May 9, 2012 / Community Pool

Community Pool

The place for feedback, advice, and friendly blogging chatter.

Have you just published a new post and are dying for some feedback? Did you recently start your blog and could use some layout or design advice from your more seasoned peers?

The Community Pool is for peer feedback and advice. Looking for more specific information? Check out some of these resources:

Tap into the wisdom of The Daily Post blogging community and leave your question here in the comments. Others can then click through and offer input either on your site, or in the comments here (feel free to indicate which you’d prefer).

Looking for free, self-guided courses to help you get started with your blog (or revive a dormant one)? Check out our current offerings at Blogging U.

To help us make the Community Pool a productive space for discussion, here are some tips you might find useful:

  • While you’re not required to, we encourage everyone who requests feedback to also reply to at least one or two other bloggers who need some help. Spread the love!
  • The Community Pool comments section can get quite big — and starting duplicate threads doesn’t help. Thanks for not posting the same question more than once!
  • If you’re looking for quality feedback, be as specific as you can. Questions about a particular post tend to draw more comments than ones about entire blogs. Questions about specific design elements are more likely to be answered than ones asking for general layout advice.
  • We discourage leaving links without a more substantive message or question. These are often overlooked by other bloggers, and we frequently remove them to make the comment reading experience smoother.
  • Please keep all comments civil and constructive. The idea is to have fun — it’s a pool, after all!
  • To keep from losing your place in the comment thread while you visit others’ blogs, right-click on a link to open it in a new tab or window.
  • If you haven’t looked at our Commenting Guidelines in a while, now might be a good time.
  • No running on the deck.
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      1. this time i was working on a desktop, i received the email that it was published but it wasn’t on the blog. i ended up deleting and republishing. What a pain! Thank you 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Welcome to the blogosphere! It’d be easier to help you if you had specific questions. Your blog right now is pretty empty, so take some time to customize and decorate it and write a full post.
      Happy Blogging!

      Liked by 3 people

    1. I really like your photography and the poems that go along with it. My only feedback would be to reduce the image sizes. I can’t see the entire photo without scrolling and I feel that takes away from the image.

      I also like to take photos and just recently posted a new blog about adventures with a lot of photos I’ve taken. There’s also a couple pages dedicated to photos. I’d love some feedback.

      https://cee91blog.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/sundaze-with-ciara/

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Nice layout 😉 I suggest adding some cool widgets to your sidebar to help readers navigate your blog a little better. A lot of people have a little text widget that explains in like 2-3 sentences who they are and what they blog about. People also have Category widget so people can pick which of your tags they want to view. You could also add social media buttons so people can connect with you on Facebook, Twitter, and so on.

      Liked by 1 person

      3. I tried to add categories, but I am confused. I’d love to add a “Hack for the Home”, “In the Kitchen”, and “DIY Decor” shortcut buttons that I can categorize my blog posts under, but I am not sure 1. How to do that, and 2. Once I make the widgets/shortcuts, how do I file/move my already posted blogs to those categories? I am so sorry to bug you

        Liked by 1 person

      4. No worries–you’re not a bother at all! WordPress will automatically add categories to your widget the moment you add them to your post. So, in order to have a “DIY Decor” category shortcut show up, you’d have to add that category to your post when you publish it. In order to file your already published posts, simply edit them and categorize them in whatever way you want. I hope that made sense!

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Love it! I’m a follower! I just started my blog (www.laroseknows.wordpress.com) last week and am in the same boat as you are. We share common interests as well. I’d love to exchange ideas with you! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  14. Hello everyone! I have quite recently started a blog with fictional short stories that I have written. I would be very grateful if you would check it out and let me know what you think. If anyone else has a blog with fictional stories on it then I would love to have a look at it, too! The address is: https://scrollvault.wordpress.com/ Thanks!

    Liked by 5 people

  16. Monday again already 🤔 I hope the week has begun well for all you wonderful people…. I’m thinking about themes, in particular author ones…the current one is Flounder which works well on mobile devices but is a bit cluttered on my desktop and doesn’t have that right ‘feel’ for me at the moment. Any suggestions welcome and also on the content. Be warned and likes here or on my blog wil be hunted down and the kindness repaid…usually by a follow too 😇

    Thank you all in advance

    https://fictionisfood.wordpress.com

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Your blog looks quite clear and easy to navigate on my desktop! Easy to go from post to post and find other pages and archives. If anything I would say the amount of colour is distracting to me but that’s only my personal preference towards white themes! I hope this helps!
      Have a good day!

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Thanks Ben…agreed re the colour scheme…although I have one person with photosensitivity…on her eyes white was hard. Tricky balance really on that one but I hear what you’re saying and I do want a cleaner look…just such a vast array of themes it’s hard to decide where to start !

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Definitely, I spent hours going through themes before settling on one! It’s so hard to find one with everything you need and like!

        Liked by 2 people

      3. I hear you loud and clear…yours looks spot in for what you are presenting. Am following as per the caveat in my post above! I guess it’s just a trial and error process. To pay or not to pay, that is the question 🤔

        Liked by 2 people

      4. Thank you! Yeah massively, it’s a frustrating process though! So far I’ve found what I need without paying but imagine one day I may have to pay for one!

