hostgator

Thanks for contacting HostGator and I am sorry that you are having some problems with your site. I checked your error log file and discovered a huge MySQL query that timed out. The query is below:

[03-Jun-2013 06:36:09] WordPress database error MySQL server has gone away for query UPDATE `wp_options` SET `option_value` = 'a:12:{i:1370241212;a:1:{s:18:\"w3_dbcache_cleanup\";a:1:{s:32:\"40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\";a:3:{s:8:\"schedule\";s:18:\"w3_dbcache_cleanup\";s:4:\"args\";a:0:{}s:8:\"interval\";i:3600;}}}i:1370241263;a:1:{s:18:\"vp_scan_next_batch\";a:1:{s:32:\"40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\";a:3:{s:8:\"schedule\";s:21:\"five_minutes_interval\";s:4:\"args\";a:0:{}s:8:\"interval\";i:300;}}}i:1370241312;a:3:{s:16:\"wp_version_check\";a:1:{s:32:\"40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\";a:3:{s:8:\"schedule\";s:10:\"twicedaily\";s:4:\"args\";a:0:{}s:8:\"interval\";i:43200;}}s:17:\"wp_update_plugins\";a:1:{s:32:\"40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\";a:3:{s:8:\"sche dule\";s:10:\"twicedaily\";s:4:\"args\";a:0:{}s:8:\"interval\";i:43200;}}s:16:\"wp_update_themes\";a:1:{s:32:\"40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\";a:3:{s:8:\"schedule\";s:10:\"twicedaily\";s:4:\"args\";a:0:{}s:8:\"interval\";i:43200;}}}i:1370242424;a:1:{s:20:\"jetpack_clean_nonces\";a:1:{s:32:\"40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\";a:3:{s:8:\"schedule\";s:6:\"hourly\";s:4:\"args\";a:0:{}s:8:\"interval\";i:3600;}}}i:1370244812;a:3:{s:18:\"w3_pgcache_cleanup\";a:1:{s:32:\"40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\";a:3:{s:8:\"schedule\";s:18:\"w3_pgcache_cleanup\";s:4:\"args\";a:0:{}s:8:\"interval\";i:3600;}}s:22:\"w3_objectcache_cleanup\";a:1:{s:32:\"40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\";a:3:{s:8:\"schedule\";s:22:\"w3_objectcache_cleanup\"; s:4:\"args\";a:0:{}s:8:\"interval\";i:3600;}}s:18:\"w3_dbcache_cleanup\";a:1:{s:32:\"40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\";a:3:{s:8:\"schedule\";s:18:\"w3_dbcache_cleanup\";s:4:\"args\";a:0:{}s:8:\"interval\";i:3600;}}}i:1370248200;a:1:{s:30:\"wp_scheduled_auto_draft_delete\";a:1:{s:32:\"40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\";a:3:{s:8:\"schedule\";s:5:\"daily\";s:4:\"args\";a:0:{}s:8:\"interval\";i:86400;}}}i:1370263965;a:1:{s:10:\"polls_cron\";a:1:{s:32:\"40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\";a:3:{s:8:\"schedule\";s:10:\"twicedaily\";s:4:\"args\";a:0:{}s:8:\"interval\";i:43200;}}}i:1370270012;a:1:{s:17:\"w3_minify_cleanup\";a:1:{s:32:\"40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\";a:3:{s:8:\"schedule\";s:17:\"w3_minify_cleanup\";s:4:\"args\";a:0:{}s :8:\"interval\";i:86400;}}}i:1370285112;a:1:{s:19:\"wp_scheduled_delete\";a:1:{s:32:\"40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\";a:3:{s:8:\"schedule\";s:5:\"daily\";s:4:\"args\";a:0:{}s:8:\"interval\";i:86400;}}}i:1370286601;a:1:{s:24:\"akismet_scheduled_delete\";a:1:{s:32:\"40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\";a:3:{s:8:\"schedule\";s:5:\"daily\";s:4:\"args\";a:0:{}s:8:\"interval\";i:86400;}}}i:1370295563;a:1:{s:12:\"vp_scan_site\";a:1:{s:32:\"40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\";a:3:{s:8:\"schedule\";s:5:\"daily\";s:4:\"args\";a:0:{}s:8:\"interval\";i:86400;}}}s:7:\"version\";i:2;}' WHERE `option_name` = 'cron' made by call_user_func_array, wp_reschedule_event, wp_schedule_event, _set_cron_array, update_option, W3_Db->update, W3_DbCache->update, W3_DbCallUnderlying->up date, W3_Db->update, W3_DbProcessor->update, W3_Db->default_update, W3_Db->query, W3_DbProcessor->query, W3_Db->default_query

I appears the slowness is due to queries such as the one above. One downfall of MyISAM databases is table-level locking. Once a query is updating or inserting data in a table, other queries trying to add data to the same table have to wait and this easily causes queries to build up and eventually cause your site to be slow. Additionally, MySQL connections open for longer than 60 seconds are killed on the server to maintain a stable hosting environment.

You currently have plugins such as wp-stats and yet-another-related-posts-plugin enabled. Those are known to cause MySQL issues. Instead of using wp-stats, please use Google Analytics instead. Each time someone visits your site, wp-stats logs information about that visitor to your database and this can easily cause issues if you have lots of visitors to your site. From Awstats, I see the visitors to your site yesterday was about 1,333. yet-another-related-posts-plugin queries all your posts and displays related ones. There are currently 2741 posts for your site and querying the database each time to find related posts is resource intensive.

You can also follow the steps below to optimize your site further:

First, try to reduce the total number of active plugins on your blog. The following types of plugins are known to cause high resource usage and should be avoided:

- All related posts plugins (WordPress Related Posts, YARPP) can cause significantly high load in most cases.
- WPRobot3 and other auto-posters can also cause high load issues, and should be disabled if they are causing issues
- StatPress and other wordpress statistics software should also be disabled, as these too can consume too much CPU in certain cases. Use Google Analytics instead for statistics as well as Awstats which already comes by default on your account.
- WP Post Views is also a plugin that you'll want to avoid as it causes significant resource usage.
- All In One SEO Pack has also been found to cause issues in many cases and we generally recommend using Greg's High Performance SEO Pack in its place.
- Any other plugins that are not vital to your Wordpress should be disabled.

View this link for further tips on optimizing your blog:
http://support.hostgator.com/articles/specialized-help/technical/wordpress/optimizing-wordpress