Jan 19, 2014 / Community Pool

Community Pool

Community Pool

The Community Pool is for those of you looking for input, whether on post ideas, writing, blog design and layout, or anything else. If you have a post, page, or idea you want to bounce off someone, leave a comment. Your fellow bloggers can then click through and offer input either on your site, or in the comments here (feel free to indicate which you’d prefer).

Read on for the ground rules and to leave a comment. Zero to Hero folks, head to today’s forum thread to chat about the assignment, but feel free to seek other feedback here!

  • You’ll get the best feedback if you can be as specific as possible about what you’d like people to respond to or where you’re struggling.
  • Please keep all comments civil and constructive. We’re here to help and support one another, not to beat anyone down.
  • If you haven’t looked at our Commenting Guidelines in a while, now might be a good time.
  • 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.
  • No running on the deck.

Photo by t_a_i_s.

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      1. Thank you! That means so much. 🙂 I very much enjoyed reading your short stories and have followed your blog as well!

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      2. You’re welcome 🙂 credit where it’s due ha ha. And thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it. There will be more to come!

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    3. Fantastic blog! Loved the latest post – you have a way with words and by the time I got to the end you left me wanting more. Catchy title, great content, and loved the question to the readers at the end. You are on a roll! Keep it up.

      Like

  3. I want people who visit my blog to find my older content. One tool for this is the side-bar. Does it do that? I have created a survey asking bloggers what they have on the side-bar, why, and what they click on other people’s side-bars. Please spend a minute answering the survey, and commenting. I hope this page can be a resource to help us design our blogs better.

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    2. good idea, I’d love to see the final results. I always wonder if I have too much on my sidebar (www.theapproximateyogi if you want to take a peek at my side bar and let me know what you think!)

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      1. Well, intermediate results give some information. Some people have voted already.

        I have an experiment which I will conclude on Friday, and possibly replace- do people click a certain point? My theory though is that your follow buttons will be more useful than your archive buttons- though how much engagement “following” means varies a lot.

        Go and vote. Come back in a month for more results.

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      2. Thanks Clare! I did vote. I’m doing a readers survey on my blog this week so it was neat to see what it looked like to take it. Thanks for your feedback!

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    1. I love the layout – it’s organized and easy to navigate. Your writing style is also well-articulated and engaging!

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  5. Hey everybody, it’s me Adshayah.

    Please take a look at my blog…and tell me what you think in general.

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      1. I think your blog is wonderful! I love the different subjects you talk about, the the layout and look is so colorful and fun. I liked it before I realized you were still in grade school, after learning that it is impressive! I would recommend putting your age in your side bar little “about me/hello” area. Keep up the good work!

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    1. The layout looks very stream lined, really focuses and show cases the content. Looks like an interesting project, wish you all the best, and look fwd to following your progress!

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    5. I love your work too! Thanks for sharing. Two things – 1) add more of a bio so we get to know more about you. 2) perhaps use a theme that is aimed specifically for photo blogs – where you can have slideshows, etc. Just a thought 🙂 Its fantastic job though.

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  11. Hey everybody,

    I just got back from a hiatus and I’m looking to start improving my posts again.

    If anybody has any comments on my post quality or layout, that would be fantastic! Any comments would be appreciated, whether it’s criticism or just general observation.

    My blog is a kind of mixed media blog, so it’s rather diverse in it’s content.
    Is that a good thing, or should I start narrowing down the kinds of posts that I make?

    Thanks in advance!

    -Bradley

    http://thehoaxofadigitallife.wordpress.com/

    Like

    2. Hey, I’m also coming back from a bit of a hiatus, and feel like I’ve lost my voice a bit. This is a shame, because I think that before my hiatus, the voice I had was better. I’m trying to get mine back, by rereading the posts and pages that I particularly liked, which I hope works.
      I’ve had a look around and your blog is pretty good. It’s well wrtten, and I like your writing style.
      One thing that I have learned though is to give yourself a break. I used to feel so guilty and apologise for not posting during a strassful year last year. I have resolved to fixing things this year, but I did learn that other people don’t need or expect all the apologies, and you don’t need to be so hard on yourself.

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    1. I’m gonna write my thoughts as I see it.

      Love the pic haha

      layout is good, some hurt the eyes, this one makes sense

      Liked the sign out!

      A really good blog, you have got a follower sir!

      If you could check mine out that would be great!

      Like

  13. Hi all,

    We recently updated our blog design and added a logo/flavicon. Let me know what you think. We had some trouble getting the background color we wanted for the header (it should look like the flavicon) since it involved a gradation of color, and the header settings don’t seem to allow for that.

