Caching, GZIP, Minify & CDN – Introduction
The speed of websites has become a hot topic worldwide – Faster page load speed gives the users a better experience while browsing your website, in addition it will benefit you in search engines like Google. (Speed is included as a factor in the calculation of how your site should be placed in search results).
You can achieve faster pageloads by using Caching and reduce the workload of the server by providing users with cached files instead of all users create their own database / file calls when a page is visited. This means that your website will be much better equipped to handle large spikes of traffic. (Known as the Digg effect).
I’ve split up this article about Caching, GZIP, Minify & CDN up in 4 parts, due to the volume.
- Introduction to caching, GZIP, Minify & CDN (reading now)
- Configuring W3 Total Cache. (coming soon)
- Configuring the CDN (Content Delivery Network). (coming soon)
- Connect W3 Total Cache and CDN. (coming soon)
Reviving my blog again
I have decided to bring this blog back to life. It has been almost a year since my last post due to many other projects that kept me busy, but now I want to make the time to update this blog some more with different guides and tips for webmasters.
When I blog online, it is usually done on my danish webmaster blog, but I figure many of my posts also fit the international audience, so I will try to make some english translations and post them here. You can expect to find a mix of SEO and WordPress tips.
Scuttle Spam – reCAPTCHA Scuttle Bookmarking Script
Stop the SPAM! Those who use or own a Scuttle site know the spambot problem all to well. I also got sick and tired of the removal of all the spam users + bookmarks through MySQL.
And since the developer didn’t want to make the step to put some minimal defence on this system, I had to. Either that or totally abandon the script.
Scuttle Spam Protection with reCAPTCHA
In this post I will show an example of how to protect your Scuttle script a little better, with the use of reCAPTCHA. It is pretty easy and can be implemented within minutes. (This does not guarantee you will be rid of spam, but should put a pretty good plug in the hole)
Remember to backup all files before you do this. I will not be responsible for people messing up the code.
First register for an account at reCAPTCHA to get your public and private key.
Download their ZIP file containing recaptchalib.php (Upload recaptchalib.php to your Scuttle Root)
Continue reading…
Gamesite launched – Game not over
A new international game site has been released Game not Over. This is a social community site where you can submit new gaming related stories, game reviews, game previews, cheats for games and game videos. As a user you can vote on the stories you find interesting.
The most popular news entries will be posted on the frontpage, so remember to vote 🙂
Site will both be updated by users and through RSS feeds from some of the best sources on the net.
To cover both the international market and my danish regional market I have made a danish clone of this site at Spilnyhed
News and updates from me – it’s about time
It has been a while since my last update on this blog, so feel it is time to update those who have any interest in what I am doing.
First of all I have updated this blog to the latest version (used a 1½ year old wp version) – the update screwed most of my posts up with weird characters here and there.
All my former posts have been manually updated, removed the weird characters, removed old/broken links, updated tags from Simple Tags to the built in tags WP use now.
Since I started this blog in 2006 my work has become more and more regional based (Danish) – and this is the main reason this specific blog hasn’t been updated much.
Some might have noticed I added 2 flags in the top right corner of this blog. I started a Danish blog not long ago on this domain that I update quite frequently – check that out if you want to read what I am up to. (Use https://translate.google.dk if you want to translate it to danish)
This English blog will still remain and I will update it when there are some info that I want to share to the international audience.
Enough from me – it is weekend and time to relax
Danish Video Sharing site released
The first beta version of my Video Sharing site is ready and released.
With one eye on the TV watching this years 24 hours race Le Mans, I managed to get my video site up and running with the other ^^
I have been through quite a lot with this site and it has been a big experience with some of the many new features I have had to learn to make it work as wanted.
Development is far from over and I will keep focused on it the next couple of weeks (or what it takes).
This site also marks a stop in development of new personal projects as I got some pending clients and have more than enough work in pure maintenance of my sites. The directories alone require a lot of time with reviewing links.
Also working hard on my site with cheats
Enough from me, I will watch the last 2 hours of Le Mans :p
Social bookmarking site in Denmark
With a little rush I have created a social bookmarking site SocBo.dk for Danes – a clone of the famous del.icio.us many of us know and use.
