Hi Will,

Wanted to inquire about your new site since it seems you have gotten it right. With your new website came some serious performance improvements, and I have to say it is much appreciated. I was hoping you might share some of the performance increasing strategies that you used.

Thanks!

I think I point out a few points:

First AM got a pretty good dedicated server.
The menu seems to be static. So no javascript to load or render. Minimal use of graphics. Not too many modules installed. AF is abviously have great performance. I am sure they have smart caching.

Here are some other things I do:

Remove any unused modules.
I change my search index to once a day on most of my site.
If you can have isolated app pool that helps.
I turn off my auto sync files if I do not need it.
Clear my event logs once a day.
Uninstall live id and openid if you do not use it. That is what makes your login page slow.
Cache where you can
You can also use Keep alive program.
Recycle app pool once a day.
Optimized graphics.
Enable compression.
Shrink your CSS and javscript files/ remove whitespace.
xhtml complaint helps too.

Well that's all I know.

For my new site with AS I am trying to use as much colors as possible instead of graphics. Hope this helps.

Will can share more that I do not know.