How to decrease the page load time in ASP.NET application?

How to decrease the page load time in ASP.NET application? What should be the precautions and specially when we are interacting with databases

e.g.

1. wise use of viewstate

2. Set in web.config when deploying the app

   etc

Some of the key "take-aways" from TechEd 2010 North America:

• Caching is key to performance, consider your caching strategy very carefully.
• Disable viewstate if possible.
• Set <compilation debug=”false"> in web.config when deploying the app.
• Consider CDN's or subdomains for graphics and other static content.
• Place javascript at the bottom of the page, CSS at the top.
• Consider CSS sprites for icons and other "small" graphics.

You can watch the sessions online here, they're both highly recommended:

• My Web Site Is So Slow...and I Don’t Know What to Do about It! with Thomas Deml
• Web Load Testing with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 with Richard Campbell