The first step to reduce the delay from HTTP
Secondly make sure that your requests for external files or scripts are combined in a single location. For example instead of using three CSS
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/body.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/side.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/footer.css" />
You should use a single one with all the styling information:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/style.css" />