        Liked by 2 people

      5. Too right…I’m thinking that way too…but I need to know what I’m looking for first. Don’t want to dive in and then think, actually this doesn’t quite do it for me. Yours has that crispness I’m looking for, just need to find an equivalent that showcases writing fiction 🤔

        Liked by 2 people

    2. I like the layout of your blog. It’s easy to navigate and fits well with what your blog is for. I’m on a desktop right now looking and the only thing I could see that would make you think it was cluttered is the recent posts and recent comments widgets are at the top of the page together but that doesn’t bother me. If it bothers you that much you could always take the recent comments widget off. Or I guess you could preview other layouts without changing them to see if you liked one better.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Thank you for that…widgets and me are not yet amigos…I’m quite new to blogging so that’s on my get to grips with list….really don’t like this newbie aura that’s following me about 🤕

        As you and Ben allude…trial and error seems the only way…on my desktop I get three columns…I don’t get that on mobile devices, someone else mentioned it might look ‘cleaner’ with just two columns?

        Liked by 2 people

      2. I’m new to it too. I started my blog in November but I didn’t really start messing with it until March or so. I was just looking again and if you took away the recent posts widget but left your archives drop down box it might help it look cleaner and less cluttered as you said. Plus, someone still has the options to look back at other posts you might have done and recent posts are easy to find by scrolling down. Just an idea.

        Liked by 2 people

      3. I tried two years ago…went dormant and started properly in January. My biggest enemy is time trying to get a handle on the blog and other social media platforms. When it comes to tinkering with widgets I prevaricate…I ought to bite the bullet and get to know them but I’ve not really tried customising default layouts other than colour yet…your idea sounds a good one though…I think this coming weekend I’ll have to try and bite the bullet 🤔

        Liked by 2 people

    2. I agree that your writing is done superbly. Since enetteventer already covered the about page the only other thing I would add is that on your longer posts you should make only part of it visible that way it isn’t taking up your whole page.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Loved your first post! I think the theme of viewing the world through your children’s eyes is a great idea. Children offer different perspectives on everything. They remind us how we used to view the world and we can view things through them in a whole new way.

      Liked by 4 people

  23. I’m interested in writing a guest post. I’ve written one so far, that should be published on one of my follower’s pages very soon, but I enjoyed it so much I would like to do another. Please check out my page and help me further my new blogging lifestyle. thinklikekate.org

    Email me if you think I would be a good fit for your next guest post, and show your readers what it’s coming from a different perspective! Katelyn_salsedo2@yahoo.com

    Thanks! Xoxo, Kate

    Liked by 4 people

    1. hello, i am glad to know about you and your 15 months little girl:)
      I have a guest post section in my blog .. and I have amazing guest bloggers 🙂 if you like you are most welcome to write for my blog 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

      10. me too 😀
        I have noticed, your gravatar doesn’t have link of your primary site. if i click on it, I land on a different page.. You must change it, so that people could reach your site..

        Liked by 1 person

  25. So I’m continuing my pursue your passion post series where I just try to encourage people at the moment to at least think about what they are passionate about.
    I want to turn this into something bigger so I could really reach out to people so if any of you have an idea for how I can do that please share.
    Here is a link to the newest post in what will be a series.https://enetteventer.com/2016/05/06/persuing-passion/

    I got some great feedback last week but since this revolving around people I really want as much opinions as I can get.

    Liked by 4 people

      1. Thank you so much for the encouragement, I’m glad you like it!
        I hoped it encouraged you in some way because that’s the end goal.
        (Your blog look lovely by the way)

        Liked by 2 people

  26. Hey gang. Been traveling for the last several years and now turned it into a Travel advice, eating clean on the road, humor blog.

    Just finished a week long bender and put my site up for scruitany. Would love any and all feedback. http://www.jdddorfman.com

    Always had a passion for writting but have insecurities about putting it out for the world to see, if you find any errors let me know!

    Be vicious.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Just cut and paste you link and nothing came back. When I click on your name it brings me to a site with a lot about hockey. I also have a travel blog and am always looking to connect with other travel bloggers. Having trouble getting to your site.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi,

      I like your blog – however with the layout… it would be much more easy to find what I am looking for if I had an overview right when I get on your “homepage”. Right now I have to scroll down to get to the widgets on the right, also I prefer blogs where I don’t see the whole post at once but a short intro to each and can then pick and choose without all the scrolling… (as you can tell I’m not a fan of scrolling, possibly becuase I am sitting in my basement (wifi is broken and that’s where the internet is) with my laotop on my knees…)

      Liked by 2 people

    2. I like your blog. It’s clean and easy to follow. I like that you have the various categories on the left-hand navigation as well as at the bottom. I would suggest using more realistic photos – maybe from your daily life taken with your phone or? Perhaps some with people in them or action-oriented. Other than that, I think you’ve got a great work in progress. Good luck with your venture!

      Liked by 2 people

    1. I enjoyed your perspective on refugees. Your blog does have an eclectic assortment of posts. Have you thought about establishing some Categories of types of topics you will like address? As you add more posts, you could assign each post to a Category. That way, your readers who want to focus on a particular topic can read all the posts in their favorite Category. https://gracelead.co

      Liked by 2 people

    2. Have you though about trying to have recurrent topics once a week: what made you smile during the past week? What if you were inviting your readers for a cup of coffee and you were to talk about what you did during the week? What about your opinion on this week news? Etc.

      Liked by 1 person