Keep it simple. Don't use files that are so large they take forever to load. For things that take longer to load, always make them clickable items. This gives the viewer the option of clicking or bypassing. Inline graphics as a general rule shouldn't take more than 30 seconds to load.
Easy accessibility is important.
It's amazing what you'll find if you're out cruising the web. Some people's home pages are appalling. The viewer wants easily accessible information - not encrypted or zipped files that have to be downloaded to access the information. In a lot of cases, you have to have a special program to make the files you're downloading readable. This turns most web viewers off.