Super Awesome Caching Built into WordPress

If you build your own themes and have never used the transient api, you should check it out.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Transients_API

If you have a side bar (or any part of your theme) with queries in it, it will speed up your site considerably

For example, my categories are pretty much established at this point.

$wp_list_categories = get_transient(‘wp_list_categories’);
if ($wp_list_categories === FALSE)
{

// echo returns the value instead of printing it. THis is an option for most functions in WP.

$wp_list_categories = wp_list_categories(‘echo=0’);

// time is 3rd, 60 seconds x 60 minutes x 12 hours
set_transient(‘wp_list_categories’, $wp_list_categories, 60*60*12);

}
echo $wp_list_categories ;

While it does not replace caching plugins like W3-Cache it does really help speed up your site. I have it running for each of my side bar functions and it really sped thing up. Perfect for tag cloud, most comments, featured posts, etc.

YMMV,

Andrew