Any suggestions to speed up my network?

[Damien Hannah]

Hello Creators. Cruising around Google Analytics, and don't like what I've found.

Do you have any suggestions on how to make my network faster?

I'm not removing any features. I've seen Ning sites packed with stuff load in a few seconds.

I know it's likely just the order of my Custom Codes and CSS.

So of you pros that know how to use firebug properly (I don't)

Can you please look in the backend of my network and offer suggestions to make my network faster?

Thank you!

 :)

[Damien Hannah]

Gonna check that right now!

[Damien Hannah]

Looks awesome! Doing some deeper research, thank you JFarrow!

[Troy D. Bertrand]

Great idea but don't get your hopes too high. I use Jobamatic...$10 to post for 30 days. I'm offering deep discounts on top of that just to attract postings. I make more with Adsense than I do with Jobamatic at this moment. There are thousands of job boards with no postings. Getting people to post will be harder than getting members to join your site. 

I love their "backfill postings" though...it keeps your board from looking deserted. 

[Damien Hannah]

ah yes, there's the clincher... US - based only. :( my members are worldwide, I get heavy usage from the UK and Australia, so I will have to wait until Job-a-matic offers worldwide service.

Great concept though, it is bookmarked and I'll be keeping track of their updates. Thank you JFarrow!

[James Hawkins]

I understand your opinion is based on your experience but mine has been 180 degrees the other way. It has reduced my loading time by one third and the security features work quite well. Here are some independent reviews of Cloudflare. (I am in no way affiliated or employed by Cloudflare. I 'm just expressing my opinion and recounting my experience with it.)

http://w3techie.com/2010/cloudflare-review/

http://brinet.net/cloudflare-review/

http://www.winsonyeung.com/cloudflare-review-improve-your-website-l...

http://blogvkp.com/cloudflare-review-free-cdn/

[James Hawkins]

Also, here are five tests for each of our sites from Pingdom. I do not have my own servers, however our sites' main page are similar in size.

First: Dreadlockssite.com/main

Now mine: envisionenglish.net

And Damien's: Addictapic.com/main

Actually mine is in the middle between yours and Damien's as far as size goes, but has a faster load speed. (no ads however is one difference) I don't have any archive of before using Cloudflare, but I seem to remembering it to be in the 6-9 second range. The size and type of content has been very similar for awhile now. I'm in Thailand so the stashing of cached pages and 'cdn' throughout Cloudflare's global servers helps I'm sure.

p.s. I have also had sub 1 second loads of the main page in testing by Pingdom. (unchanged content)

 

[James Hawkins]

...and a couple more reviews by people using it ...with some images of dashboards and short explanations.

http://www.tharunpkarun.com/2012/07/cloudflare-review/

http://davidvielmetter.com/reviews/cloudflare/

I'm only trying to make this point because I've been very impressed by Cloudflare and the improvements and additional apps for web sites it has added since it was in beta. (when I first signed up for it) I would encourage everyone to check it out and form their own opinion.

[soaringeagle]

when i used cloudflare it blocked 20% of legit trafic

it caused numerouse issues  many pages wouldnt load riypght

it caused slower..drastickly slower page loads im talkimg  withoiut cloudflare 6 seconds with cloudflare 116 seconds

it caused extreme diferences o=in range of load times withpit cloudflare there were 1-2 sec deviations with cloudflare  over a minute  1 page load would load in 6 seconf-ds next 60 next 500 next 12

many scripts refused to work no matter what settings

i couldnt complete a sitemap crawl for over a month

it was hell

it sucked

i tried it 3 times all 3 were total disasters

[James & Terry Hamilton]

WoW, that is a sad testimony to Cloudflare...

[soaringeagle]

i spennt 300 dollars tryimg to fix problems iu was on  with nup[ing tech support daily trying to fix problems i  finaly found out it was cloudflare just  bipassing it wasnt enough  it was a nightmare  then i couldnt even trasfer the zone files back i had to rebuild my dns  from scratch from memory

i would nwver recomend them ever it caused so many issues cost me alot of money

 when i finaly got a responce from their tech suport then just said try bipassing cloudflare..basicly..disable it that still didnt help

and..i was paying for he pro version too

nightmare

practicly disabled my site

[SweetPotato]

Damien,

You are running a lot of script, some of it on other people's servers.

From what i can see you're using elson's rewards script (hosted elsewhere), TJ's scrolling script (hosted elsewhere), you have some css styling (<style>) in the custom code section of your site - who on earth put such major styling attributes in your custom code area? (it loads last and your page looks like junk until it gets there!) - , and you have comet chat and some other things that you have to ask yourself if you really need.

You've made the oft made mistake of thinking that just because someone has come up with a tip or suggestion that you MUST have it on your site. You don't.

Yours is a photo site, right? It should look elegant and clean. Simply does it. Do you need all that other stuff, which although technically impressive serves no real purpose. Do your members care if the account modue is in the ning bar? I doubt it.

I hope that helps

SP

[Riccardo Rossini]

Agree too many flashing futures, it distracts from the focal point of the site: photos.

More, there is a great empty space in main page