Is it just me?

[Janet Napora]

I have a profile on Myspace. It's pretty short and simple. I did put a background and some pics. One of the problems I have is when I'm looking at other profiles, some times they take forever to load. I have dsl (albeit the slow one)

Of course I have noticed it happens when people have a gazillion things on their profile. 12 videos, 120 pics and a profile that you have to scroll down to the earth's core to read.

If you still have dial up are you doomed?

Once the profile loads, sometimes I don't read the whole thing. Do I just have a short attention span? Attention deficit disorder? Is more too much? Is it just me?

[Charlotte Howard]

Hi Janet,

When you have a lot of videos and images on a page. It really does takes a long time for them to load.
I have notice that a lot on myspace and on several websites as well. I hope this has been helpful for you.

Regards,

Charlotte

[Raphanius Levant]

This is where facebook has the edge over myspace. The whole 'pimp your space' idea has encouraged the toilet roll effect on myspace. Without any previous knowledge of html or css myspace users can fill their space with endless amounts of c**p. facebook however is more under control and although you can go widget crazy there is no loss to page load.

[Jack Humphrey]

MySpace just gives too much ability to create a junky page. Just because you CAN upload 10 mb images and tons of videos, auto play music, and run 5000 widgets on your page doesn't mean you should.

Funny that no one ever tells people any of this. Interesting to see what's created by people with no design skills (you still have to know what looks good even if you can only copy and paste code, and decide if you just murdered your account with the ugliest thing since 1998).

Otherwise, yeah, it's just you. (And everyone else.) :)

[JohnT]

I am on cable and am located in the Phoenix Valley, we have fairly good connections and rates out this way. One thing I found as a truism is that speeds on the net are relative. Once you get used to certain speeds, those speeds seem to slow down to most people and they desire to connect faster. I am lucky, if you want to call it that, I sometimes have to go to my sister's to do things with her computer and she is on dial-up. It makes me appreciate my "slow" cable all the more.

I've been around one net or another for almost 15 years now and it's always been a thumbnail rule that things like graphics slow down connection rates. Over the years things like music and videos were added to that list. With high speed internet, we often overlook (or don't notice) these slow downs.. but they still exist. Other factors contribute to internet slowdowns besides the pages we are trying to load, I am still being preached to about interference and improperly set up modems still cause slow connections... as well as net congestion.

I don't see enough slowdown on my MySpace page to worry about it... but I still forget their are people out there on dial-up and with slower connections than mine to consider. I used to be a great advocate of designing sites for the slower visitors to the site (with-in reason, of course), but over the past 4 or 5 years I sort of lost my zeal for it due to me being a high speed internet user. Personally I think it's a great idea for places to keep in mind that there are people out there who can't afford high speed internet and they should make provisions for those people... however these site builders still have to cater to the faster connection members as well.

[Seth Garrison]

Hey Janet
Can't imagine anyone with dial-up can see some of these social sites. Any longer than 15 seconds and I'm gone.

I am sure someone is working on the ultimate image and video file that will load for all really fast. I guess computers are also getting faster. But yes dail-up has to be dead or at least on its deathbed.

Seth

[Damseln D'Stress]

Hi Janet, a good rule of thumb, keep it short and sweet, and change content keeping your readers with fresh ideas. Jamming the page with every creative idea you have at once, will definitely slow things down, hence, u lose the visitor.

and depending upon what your objective is when you set out putting the page together, a slow loading page would run off your best friend. In other words, personal or as a marketing method, I always try to keep it simple, fast, and fresh...

Damsel...

[Janet Napora]

Dial up is, I think on the way out. I do know a couple of people who still have dial up because of the rural areas in which they live. And they're network marketers, so they do need to make the best of the time they spend online.

I also believe simple and to the point is best. We're all here to promote our products or services by promoting ourselves and building relationships. Some times it happens quickly, sometimes not. If you have so much "stuff" on your profile that people need to grab a cup of coffee to wade through your profile, they're probably to tired to follow through by the time they're done.

Let's face it many people do have a short attention span (including me at times) or have very busy lives. We need to remember them as well. Isn't that what social marketing is about?

[JohnT]

I agree your opinion that the attention span of many people are short, it's a part of that instant gratification mindset which we have been guided into over the past 40 or so years. Also I agree with the idea that many people have very busy lives which results in them not wishing to spend any more time than they have to on the net. Most of all I agree with the ideology of having to remember these people.

Additionally people need to realize that there are millions, nay... tens of millions of people, out there who simply cannot afford high speed interne or refuse to pay the price of high speed internet. These people are consumers too and by sticking to the bigger, faster, better mentality... all we do is cut these people out of the consumer market of which we seek to take advantage.

Until the day comes where we can get high speed internet for the price of dial-up, I don't see dial-up going by the wayside.

[Bob Riddell]

Hello Janet,

You know as far as MySpace goes it depends on why you
are there. Alot of folks use that community to just talk while
others intend to do business there.

I can tell you from my years of experience offline and now
online there's a right way and the wrong way. Most of the
people that are struggling or end of quitting because they
think they've failed never had a mentor to teach them the
right way

Let me know how I can help you here. Our mentoring group
also offers online live webinars twice daily and they are fr.ee.
This is our way of giving back !


Bob



Wowzza101 LIVE! @ 2pm & 7:30 p.m EST!
Fr.ee ! Monday Thru Friday !

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/join/681779185
Call 218-936-7650 and enter ID 68137#

[Warner Carter]

I gave up on Myspace because it is so slow. Facebook is slowing too now there are more people on it.

I think nationwide ADD started with the television generation and is continuing with the internet.

Taking walks and reading seems to improve my attention span, so do naps. I often do 10-14 hour days in front of this computer and take breaks to stay fresh and focused.

[JohnT]

I wouldn't count out Dial-up just yet. I found out the following information with-in the past week:

Internet Stats

I went to a website called Internet World Stats, abbreviated as IWS, and saw there were an estimated 6,676,120,288 people in the world in March 2008, however the number of people using the internet was estimated at only 1,407,724,920. This means that in March of 2008 approximately 21.1% of the world is on the net. Isn’t that amazing? Almost ¼ of the people through out the world have internet access.

To press on… The United States, according to IWS, had 215,935,529 Internet Users in December of 2007 - of those 215,935,529 users only 66,213,257of them had Broadband. I calculate this out to only 30.66% of all Internet Users in the US having Broadband. IWS says, however, that the Broadband Penetration in the US was 21.9%. I am not sure why there is a difference between the two figures, but I’m not going to worry about it. What we can derive from these figures is that about 70% to 80% of the US is still on Dial-up.

Additionally, IWS says that the entire world only has 304,471,379 Broadband Users, they claim that makes up the World Penetration value at only 4.6%. The Top 20 countries (The US, China, Japan, Germany, Korea (South), United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, Brazil, Netherlands, Taiwan, Australia, Mexico, Turkey, Russia, Poland, India, and Sweden - in that order) makes up 268,150,077 out of the 304,471,379 Broadband Users.

Don't you find that interesting that only about 21% to 31% of all Internet Users in the US have broadband? If one cruises the net, they could get the idea that 70% or more of all users have high speed internet.