Thread: Please test for fast loading and...

Could everyone have a look at my home page and tell me if it loads slowly for you or not? I've had several comments that either it is slow or all the graphics don't show up. If that is the case, anyone have any suggestions on optimizing for faster download? Also, someone else told me they get a black background. It should be navy blue on all pages...not black! Thanks much!

www.journeyshappen.com

Cindy

Everything nice and blue for me Cindy ....

Sounding and looking great as usual ....

24 secs over ISDN - it's nice if you could get that to about 17 or so ... but not a big deal, faster on T1 - me - 2 seconds ... the music takes a few extra seconds to come on ... but your page is all loaded up ...

No problems on my end at all Cindy .....

You could probably optimize Mandys pic, it's about 25 kbs, you could probably reduce that to about 5 or 6 kbs ... the same with your top right picture ... it's at 46 and could go to about 17 or so ....

Cindy ... here is what to do ... view your page on line, go to file, edit with microsoft front page editor ... down on the bottom right, you will see the loading times for all, (you click and you will see all of the connections, etc.) and you can cut a pic, etc, off of your page, and see what is taking the longest times to load ... you don't hurt anything by doing this, your page stays the same, you are really not editing it, but you will get an idea of the heavier areas ... know what I mean??

Actually I just tried Mandys pic, and removing saves 3 seconds, hang on Mandy, lol, we're not taking you off, but we're gonna take you down to 1 second ... lol

7 seconds for the logo down the bottom left, CLIA - too much ... for that ...

(As the music loads, you will notice the time goes up, don't worry about that right now, that would be full load of the song)

I waited until I could not stand it any longer.

I am surprised that this is the 4th thread for your site Cindy....General and all. It is customary to simply tap a previous one with a new request noted.

Interesting to see your work with php.....I don't think it has improved the site though. And, it may be contributing to any delays you might be experiencing. Ask Naval (email him directly).

I cannot comment on your choice of backgrounds or font colors. You choose what floats your boat.....

The music could be doubling or more the loading time. I have volume off so can't say about that.

I do see some parts of the pages that don't look centered, etc - the box that says "stop worrying about potholes... etc" would look better if it was centered with the darker blue all around it.

The footer looks like it was thrown down there- it would look better in the color of the other box I mentioned - centered in the center element.

But on my high speed it loaded good. And php shouldn't have any effect on load time.

One thing I would suggest is using a plugin to show the radio bar so you can shut off your music.. some like it .. some dont. Its set to loop continously, so those who dont read fast or want to look around could be annoyed by it.. give them the opportunity to shut it off!

Karen

Loaded ok, sorta, but on second try.
Something else I noticed (because of the justification): adventures, activities, and sightseeing
might want to add "different" before activities.

Spent a few weeks on Kauai with family and it was just unbelievable.

I tried it both ways, with & without music . . . it took twice as long with the music. Just FYI. Very peaceful looking . . . makes me want to head out to the beach & watch the sunset!

Hi Cindy,

The colour is blue here, wouldnt call it navy tho, it all loaded pretty quik just a few seconds but the image at the bottom left didnt load at all just got the dreaded white box with the red x in it.

Also when clicking on the "training tools" on your menu it asked for a user name and password ? is that meant to be there as I dont see anywhere where it says join up or become a member.....tho ive just got out of bed so not focused yet lol
Nice job tho ..well done

Holly: Thank you so much for the much needed image optimizing suggestions. I think I did all the ones you mentioned. I appreciate the time you took to help me on that.

Eric: "I am surprised that this is the 4th thread for your site Cindy....General and all. It is customary to simply tap a previous one with a new request noted." Thank you for reminding me of the customary protocol for thread insertion in the forum. I have previously asked for comments on this site on 2 occasions (not 4), but none the less I will try and refrain from cluttering up the forum with my threads! lol
"Interesting to see your work with php..." I am curious as to your comment here. Why is this so interesting. Do you think I should not use php?
"I cannot comment on your choice of backgrounds or font colors. You choose what floats your boat....." I don't recall asking for comments on my color scheme, Eric, but I appreciate your opinion, as I think you do excellent work on all of your websites. I like the colors and I'm just happy you think I have a boat to float!! lol

Beth: Thank you for your suggestions. I did the best I could in trying to implement them. I do think it looks better and I agree, I don't think php affects the load time either.

Karen: Ok, I change the music to using a plug-in, although since I have never used that, I'm not sure that I did it right, as it doesn't seem to have had any effect. I also deleted the autostart and loop so that people can click on one or the other, if they want to listen to the music and that did seem to help a lot.

Bill: Thank you..I have added that. Of all the islands, I am partial to Kauai. I think it is just more laid back and not as commercialized. I use to own a timeshare on Poi Pu Beach and so went there a number of times.

Dedi: Thank you for taking the time to test it out. The music is still there, but just doesn't autostart now. I do think it makes a big difference.

