Entering the new era of websites, Web 2.0, we have a new challenge. What do our users do in the time when the site is loading. I can tell you one thing. My users just blink, and the site loads. What about you? What do your users do?

With the look on your faces right now, I think they go Kill a Giant Lion Turtle.

Seriously, if that is the case then you need some serious help. Well not particularly you, but your website. In this post, I will discuss my experience with the fast loading time of Balkhis getting me alot of new users since the new design has been implemented.

I noticed alot of things since the new site was implemented, one thing was that my IE 6 users were very happy because traffic of IE 6 users increased. The main thing I noticed though was that my Bounce Rate Decreased!!!

The reasons why I figure that is because the site was loading much faster, so my users didn’t close the window because they didn’t get the chance to. Now I actually have stats to compare my Load time:

My Past Design

Site Load Time – 1.24 Seconds
Page Size – 36.12 KB

Source – Enkayblog

New Design

Site Load Time - 0.25 seconds
Page Size – 45.54 KB

Do you see the difference? That is a huge difference. So not only that I decreased the site load time, but I also increase my page size. Want to know how?

1. Reduce Image Size – I realized that in the last design, I was using too many different images. They were optimized to an extent, but I was using too many of those. So I decided to make the design a bit more simpler, and started using the same image multiple times. I also reduced the image size a little bit also. It did decrease some what of the quality, but I can say it is barely noticeable. (Use GIMP, or Photoshop to play around with settings)
2. Optimize your CSS File – If you are using a wordpress blog, then you are using a CSS File. My suggestion is that you go in that file, and start making some editions. Get rids of extra classes and ids that have the same function. Get rid of extra lines and spaces. Because the smaller your file is, the better your site load time is.
3. Avoid External Javascripts – Are you using external javascripts on your site? If so find a different way to display that content because it slows your site down. Remember, I wrote about Kontera and site load time issues. Because they have external javascripts. One of the reasons, why I gave up on entrecard as well. A long article will be coming up regarding that as well. If you are using a peel away ad, use it from your own server. Not Adtoll’s because that also slows your site load time.
4. Optimize your Blog Page – Are you one of those who are displaying 15 blog posts on one page. Well if you are then I would recommend changing it. One thing is because the more images you use in those posts, the slower your site will be. Second, it will decrease your page views. So display around 5 – 10 posts on your blog page. Not any more than that. You will see a better site load time, and increase in page views as well.
5. Use WP-Super-Cache – Alot of bloggers underestimate the power of WP-Super Cache. That is one of the essentials for wordpress because it decreases your load time by a whole heck of alot. It simply lets your users cache your site, so it loads up quicker.

Now if you are still going slow, then it is not you it is your web host. I will say try out one of the better hosts. Look at my sidebar ad, to see which one I support the most

Now by following the things, I described above, I think you should be able to easily decrease your load time. Believe it or not, you will see a decrease in your bounce rate, and an increase in readers. Personally, I would prefer other blogs to load fast as well because I visit too many of them, and I don’t want to wait for the sites to load, so I can comment faster and save time because I understand that to most people, time is money.

So don’t let your users kill a Giant Lion Turtle while waiting for your site to load. Follow these tips and decrease your load time.

This month’s drawing was a hectic for all I can say, but we got through it and picked Abhijeet of Life is Colourful to be the winner. First winner was picked, and I give the winner 24 hours to reply back. Apparently my email went in the spam, so therefore the winner lost their chance (Tip to be learned: Whitelist @balkhis.com email addresses). I draw up another number and the person chose not to get the design. On the third pick, that I got Abhijeet who was excited about the design.

As of right now, the design is not live on the site as he is still modifying some what of it to make it work completely with his site.

But that doesn’t stop me from posting the video up.

Keep checking out Life is Colourful for updates to see how his new design will look when he puts it live.

I will be conducting the drawing on September 5th which is a Friday because it will be when week ends and you guys can check up Balkhis easily. So make sure you subscribe via email.

Enjoy the video

I have mentioned it atleast a hundred times on this blog that adding images to your blog just add life to your blog. Alot of people really loved my recent posts because I was adding some really good images. So I was getting alot of questions, Balkhis where are you getting all these images from?

Well I finally decided to answer that question. The sources for the images I use in my blog posts are Stock Photo Sites. Considering, I write posts daily, and if I were to buy images from istockphoto – I wouldn’t be getting a whole lot of profit from this site. Obviously I am using free stock photo sites.

Advantage of using these sites

1. You get Free Quality Photos
2. No Link Back required on most (Make sure you read individual image terms)
3. Your posts have life and for free
4. Did I mention free? What are you waiting for, start using them.

Even though they are not very hard to find. Simply google free stock photos, but I thought I should put down the list that I use often.

11 Amazing Free Stock Photo Sites

The list is in order from what I use the most to what I use the least.

1. SXC.hu – over 350,000 quality stock photos by more than 30,000 photographers.
2. Every Stock Photo – 4,331,819 free photos.
3. Stock Vault – 10820 Stock Photos.
4. Image Base – Don’t know the number, but they have some decent ones.
5. Open Photo – Don’t know the number but I check it just incase.
6. Morgue file – Decent collection here as well.
7. Free Range – Tons of cool Images.
8. Photo Rack – 27,881 Files in 149 Categories
9. Free Pixels – 3,297 Images in 37 Categories.
10. Free Foto – 121,099 images with 155 sections organized into 3,351 categories.
11. Woophy – 10820 Stock Photos.

Tips on how to use these images

• Always read the guidelines whether the author requires link back or not. (Most don’t but some do).
• Absolutely don’t redistribute these images or sell these images. Most let you use them on personal / commercial projects.
• Never use the image hosted on their server.
• Download the image, and customize it to fit your needs. Always save original and then modify the copy of original. (I have 3 (250GB) External HardDrives filled). How do you think that happened?
• Always use the right padding for your images.
• If author requires credit, then link back to them.
• Don’t overload your posts with images, use them moderately and just have fun.

