'll be much happier.
BJ, this is for all those others out there and not just you personally because you've finally figure it out, sugar. EVERY SINGLE THING YOU PUT ON YOUR BLOG TAKES "BYTES"!!! Blinkies and music are the absolutely worst.
Having said that, BJ, I love your blog and what you post, sweetpea! It's delightful.
xoxoxoxoxo,
Connie
If you all would like help, you can read my tutorial on my sidebar on my blog.
I'm following the pack! I've removed the verification, but I've never enjoyed blinky things so I don't have those. If my silver site loads slow, let me know? It's hard because I have to keep the pics larger to keep the detail.
thanks for this info...haven't had too much of a problem with your blog but there are some I simply don't visit anymore because they are so slow they cause my PC to freeze.
Came up quickly for me! Have a FABULOUS day BJ!!!
I never noticed your blog loading slow. There are other blogs I go to that load really slow so I usually skip them. I think one of the best ones you mentioned is only having 5 posts on a page.
I agree with you on the word verification thing. I don't have it on mine.
Hugs,
Penny
Some load slow and some don't, but I am patient:) Music also makes the loading slow... just noticing that on some blogs! Love to all and happy Sunday!
It has always loaded just fine for me, but I do know what you mean about some of the others. I just put on my first header picture (it is big...not for lack of trying to get it smaller) and now I wonder if that will slow things down for my blog. I may turn off my word verification. I'd hate to miss any comments...they make blogging fun!
Sue
Your blog is ever so much faster now. Thank you for all the information. I'm going now to clean mine up. Thanks so much BJ. You're a real sweetie. xxxx
Hi BJ
I'm packed and relaxing a little bit. We leave early in the morning.
Do you have a problem with my blog being slow to load? Let me know and I'll see if I can take some stuff off the side bar or down at the bottom of the page.
This is a great post!!
Hi BJ thanks for following me and right back at you! I am so glad that we are blogging buddies!
BJ, you asked about my large pictures, I updated my "post editor". Go to blogger and dashboard. Go into "setting" and then "basic" , scroll to the bottom to "select post editor" and click on "updated editor".
VERY IMPORTANT- YOU NEED TO HAVE A MINIMA STRETCH BACKGROUND.
ALSO, I CHANGED MY LAYOUT TO ACCOMMODATE THE PICTURES. I WENT TO DASHBOARD, THEN LAYOUT, AND "PICK NEW TEMPLATE", AND CLICKED ON "MINIMA STRETCH".
I love this post editor!!!! It is so easy to create a post and add pictures. Very user friendly! When I post a picture I click "exta-large" at the bottom of the picture and it creates a large picture that the blog can handle.
Try it out on a testblog first. If I can do it, anyone can!
If you want help setting sidebar pictures, let me know. I think I figured that out too.
Hope this helps.
xo Yvonne
Me again, Great post!
Yvonne
BJ....it seems fine now.
I took a ton of stuff off my sidebar and I believe it helps.
Keeping the posts to just five on the home page helps a lot!
Barb ♥
Whatever you did, helps! I can now get on your blog in a snap. Do me a favor, BJ, see how long it takes you to load mine. I have a few blinky things and a blog list, but I'm not sure if that slows it down or not.
Thanks...
XO,
Sheila :-)
This was a really helpful post BJ and I have followed your advice and done a tidy up too. I hope that mine is a little quicker to load for people.
I love having big pictures so have got only 4 posts per page now.
Thanks again and if you get time in between checking other people's blogs could you swing by and check if my blog is OK please!
Best wishes, Natasha.
Thanks for checking, BJ. I stripped off the bling, and I took down my music. I'm wondering if I only put one song on there if that would help. I'm still playing, but I miss my music! LOL! If I increase my picture size, though, the music might have to go bye-bye. I have a fast computer, so I don't have trouble getting things to load except for the BIG pictures on some blogs. Yours, though, is a thousand times better. I was having a lot of trouble with it before. I still visited, but I just had a little difficulty.
Love you...
XO,
Sheila :-)
Hi BJ,
I haven't had a problem with yours loading slow. thanks for being concerned for us. I don't like the word verification thingy too much, and some blogs you have to pick google account, and then actually have to wait til google comes up to sign in, and then the verification thing comes up. Also, one of my very favorite blogs, I won't mention, causes my computer to lock up every time I click on it. she has absolutley too much advertising on her sidebar. Unfortunately, I won't be able to visit her anymore. I have such a hard time getting it started up again. :)
Debbie
You hit the nail on the head with this one! I read all the comments too, which is unusual, because I wanted to make sure I got ALL the advice I could. I even had to take off the counter, which I liked, cause I felt like it made a difference. I had a calendar on there too, but got rid of it a couple of weeks ago. Have a great week -great post!
your lovely blog loaded quite nicely!!
Hi BJ! I have more trouble because I use a laptop.
My son-in-law is a computer tech. He told me that although large photos can contribute to slowing loads down, it isn't one of the biggest culprits.
One of the biggest culprits is the music...the bigger their song file is...the slower the load.
Another is animation..falling hearts, leaves, sparkle, etc, those really slow things down.
Another is all the tracking things that give rankings, or tell you who's visitng there, etc.
And of course, the people who have all the commercial ads on them. Especially the one with the pop up stuff. Those really slow loads down.
Follwing that, then it's large photos, but only those that exceed 800 x 600px.
Of course, as a visitor, you have to consider how much ram you have. More ram, less these things will slow down the loading process. As I said, I'm on a laptop and have almost maxed out my ram...so I freeze up a lot. ha!
Just my two cents ;)
xoxo
Tina
It loaded very fast for me BJ. Funny thing is, I thought the reason some of the blogs were slow loading was because of my computer just being older :-) I had noticed that blogs with music seemed to always load slower, but again, I thought that was just my computer. I never added music to my blog for that reason. Thanks for all the tips.
Blessings,
Marcia
Your blog loaded quickly for me today and I hadn't noticed it being slow before. I agree though that some are impossibly slow. I have to admit that some days I don't have the patience. That word verification is getting out of hand too. Maybe I've been lucky but haven't had much need for it.
This morning I'm just sitting here looking at some of your old posts. You are just the blogging queen to me. How do you think of all the good ideas?
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