Linda: Ok, I think I got the CLIA image working again. The training tools is password protected, because it is only for my team members to have access to. You make a good point though....I should maybe see what else I can do on that, without having it be a part of my nav bar. I'll have to sleep on that one.. Thanks for your nice comments.

Hi Cindy,

Your site loaded fairly quick for me, no problems. You have some good info tips for traveling, cash converter, clips, destinations, packages, the works. Good job my friend.

The page loaded really fast for me. Not a problem at all!

Regards
Teri

It started to load really fast at first and then it almost stopped altogether. I guess that I had about 2/3 of the images loaded when it did this.

The site looks great and the background I see is blue. Not black.

Probably have it all solved by now....everything loaded fine for me, very quick including the music. Great job a
oh BTW I love the colors maybe you can paint your boat to match.....Choco

Cindy, I only have wifi and your site loaded OK for me.....
Your site has improved a lot since you first published it, and
I would not worry too much about starting another thread as quite
a lot of us start another thread after major changes and after time has gone bye..............

Thanks Robyn. Sometimes I wonder if I have to much stuff and then I think I don't have enough...decisions..decisions..

Teri...thanks for checking it for me

motoxxx...I know what you mean on the load. That is what happens to me to. I think I still need to look at what causes it to hic-up a little sometimes. Thanks for taking a look and letting me know you see blue!

Choco777...thanks my friend. When I get ready to float my boat..I'll make sure it matches my color scheme! lol. Hope you are busy with your tours! Gotta get down there soon!

David..Nice to see you again. I'm not around here much...just to darn busy as my travel business is going great.
How's your wedding dress sites doing. I love them by the way!
Thanks for the reassurance. I guess I was just being a little sarcastic to Eric...it was a challenging day for me. Sorry Eric...

Cindy, glad to see that you are keeping busy......
My Wedding sites are doing fine, want to exchange links with me?
I have a travel category which you could use....(see UK site)

Adding your link is now automated with my new Links/resources/partners program

Catch you later.................

Hi, it has a strange type of load for me. It seems that the two music files are deciding who’s going to play first, & for me neither one did. Or they are just far to large for an index page..
Personally, I would either set these files to work via select. (Not auto start) or have links to another page with them on. Think you may find people leaving if the site is not loading properly or to slowly. One thing that maybe worth doing is reducing the file & bit rate. This bit of free software is really handy for this. http://www.mediamonkey.com/

Good luck.

Thank you Chris! I have bookmarked that link and will take a look. I don't have either one set to auto start, you have to click on one or the other to listen. In the meantime, I like your idea about having a link to another page, but I think it looses the effect I'm after in that I want people to listen to the music while on my home page. I guess I have to give somewhere... Back to the drawing board! Thanks again.

Home page loaded fast but in two distinct sections - would not stop me from reading/viewing it. Went to a few more pages and all worked and looked great.

Thanks Ann. I have got to figure the loading thing out! lol

Originally Posted by Collectors-info

Hi, it has a strange type of load for me. It seems that the two music files are deciding who’s going to play first, & for me neither one did. Or they are just far to large for an index page..
Personally, I would either set these files to work via select. (Not auto start) or have links to another page with them on. Think you may find people leaving if the site is not loading properly or to slowly. One thing that maybe worth doing is reducing the file & bit rate. This bit of free software is really handy for this. http://www.mediamonkey.com/

Good luck.

Cool Chris ... thanks for sharing .... now that is not that famous "Purple Monkey" Bonzi Buddy is it??

Dream Lady Music is worse than images to get down to a small file & sill be worth having. But if you get the bit rate down to the 80/100 mark & if you can have the sound in mono. It will save a lot of file space & download time.

LadyEye
Nah! Hope not. Don’t want that bug on my machine. I have been using this one for a few months now & no problems.

Cindy,

it loaded pretty fast on my (fairly slow) DSL line (lol). No probs there.

The text in the middle (Featured Artists) and the audio sliders took a while but wouldnt have bugged me if I was actually loading your site to check out re travel etc. Lots of stuff to distract me in the meanwhile :-

Colour? Nice and blue... as close to navy as I think you can get, lol.

Cheers

Will

Will: thank you for taking a look. I'm going to try Chris's suggestion above (as soon as I figure out how to do it) and see if that helps with the music files. How's your ebook going?

Hey Cindy,

tks for asking... i'm optimising all sorts of things like mad, lol - onsite and offsite optimisation ... I find that the process on all fronts, including adding - on occasion - to the eBook, adding bonus books, getting testimonials etc etc is a huge undertaking but i like the challenge... lol.

chao 4 now

Will

2,3 seconds looks ok lady

not the worst but not the best loading time i mean with dial up the music takes forever to load but everything else doesn't take to long.

Thank you gkontis and jOsh710! I think I'm getting the picture. If I can't figure out how to do what Chris says above, I may have to move the music off my home page and onto their bio pages. Gonna work on it this week. Thanks for taking the time to view and respond!

Hi Cindy,

I know I'm late but loaded fine to me.......Looks GREAT!