wordpress extremely slow usually, even on empty page

[ajm_76]

Hi Junky,

It's actually not horrendous with no traffic shaping: http://www.webpagetest.org/result/140909_NC_QND/ (I'm assuming your site's users are on fast connections).

Not good per se, but not awful as regards "perceived" load time.

There are definitely things to be done, however.

Some things that will help a great deal are:
1.) Combining and minifiying JavaScript and CSS files (Your page has 27 blocking script resources and 18 blocking CSS resources)
2.) Try to async or defer JavaScript
2.) Optimize and lazy load your images
3.) Implement DNS prefetching
4.) Use a more svelte social sharing means
5.) Conditionally load Disqus

As far as your Admin running slow, this is nearly always an issue with the host and/or server configuration issue.

Best,
AJ
Managing Partner
WpFASTER.org