I love visiting digital scrapbooking blogs. The art that can be created with digital kits can be simply gorgeous! When I went to this blog by Dawn Inskip I was in awe… except that my enjoyment of her blog was spoiled by the load time it took to pull up her site!

I admire Dawn’s creativity, but she needs a bit of training on how to keep load time down. It is going on 15 minutes using high speed internet connection and the banner still isn’t showing up let alone all her creations. As we speak, her banner is just starting to show up.

Do you really want your readers to remain on your site for at least 15 minutes before the title of your blog appears? I can tell you that I sure don’t.

Here are some tips to keep load time to a minimum.

1. Save your graphics at low resolution. Use a maximum of 72 dpi (Dawn’s are 300!)

2. For blogs that post creations with large graphics, limit "number of posts to display" to about 1 or 2.

3. Keep thumbnails smaller and link to a larger image. This gives the reader the choice of seeing the image larger if they want to.

4. Reduce the size of your banner. There is no need to have a huge "in your face" banner when the content "above the fold" is what your readers really want to see. "Above the Fold" is a newspaper term that means literally the text that is designed to appear above the fold. The masthead of a newspaper is not the main focus and neither should your banner be the main focus. The content your readers really want to read is your newest post. If your banner is too large, the content in your first post will be "below the fold" and thus, not visible to the reader. Do your reader a favor. Don’t make them scroll down to read your newest post!

Dawn’s blog has some incrediblely beautiful creations. It is a shame I have to wait so long to see them.

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