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I would appreciate notification of where it was used, and if possible, a copy of the ezine or newsletter that it was used in. Please send notification mailto:webmaster@online-wealth.com ------------------------- How often have you waited, impatiently, for your browser to pull in the next website? Too many times, probably. Many of these slow-poke sites may be worth seeing, but how long are you prepared to wait? Probably no more than 7 to 10 seconds, which is what most say. Now, you've maybe seen or read a lot about improving the loading time for your website. And, you may even be saying to yourself now, 'Oh, no...not another guru trying to tell me what to do!' Well, in the first place, I'm no guru (very few can legitimately claim that accolade) and secondly, I cannot tell you what to do. I can only relate what I did, and the improvement I achieved. It's up to you to do something, if you want to...that's your choice! ;-) Firstly, the website in question - http://submissionjunction.com - used to load, at off-peak times, on my computer (an ageing 133 mHz, P1, 32MEG RAM, 56k modem) in around 15-20 seconds. To make things crystal clear, I'll define load time thus: Being the elapsed time from the moment that the ENTER key is depressed to the moment that the first information appears on the screen (purists would argue that load time is actually more precise, and I agree. For surfers on the web, however, this definition will suffice). Note that I'm not counting the appearance of BACKGROUND information within that elapsed time, e.g a tiled .gif, although some may; BACKGROUND, after all, is not strictly information, although it does indicate activity. Now, a load time of 15-20 seconds is way too slow, and with peak hours and heavy traffic, I ran increased risk that people clicked away. I wanted a load time of 4-6 seconds in off-peak and no more than 10 seconds during the very heaviest traffic times. This is how I did it: 1. The banner and headlines, that I want to appear on the screen first, are placed immediately after the BODY statement, and before anything else. This is the information I want prospects to see quickly, so that I can pique their curiosity and perhaps retain their interest. 2. Formatting, at this stage, is confined to one small TABLE and centering the information: one banner, one small animation and three headlines. This is important; there is no fancy or additional coding at this point. 3. No Flash, JAVA, Javascript, SSI, CGI, Style Sheets, XML or DHTML is used. They all have their place, on the web, but I don't need or want them at loading time. 4. All other TABLE formatting and all other .gif or .jpg files are placed after the information in Step 1. All timings were done using IE5.5. As IE is the predominant browser (like it or not), and looks like remaining so, I'm not too concerned about Netscape (in addition, there is an ongoing problem with Netscape and the Moreover.com newsfeed that I have yet to fix). If you click on this link: http://submissionjunction.com/olddefault.htm you'll experience the load time of my previous homepage. If it loads in less than 8 seconds on your screen, then your lines and connections are very good and your traffic is light. Usually, it has taken as many as 15+ seconds to load, as I said. Now, click on http://submissionjunction.com . It should load in 6 seconds or less, in off-peak times. And, at normal peak times, the loading should not exceed 10 seconds (bearing in mind however, that in severe traffic snarls, all bets are off). Of course, with much faster CPU speed, the browser would be able to format and present the information more quickly. On the internet, however, one must always cater for the lowest common denominator. There are, no doubt, more sophisticated ways of achieving reductions in load time. If simple measures however, such as above, achieve the desired result, why bother with more complex methods? Your objective should be to get your message in front of your prospects' eyes, as quickly and as easily as possible! Visiting a web site is much like knocking on somebody's door. After you knock, you expect the occupier to open it quickly. If it's a store, and nobody answers or they're too slow, we'll walk away, right...and go down the road to the competition, right? So, the quicker I get my message across to you, the quicker we both win. And, isn't that what we all want? P.S. If you don't do anything else, even placing a comment like 'Page Loading...Please Wait' is better than just a blank screen, while the browser formats your page. But, don't take toooo long...!
Headscape is 10 years old today. It therefore feels like an appropriate time to look back and ask myself what I have learnt over the last 10 years. Article Index: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 |
More Articles:1. Five Checks for Web Pages There are a few essential checks that you must make beforeuploading your pages.Check the basics - spelling, grammar, terminology. I've seena lot of arguments for and against using only US spelling onweb sites - I think this is a personal choice, but havingmade your decision, be consistent! Terminology - don't usewords or phrases that aren't common around the world. I reada software review recently - sadly, I didn't understand thephrase used to describe the program, so I don't know if thereviewer… 2. Color Psychology in Marketing By Al Martinovic On the internet we don't deal with face to face selling. The internet is a visual and psychological medium. The words, or sales copy, on your website have by far the greatest psychological impact on your visitors and thus becomes your most important communication and sales tool.But another important psychological aspect of your website that is often overlooked are the colors. Yes, that's right... I said colors.Just as you use words to express yourself, colors can be used as an expression as we… 3. Basics of Web Design Principles,Web Site Design Services,Website Design Resources,Web Design Article By Meenu Suri You spent countless hours designing a site with fantastic colors, attractive images and beautiful layout but it failed to click, did this ever happen to you? Many of the apparent reasons could be lack of planning or inappropriate design elements. A well thought site never fails to click. To avoid this kind of situation it is very important for a web designer to plan things in advance and foresee the impact of the site. Ask a couple of questions:Who is the target audience? What is the purpose … 4. Quick Questions to Ask a Web Designer Quick Questions to Ask a Web DesignerFinding the right web designer can be difficult so I have listed a few useful questions which you can ask while on your search.1. What is your experience in website design?Experience is based on actual ability rather than number of years. Some website designers may charge based on their abilities and experience however this does not mean a cheaper rate is less effective or of lesser quality than a more experienced web designer. A web site designer may special… |
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