Well I don’t think there is a whole lot to say there. Now you all know how I was getting alot of images for my posts. You can also get these images from these sites, and I am sure with relevant images, your posts will look a whole lot better. Enjoy and have fun.

A week ago I wrote about Essential Shortcuts for Wordpress. Which recieved a few comments and one of the comments wanted me to share my photoshop shortcuts. Well I have a good list of photoshop shortcuts memorized and some on the table attached. So I will share the ones that I know. If you know more feel free to add in the comments, and as I see them I will add it in the post. The good part about these shortcuts are that they really speeds up the designing. So if you are a designer, like me.. Or you own a Web Design Firm like me than you should really look into these. I will stop my rambling and begin the shortcuts.

Main Toolbar

Before you know any other shortcuts, you need to know about the Main toolbar because these will be one of the most used ones.

Marque Tool – m
Lasso Tool – l
Eraser – e
Paint Bucket – k
Move – v
Magic Wand – w
Paint Brush – b
History Brush – y
Blur – r
Pen tool – p
Type tool – t
Linear Gradient – g
Eye Dropper – i
Zoom Tool – z

Another important thing to know is to switch between the background and foreground colors use “x”

If you wish to restore the default colors then simply hit “d”

If you are looking for more space on the screen simply hit “Tab” to hide other tools.

Use “f” to switch the screen modes.

General Menu Shortcuts

These are general ones that will help you do alot of things much faster.

New – Ctrl + N
Open – Ctrl + O
Save – Ctrl + S
Save as – Ctrl + Shift + S
Close – Ctrl + W
Undo – Ctrl + Z
Copy – Ctrl + C
Cut – Ctrl + X
Paste – Ctrl + V
Free Transform – Ctrl + T
Show Ruler – Ctrl + R
Hide Ruler – Ctrl + ;
Show Grid – Ctrl + ”
Snap Grid – Ctrl + Shift + ”
Zoom In – Ctrl + +
Zoom Out – Ctrl + -
Hue / Saturation – Ctrl + U

Layers Shortcut

I call this category layer shortcuts because these are related to layers that you create when designing.

New Layer – Ctrl + Shift + N
Duplicate a Layer (Copy Layer) – Ctrl + J
Cut a Layer – Ctrl + Shift + J
Bring Layer Front – Ctrl + Shift + ]
Bring Forward – Ctrl + ]
Send Backward – Ctrl + [
Send Layer Back – Ctrl + Shift + [
Group Layers – Ctrl + G
Ungroup – Ctrl + Shift + G
Merge Layers – Ctrl + E
Select All – Ctrl + A
Deselect All – Ctrl + D
Reselect All – Ctrl + Shift + D
Feather – Ctrl + Alt + D
Inverse – Ctrl + Shift + I

Well thats the 50 photoshop shortcuts that I use very often and that were on my list. These shortcuts would speed up your designing because you will just be using your keyboards to deal with things rather than moving your mouse around all over the screen. Like I said, if you know more feel free to put them in the comment box and I will add them in the list. Feel free to digg and stumble and do all the social media love with this post Have fun Designing.

As you know that Balkhis has been redesigned. Along with numerous additions to the new theme, there is one that stands out. That addition is adding the Peel Away to the page. I got multiple emails, questions on forums, direct messages on twitter asking me how did I add that. Well I am using a script called Peel Ad Software.

Before I put it on Balkhis, I tried it on separate page and see if everything worked fine so I can eventually review it on Balkhis. You have seen similar idea being used on multiple places such as Enkay Blog, John Chow, and now here on Balkhis as well.

There are many vendors that sell this sort of script. But I picked Peel Ad Software because I have known Lance for about 1.5 years now. The price of this script is relatively cheaper at $27 rather than some other places where it was $37.

Let me tell you how it works.

Note: *This script does require a MYSQL Database*

Its quite simple, you upload the file in your public_html directory. You follow the simple guide and install the software on your webhost. Then you paste a simple code in your header and you are good to go.

Yup thats right, no need to edit the codes or enter images manually. Everything is done via an admin panel.

As displayed in the image above, you just need to enter the image url, and the targetted url. This script also allows you to set the maximum views, if you are selling your ads through views. You can also set the click limit. So if you are selling 1000 clicks, then you can do that. You can put as many ads in rotation as you want. Just simply add them and keep it active. They will rotate.

This software actually comes in with sample images that you can use to make your own images. Like I have done so. It is very easy to install.

If I have to say what level should you be on to install this script on your website. I will say a beginner can easily do this job without any assistance.

Now this idea is still very new compared to alot of other ideas like sidebar buttons and more, so you will not see this type of ads on alot of websites. But the demand for these ads are high because they are at the very top. Some people find them annoying, but I think they are not annoying as long as the page have limited amount of ads.

I noticed that the site load time was not affected by this script. It might have increased a little bit but nothing significant.

If you are not a designer, then your best bet is to use one of the sample images that comes with it. Otherwise Uzzz Productions is available to design banners for you for peel away ads.

Direct ad sales are a significant source of income on some blogs, if you have one of those blogs, then this can be one of your option.

Another reason why you should get Peel Ad Software is if you want to advertise your own products. Perhaps like a contest or something. Rather than having it featured on the top of your blog like this site, you might as well get Peel Ad Software. Because it gets annoying to the new readers. When I first visited Net Strife after a long time, I didn’t realize that change and thought the blog wasn’t updated in a long time.

Well don’t wait, if you want to get specific parts of your website some exposure, then get Peel Ad Software Now.