    Thank you for your time!

    ~Tara

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    1. Hi Aneela, I’ve just had a bit of a nose around your blog. I love your informal, slightly quirky writin style, and the fact that you set up foodie experiements. It marries two things close to my own heart – food and slightly geeky experimentation.
      I have followed your blog, and look forward to more updates.

      Like

    1. I have enjoyed reading your blog, but with the Piano black theme, I’m finding it difficult to read. An earlier theme you had that was lighter made it easier. I like the Piano black theme is set up. Do you know if you can lighten the background a bit?

      Like

  16. People have trouble signing up for my blog via email if they aren’t WordPress users. I think it’s because the follow button is hard to see. If you look at my blog, is there anything I can do to draw more attention to the follow button? Thanks!

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    1. Can you make the title (Interested in following this blog?) a darker color, or bold? It’s a light gray, which blends in with the background a bit. The actual text and button are fine, in my opinion, but the title is easy to skip over.

      Like

  19. I have some questions about self hosting. I have just made the leap over from WordPress.com to WordPress.org and self-hosting. I love the WordPress community and have made so many amazing connections. I just wanted to do a few different things and felt the need to self-host. And since the platform still feels so familiar and comfortable, I’m wondering…Am I still ‘allowed’ to participate in the Daily Posts and Photo Challenges? Learning as I go one action word at a time at http://www.mommyverbs.com Thanks.

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      1. Best news ever! I was feeling like I had voluntarily kicked myself out of an awesome club! Thanks! Are there any things I can’t do in WordPress.comLand now that I’m self-hosted using .org?

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      2. Your blog won’t appear in the WordPress.com Reader, as that’s currently .com-only. Also, instructions in some of our more education/tutorial focused post won’t necessarily apply to you (or won’t apply in the same way). Otherwise, you’re more than welcome to participate in anything we do here.

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    2. Maybe I’m overlooking something really obvious, but I can’t find your about page to give you feedback on!

      (By the way – your username links to your blog in the comments section – you don’t need to post the URL)

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  24. I’ve been trying to “publicise” my blog with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr etc. has anyone else done this. Is it too much work? Thanks.

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    1. I have always done Twitter and facebook. I don’t find those to be that much extra to watch and keep an eye on. I am more intimidated by all the other social media – like pinterest, tumblr, instagram etc. I am personally trying to navigate the best fit for me at the moment, or I fear I will be so busy trying to promote my blog, that I won’t have the time I need to develop the content.

      Good luck with whatever channels you choose

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  26. I’ve been blogging for about six months and have written several posts about my dog Lucy. I would like to add another category called Dog Tales, to keep them in, – next to the about, humor, book reviews etc, I’ve tried everything I can think of, but can’t get the heading to appear. Any ideas?

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    2. I think to get something to appear on that bar you have to create a “page”. You should be able to do that from your dashboard.

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      1. Hi Alex, Thanks for helping. I tried to make a page and that wasn’t exactly what I had in mind,but while I was playing around with that I stumbled onto what I wanted to do. A new category in my menu, So I guess you inadvertantly solved myproblem. thanks!

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      2. Aha, you’re right. I don’t know how much the settings vary from theme to theme. On mine I have to create a page and then I can add it to that bar from the “menus” menu. I will admit that I forgot about that second step when I replied to you, and thought the page would just show up there automatically 🙂

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    1. Firstly, the blog address is wrong. There’s a ( , ) instead of a ( . ).
      secondly, dont worry about the topics that you mix in your blog. Just categorize them and you are good to go. Also the theme is good.

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  29. hey guys can you go check out my blog!! It’s a cool blog for youth and parents, mostly teens though. It’s really cool my username is ( fsftm )

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    1. Hey! I blog about teens, too, but from an adult perspective, so I’m looking forward to reading what you have to say! I have just a small comment on the blog itself… I like the idea of the title “Fruit Salad for the Mind”, but you’ve only titled a specific post that. Your overall blog is still titled “juliaw199”. I suggest changing the blog name to reflect the FSFTM. It’ll make more sense to your readers. You can also add a tagline which can explain a little more of what your blog is about.

      You can change the blog title without changing your URL. I did that early on in my blog, too. I originally named my blog teenchange, so the URL still says teenchange.wordpress.com, but the title on the top of my blog says “Avoiding Neverland,” which the actual name of my blog.

      Good luck on your blogging journey!

      Like