Apr 20, 2014 / Community Pool

Community Pool

The Community Pool is for those of you looking for feedback, 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 . .

TIP: 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.

  • 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. If you simply leave a link to your blog, it’s likely to be overlooked.
  • 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.
  • No running on the deck.

Photo by t_a_i_s.

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  3. Happy Easter fellow bloggers. I just posted a new post. It might give you a chuckle and maybe not, but check it out. Would love your response.

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  5. My “fitness blog for normal folks” is doing nicely and it’s about to get its own domain. It is desperately in need of a new theme though! Any fun suggestions that fit? realsimplefit.WordPress.com

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  6. My “fitness blog for normal folks” is doing nicely and it’s about to get its own domain. It is desperately in need of a new theme though! Any fun suggestions that fit? realsimplefit.WordPress.com

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    1. Hi Helen,

      I like your blog and the design theme you’ve chosen looks great. I also read one of your reviews which I found informative (you’ll find the comment on your blog itself)! I am so glad there are people out there who don’t look down on the vampire “genre” merely because it has something to do with a vampire. It’s what you do with the vampire, not whether you include one.

      I have only a minor, minor suggestion – something that I picked up when reading your review. It’s keeping the tense consistent within a post. In this excerpt, both past and present tense are used:

      “In a shocking twist, a trusted friend of the Dragomir family is revealed as the bad guy. Along with his daughter, Natalie, they pushed Lissa to the brink of insanity with dead animals in the hopes that her powers of healing would cure his illness. After this plan fails, he escapes imprisonment and leaves his newly-turned Strigoi daughter to be staked by Rose and Dimitri.”

      If you were to use only present tense, it might read:

      “In a shocking twist, a trusted friend of the Dragomir family is revealed as the bad guy. Along with his daughter, Natalie, they push Lissa to the brink of insanity with dead animals in the hopes that her powers of healing will cure his illness. After this plan fails, he escapes imprisonment and leaves his newly-turned Strigoi daughter to be staked by Rose and Dimitri.”

      I only edited two words in the second sentence – “pushed” becomes “push” and “would” becomes “will”.

      I hope that doesn’t seem too forward of me. Overall you’re a very engaging writer – perhaps more engaging than I am in my blog.

      You’re more than welcome to visit my blog and make recommendations about my writing. For one thing, I think I tend to use quite academic language, which is something I’d like to work on.

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      1. Bless you! Thank you for reading my blog. I’m glad that you picked up on that point. For some reason, I always tend to jump tenses when I’m writing. I’m not entirely sure why that happens, but I will make sure to keep a look-out on future posts.

        I think your writing style is great. You seem friendly and down-to-earth, and I like that you link things back to your personal life (in your parents’ Ford-something-or-other… I can totally relate there!).

        In terms of improvements – as you have mentioned, you have a very good set of vocab, but perhaps too academic sometimes. It helps to read your article out loud, so that you can recognize when it sounds weird.

        Hope that helped, I’m sorry that I couldn’t offer more criticism, but I will be following your blog so I hope to hear from you soon!!

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  8. Hey! 😀 I started a book review blog not too long ago. There is not much of anything on there now, but I’m hoping to get it going over the summer when my exams are over. Any kind of feedback is welcome! curiouslybookish.wordpress.com

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    1. Aw, this is really cute. I love the layout! I like that you’ve included mini-reviews as well, that’s a brilliant idea. Hm… as for improvements? I’m struggling to find a suggestion. Maybe more posts? 😛 but I see that you’re already going to work on that. But seriously, you should definitely continue writing. Might be a good idea to buy a domain name as well, to give yourself a brand name.

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      1. Thank you so much!! I really do need to get to writing more haha ^^’. I will look into the domain name thing; thanks so much for all the positive feedback.

        I love your blog, too! I love the way you layout reviews and I love the inclusion of quotes! I also really like that you also review TV and film. The inclusion of gifs is brilliant and makes the posts extra fun and engaging! Especially now that YA adaptations are showing up all over the place, its really a good idea to write reviews of those! As far as improvements… I’m really having a hard time! Maybe try and integrate twitter or goodreads onto your site more? I saw that you have links to your accounts on your About page, but it might be good to add some buttons or something to your sidebar? Idk, I really like your blog! Good luck 😀

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    2. What a lovely header you have. I also appreciate the mini reviews. 🙂 Hmm… I am also struggling to come up with suggestions. I like how you adapted the Suits theme. It gives your writing and the images space to breathe, something I wish my blog had occasionally, but I prefer more of a magazine-style layout.

      Do you think my blog looks a bit busy? Maybe it’s all the pink haha.

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      1. Thank you for the feedback! 😀 It does take a little creativity and a lot time to change the theme up, so I’m glad it worked out!

        I think your blog looks really awesome (I’m really into pink, too haha :P)! The ‘stuff I like page’ is a good inclusion. I think it really helps the reader get to know you better. I think that the front page (or whatever it’s called) could use some photos, though. When you click on the movies, television and so on tabs the site doesn’t look cluttered at all! Maybe you could get a header to add some more visual interest, too? They are surprisingly easy to make! All you need is a good font and a picture. 😛

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      2. Thanks for your feedback too! I agree I definitely need some images to spice things up. A header would be a good idea. I’ll grab my pen and paper and see if I can’t draw something that would be fitting.

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    3. Hi Monica!
      I’d like to echo what everyone has said so far – really nice layout, and the header is unique and charming. In particular I like the way you’ve laid out the cover page and title page info for each book that you do a full review for. Makes it look serious and professional, which is a good thing in my book.

