windows azure website load time

Question

Sometimes when I access my windows azure website, the initial response time is very slow. After the first page load the website is fast. Some background: The website is not

Answer 1

For each service/site you need to go to "Configure", then switch "Always On" to ON. Also make sure you click Save; it took my website about 2 minutes before noticing the change.

Why this is not the default is kind of mind boggling, because my setup on HostGator was running much faster than Azure. I guess Microsoft is figuring if nobody is accessing your site, it's okay if it has a long load time.