Dropbox is a great free tool for synchronizing files between PCs, sharing files between users and now as a CDN for your WordPress blog!
All you need is the new Dropbox CDN plugin and you’ll be on your way to having Dropbox serve up some of your blog’s files. This lightens the load on our server and hopefully speeds up load times.
Why use Dropbox as a CDN?
If you’re a small church running on a tight budget then you’ve probably got a small hosting plan on a shared virtual server.
These sites can get a little sluggish at times but if you can offload some of the heavy lifting then load times can decrease and visitors to your site will be much happier.
Enter Dropbox CDN!
Since Dropbox has huge servers and pipes you can use their bandwidth and storage to deliver portions of your blog’s theme instead of your own server and its measly pipes.
[Dropbox] allows you to upload your themes CSS, JavaScript, and Images into your Dropbox ‘Public’ folder and server [sic] these files from the Dropbox network, reducing the bandwidth of your server and allowing users to load your site faster.
Isn’t that cool? Best of all, it’s all free. I think I mentioned that before but it bears repeating.
Here’s the Skinny:
Installation is stone simple. Just search for Dropbox CDN within the Plugins admin panel, install and activate it.
Setup requires a bit of legwork but it will pay off in the end:
- Create a unique folder name in your ‘Public’ Dropbox folder (use your blog’s URL)
- Copy all of the .js, .jpg, .gif, .png, and .css files from your theme (only files in wp-content/themes/yourtheme/), into this new folder. Be sure to preserve any folder structure.
- Copy a portion of the public URL to one of the files (the instructions on the settings page shows you how
- Paste it into the appropriate field
- Save your settings
Now you’re ready for some Dropbox CDN action!
Final Thoughts:
While this plugin does require a bit of manual labor to get working, I imagine that it will improve with time. Setup isn’t for the novice WordPress admin but an intermediate admin would have no trouble with this whatsoever. It’s a great plugin that provides great value.
dewde says
John:
Great discovery and great article! Way to resource the church, man!
Thanks for writing for us.
peace | dewde
John Wilkerson says
I was blown away when I found out about this and just had to share.
Jeremy says
After I, “Copy all of the .js, .jpg, .gif, .png, and .css files from your theme” do I delete them from the theme file or leave them there?
Really excited to try this trick out!