Brenda Horton of Hware was looking at my website to check out my BuddyPress integration and noticed my site was loading very slowly.  I started researching ways to speed up my site and this post is the outcome of a full day’s work (literally, 9am – 8+pm, eating at my desk).  Let me share the results with you.

First of all, why speed up your site?  The search engines now look at page load time to give your website a good page rank.  Plus, you may easily lose potential sales or email captures if your site takes more than a second to load!

My quest for faster load time information led me here: http://www.larre.com/2010/01/24/amazon-s3-and-cloudfront-with-wordpress-and-dreamhost/ – a blog post about using Amazon CloudFront with my web hosting company, Dreamhost to create a CDN (content delivery network) to spread out the http requests from users (thus decreasing load time).  Turns out, my favorite web hosting company, Dreamhost, is not only a green web hosting company, but is the first to roll out this new feature!

Hire me to activate this feature on your site, or Dreamhost/Wordpress users, here are the steps involved:

1) Deactivate and delete any other caching plugins you may already have installed on your WordPress site.  Verify they are completely deleted using your ftp program to make sure the plugin folder is REALLY gone.

2) Create an Amazon AWS Account. Please note: it may take several hours for your account credentials to be functional.

3) Log into your Dreamhost web hosting panel and go to “Goodies” –> Amazon CloudFront.

4) Copy your Amazon CloudFront settings into the Dreamhost settings and click “Create CloudFront.”  Dreamhost automatically creates the new CloudFront bucket for you.  It will appear in your AWS Console after it is created.

6) Install W3Total Cache DEVELOPER version.

7) Activate the plugin and enable CDN only.

8 ) Configure the CDN settings and click “create bucket” then “test.”

9) Upload the media library, includes files, theme files and custom files to the CloudFront using W3 Total Cache , the AWS Management Console or S3Hub (for Mac) or the Firefox add-on S3Fox (for PC).

10) Make sure you set the ACP (permissions) to “Read Only” for “All Users” or “Everyone” otherwise your images and other content may not show up.  Here are the screenshots for using S3Hub:

Read up on how to use Amazon CloudFront.  Also you may want to take advantage of the new AWS default root object feature for enhanced security.  Let me know how it goes!

P.S. I am an affiliate of Dreamhost as well as a user and a big fan (as you can tell!).

1) With Firefox open, install the Firefox add-on, Web Developer Tools

2) Re-start Firefox when prompted

3) Go to the Firefox Menu—>Tools—>Web Developer—>Images—>View Image Information and Firefox will open a new tab for you listing all the image information you need.

Any questions? Feel free to leave a comment.

1. Upload your .mp3 file to your media library through your WordPress backend.

2. Copy the file location.

3. Paste the file location in the “share link” area on Facebook.

4. Add a description in the text field above the link and a short link back to your site (use TinyURL.com if it’s long).

5. Click “attach” to attach the link.

6. Change the artist name and album name if needed.

7. When you are ready, choose your privacy settings and click “Share.”

Your .mp3 will now stream live on Facebook!

More Facebook techniques from Cat’s Web Weave

(*make sure you have a backup copy of all your template files before you do this!)

1) Log into your WordPress backend.

2) Go to Appearance: Editor

3) Open single.php

4) Place this code right before <?php the_content(); ?>

<iframe src=”http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=<?php echo urlencode(get_permalink($post->ID)); ?>&amp;layout=standard&amp;show-faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light” scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ allowTransparency=”true” style=”border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:60px”></iframe>

5) Click “update”

6) refresh your blog page and see the new Facebook Like button at play!

And if you don’t want to delve into the code, use this super easy plugin by Todd Williams!

I am so pleased with the response I received with my first free Introduction to WordPress class on Tuesday at the Holbrooke Hotel in Grass Valley.  There were about 20-25 people there, which filled the room nicely and kept me on my toes!  I also got great feedback and will definitely incorporate many of the fine ideas into my future classes.  Speaking of which…

Here are the April WordPress class dates happening at the Holbrooke in Grass Valley:

• April 6th, 2010: 10am-12pm WordPress Level I ($18 – and worth a whole lot more)
• April 13th, 2010: 6-8pm Intro. to WordPress (free)
• April 20th, 2010: 10am-12pm WordPress Level 2 ($28)
• April 27th, 2010: 6-8pm WordPress Level 1 ($18)

You may be wondering how I can afford to offer these classes as such an affordable fee.  The reason I’m charging a fraction of what other WordPress trainers are currently charging is because I am in the process of developing these classes to create a self-paced online training product to be released in the Fall.  So I encourage you to tell your friends to take these classes now – this highly valuable training will be going up in price in about 6 months!

You may have also noticed that I am switching email service providers to AWeber.  I love their easy-to-customize email templates using their exclusive blog broadcast feature and I think you will enjoy the new look to my emails, too.  You should have received an email asking you to confirm your subscription sometime earlier today, so if you haven’t already done so, please check your inbox and confirm ASAP.

• is constantly evolving by an international community of developers (not Microsoft or Adobe)
• is the #1 blogging software available (and is also used for websites)
• anyone can download and install on their own web hosting (I use Dreamhost)
• is easy to learn how to use (FAR easier to use than Dreamweaver!)
• is highly customizable with WordPress plugins and themes (learn which ones to use!)
• must be kept up-to-date and be backed up regularly (the not-so-fun, but still easy part)
• can be used for e-commerce, embedding audio and video and as a CMS (content mangagement system) in addition to blogging (you can make money easily)

I will be teaching a class in Grass Valley, CA that will go into more detail about how to use WordPress effectively for internet marketing.  If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email at support @ catswebweave.com.
Watch the What is WordPress? video:

Add a feedback tab to your site

Sync your blog with your Facebook Page

Free alternative to Dreamweaver

Free alternative to BrowserCam

ProPlayer Plugin

Have you found any of these posts particularly useful in your work?  Leave me a comment.