I am delighted that my joke site has very good results, a CDN is not used and the $5.00/month server is based in San Fransisco:
Location Website Connection First Byte Total
Average response time 0.223 secs 0.365 secs 0.491 secs
I have used most of the free sites to test performance, also most importantly to read and follow the suggestions. To achieve very good results is not easy, especially with a slow web host provider although there are many simple improvements which make a tremendous difference. Reducing image, Css and JavaScript file sizes will quickly make the biggest impact.
All my sites are now based on this article along with reducing the above mentioned file sizes.
Edit:
Fast sites are a blessing with slow mobile connections and most probably accounts for about 60% traffic from mobiles and tablets. It is also important for sites to be responsive to cater for the increase in mobile usability.