      My only “negative,” such as it is, is that so far all the books you’ve reviewed are (YA/) fantasy, which is a genre I don’t read too much of, but that’s a me problem, not a you problem 🙂 But maybe as you’re adding you could branch out a bit?
      -Allison

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      1. Thank you so much for the feedback!

        Yeah, I know what you mean. I do read more than YA , but YA books are so short and easy-to-read, so my blog may always be a little YA-heavy haha! But I really will try and get more variety in there! Thanks 🙂

        Your blog looks really good! Very professional and there is some REALLY interesting info on there.

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  13. So, this is the first time I try to blog. I have just written some stuff and given some links and thoughts so far.. Any pointers for a guy like me that want to use blogging as a “homebase”? Anything I should think of when you see my blogspace?

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    1. Hi! I just had a look at your blog and will definitely be checking out your upcoming posts! I think having your blog as a ‘home’ for your work is a great idea. I would suggest having a fiddle around with your sidebar and just seeing what you do and don’t need – but that all comes as your blog evolves anyway (mine certainly has!)

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      1. Thank you! Well I guess I will discover all the little tricks and gimmicks as I go along. 🙂

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  15. Desperately Seeking Susan – or at least the blogger who would probably recognize this movie title. You posted here on day 2 or 3. I read it late at night and thought I left the browser open to your blog before I went to sleep, meaning to contact you the next day. But for the life of me I cannot find your post now! You are from the New England area, maybe Maine. I liked you writing style and short attention span. Your special daughter is transitioning to adulthood and you wrote about the care and feeding of care-givers she has had. I wanted to comment and share some similar experiences I have had.

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    1. Michelle , I did not mean to sound creepy. I wanted to touch bases with a certain blogger because of a post she made on the Community Pool. Between my lap top and my iPad I cannot find it. She wrote she was a mom, in her 50’s with special needs daughter, as am I.

      Can you suggest how I can access her blog. She sounded very new.

      Andrea Jensen

      Aserrí -Tarbaca Home – 22 30 59 15 Cell – 46 06 46 11

      >

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  17. i’m only young. i started a blog to try to escape from everything. this is one of my outlets. (: i only started a few days ago, and i would really appreciate feedback on whether i should keep going? i only have two posts, but they don’t tell you much. i’m just wondering if a personal blog is something i should actually persue, or if it’s just a waste of time. thank you. (: (please read my bio for more information about why i’m actually here, if you want to see things in perspective.) oh, and Happy Easter. (:

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  18. Hey! So I just started a blog dedicated to creative writing. Right now I only have poems up. If someone could check it out and give me some feedback that would be fantastic.
    marshmellowbunnywriters.wordpress.com

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  20. Happy Easter Everyone! Please check out my blog and tell me what you think about it. I would lover to know your opinions and what you think about it. Remember YOUR OPINIONS COUNT!

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  22. I started my blog as a diary to motivate myself to keep up the running and fitness. But it’s always good hearing outside opinions. Let me know what you think of my writing style and page layout.

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      1. Cheers for that. Yes, I was thinking about having a static home page instead of new posts attacking on top. Readers won’t click the individual links at the side preferring to keep scrolling. But I understand this becomes tedious when there is no end to my ramblings haha.
        Congrats to your mum. It’s love to do a marathon at some stage but it’s well above my abilities at the moment.
        Thanks again for the feedback.

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    1. My suggestion is: just write. Dont try so much to come up with something, put pen to paper or fingers to key board and see what comes out. Then look it over, rearrange, edit and publish. If you are hard pressed, participate in a writing prompt. It gives you a topic and you write on it.

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      1. Thank you for responding. 🙂 I try to practice that approach like a religion, but I guess I’m a too picky when it comes to selecting something I would be comfortable publishing.

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  25. Hello everyone! I am the writer of Life Blog and I’ve been blogging for about a month now. I would like to get feedback on the visual layout of my blog and my writing. Any feedback would be great! The URL is patsnack24.wordpress.com

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    1. Your blog looks great! I don’t have time to read any posts at the moment (I hope I will soon – a quick scroll says I’ll probably enjoy it) but the image you use is very cool. The only thing that bothers me a bit is that there is an incomplete row of page links at the top (it just has pictures and quotes). I’m nit picky. It’s not devastating, just pay attention if you ever want to add pages or take away pages. You could end up with a row of just one and that is simply unacceptable. And the post at the top is a quote. Does your layout do titles for quotes? You should. “Rejoice my fel…” is a little bit odd. xD

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  27. Happy Easter to all my friends. I take too much time thinking about a post and by the time I’m ready, the time for challenge is over. Also I have problem with title of my post.

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  28. Hi guys!!

    I tried something new with my personal blog this year. I required myself to blog about my experiences twice a week now instead of a seasonal thing.

    http://frozengulaman.wordpress.com

    I really like how things turn out especially now that i’m in constant search of blog inspiration. Any suggestions on how i can keep up with the swing of things?

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    1. Hi Raymund!
      My blog is pretty different from yours, but for the month of April I’ve been really dedicated to posting regularly (finally getting back into the swing after losing a lot of time to grad school) and I have to say that the one thing that has really helped me is *planning my posts a month out.* I sat down at the end of March and planned a publication schedule for the upcoming month, and it has made all the difference in the world. Sometimes something new will pique my interest so I’ll write about that instead of what I have on the calendar, but if not, I have plenty of posts in the works, so I’m not stuck staring at a blank screen and willing myself to think of something.

      Like I said my blog is different – I have a specific topic I’m writing about. So I’m not sure how it would work with a blog like yours, which is more personal experience/on-the-spot reflections. But maybe you’ll think of something!
      -Allison

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    1. You have some solid work up. I’m on wordpress when I should be doing homework – so just reply to this message and I’ll remember to come back and critique your work! =]

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