Riisager beat me to it with his release of nep.dk 1 day before me, but I am sure we both appreciate the competition and together can help broaden the awareness of social bookmarking sites in Denmark.
It is all about exploring new territories and this is something I love about the internet. New untouched possibilities arise all the time and free for us all to grab out and get.
My first social community site aNyhed.dk – General News, is still going good with 228 registered members at this time. I have been pondering for some time now with some ideas to launch a bookmarking website and a video sharing website.
I started the development on the Video site and have been on it some weeks now, but with the release of Riisagers social bookmarking site yesterday, I changed my priority and launched SocBo.dk quite quickly today.
Next couple of days will be used to close bugs and improve the site where I see fit.
I have a thought about making a plugin button for both FF and IE so users easy can add new sites.
After these adjustments, I will continue on the Video Sharing site. More info on this site will come later. Also see my latest page about Broadband in Denmark.
Update: Due to heavy spam on the Scuttle script, I have made a post about how to Protect a Scuttle site from Spam.
Cheat codes for games – Snydekoder – Yet a new project
One week ago I bought an old Danish domain – Snydekoder – Snyd.dk, after the previous owner gave up on it. They had a major crash in 2007 where they lost over 20.000 cheat codes over night and failed to recover the databases. The previous owners tried a couple of times to rebuild it back to what it used to be, but gave up after a couple of tries.
(Note to everyone: Remember to backup your databases/files regularly ^^)
I have started the site from scratch with some fresh software and the goal is make a great place for Danes to find their cheat codes (snydekoder) for any game they like. (Yeah I know there are some great international sites with cheat codes, but many Danes like it served to them in Danish if possible.)
Since I have quite a lot of experience with directories, this challenge was not so scary to me.
I have started with a general directory script and reprogrammed it a bit too only show articles in form of cheat codes.
Besides the actual cheat codes, I have also made a blog about cheat codes and a forum to share cheat codes for the site. This should give the users a better chance to communicate and help each other.
Right now the database only contains around 100 cheat codes, but new codes are submitted / approved daily. It will take some time (read years) to get the site back on track, but I’m pretty sure it will go quite good.
Any comments on the site, improvements etc. are more than welcome 🙂
Video sharing site project started today
Soon I will release a video sharing site – just to give it a test run and see what this is about. I’m still in the process of figuring out my language support and general theme of the site, while I get some more experience in FFMpeg hosting in general.
In basic it will work much like the famous YouTube everyone knows. Should be possible to upload videos of your own choice and have the ability to send video comments in through your own webcam.
Will try to build a community around the site and make it a site where you can easily host your videos.
A general themed video site will probably be to big a mouthful to take and YouTube is great at covering that market. I believe this video site should be on a specific niche for most success.
I’m testing several finished scripts available and will determine if I can use anything already build or if I should built my own. Hopefully I can get my long list of requirements fulfilled by the first choice, and thereby save a lot of time in development.
I made the mistake last time on my Danish News Site to reveal the domain name while I was still developing the actual site, which ended up in a big amount of new visitors and general users who was using an unfinished site. Gave me a bit of overwork – so this time I will just reveal I am working on a site to share videos and the actual domain will come later as I am pleased with the result.
To be continued…..
Electronic chain letter – You have been tagged!
Today I noticed that I have been tagged by a Danish SEO colleague Lars Bachmann, so I better not let it stop at me.
Rules are quite simple for this electronic chain letter.
- Pick up the nearest book.
- Open on page 123.
- Find the fifth sentence.
- Post the next three sentences.
- Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.
The nearest book I have is on my nightstand and is called The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien.
My bookmark is on page 125 ^^ – anyhow on page 123, fifth sentence I find:
“From the meeting of his arms he flowed south for forty leagues before he found his tributaries; and before he found the sea he was twice as long as Sirion, though less wide and full, for more rain fell in Hithlum and Dorthonion, whence Sirion drew his waters, than in the east.”
I will tag Thomas Eriksen, Pål Heick, Frank C, Claus M, Søren H. Møller