Sep 1, 2014 / Community Pool

Community Pool

Feedback, camaraderie, and free popsicles! (Free popsicles: not included.)

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?

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).

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

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.

  • 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 smother.
  • Please keep all comments civil and constructive. The idea is to have fun — it’s a pool, after all!
  • 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 Brian Cantoni.

Show Comments

552 Comments

Comments are closed.

Close Comments

Comments

  1. Hi everyone,
    My blog is less then a month old. I’m looking for advice on… Anything, really. The layout, the writing, the idea. Although really, I stole the theme from Joel Runyons (I think I spelled that right) “blog of impossible things.” If you don’t look at my blog, be sure to look at his! Thanks!

    Like

    2. I visited your blog, but I got a message saying, “Apologies, but no results were found for the requested archive. Perhaps searching will help find a related post.” :/

      rachsthoughts.wordpress.com

      Like

      1. Sorry guys, you went to another blog of mine that I never actually wrote anyhing on. I don’t know how to switch which blog the people that click on me go to, so I just deleted the first blog. If you click on me now you should go to the right one. Sorry about that :)t

        Like

      2. Well, thanks for trying! You should be able to get it now.
        I visited your blog. I personally am non-religious, so the particular post that I read was perhaps harder for me to connect to then others. However, I did think that the post was well written, and I must say that I loved the blogs layout. Good job!

        Liked by 1 person

      3. First of all, I respect your willingness to train for a half marathon! Being more of a sprinter myself, I’ve never participated in a marathon, but must say it looks fun.

        In regards to your blog, I like how you’ve written it. The only thing I would suggest is to make your sidebar more interesting, if you know what I mean. Maybe add a follow button, and even a search box. Just some things that make your blog look a little more busy. 🙂 Following!

        And in regards to my blog, thank you for reading it, and I encourage you to keep visiting. Perhaps you’ll read something that you’ll be able to connect with. God is never far away. 🙂

        Like

      4. Hey, thanks for looking!
        I’ll definitely follow your advice. I’m still a relative newbie in the blogging world, or at least the wordpress world, so I need all the help I can get.
        And yes, I will look at your blog again!
        Thanks again 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Maybe. In my opinion I enjoy having a visual related to what I’m reading it helps me alot. On all of my posts I add at least one picture for that purpose because I’m sure I am not alone

      Like

    2. I don’t think pics are totally necessary, but they would probably help quite a bit with retaining attention and interest.

      Like

  3. Hello! I’m very new or blogging and I am kind of using it as an outlet for some emotions. Words can be powerful but I’ve never been too confident in mine, if anyone has been through a breakup, my most recent post may be of some interest! Mhmedlin.wordpress.com

    Like

    1. I think it’s wonderful how you are brave enough to say what you feel. 🙂 Keep writing and you’ll get there! 😀 Also, I think the way you wrote your latest post was pretty interesting– I went like “how is there even a wrong side of the bed to sleep on??” hahaha 😛 Very interesting concept there! 😀

      Like

  4. Hello all! 🙂 I’m seeking feedback on my writing and I would love to hear yours. Anything ranging from the emotions evoked, your own interpretation to constructive criticism- especially with regard to style! 😀 I’m really eager to hear your opinion and you can ask for mine (on your blog) if you want it too. 😉 Thank you! // http://turquoisenoises.wordpress.com/

    Like

    2. Hi,
      I like how you’ve included different kinds of poetry in your blog, if you know what I mean. You don’t have just one kind of poetry in only one form. Creative!

      Since you offered, I wouldn’t mind a little feedback on my own blog: rachsthoughts.wordpress.com
      Thank you! 🙂

      Like

      1. Hmm actually the content of your blog isn’t something I’m used too so I don’t really have much feedback on that. 🙂 But I do quite like your layout, the red and black is extremely striking. You should also consider getting a proper profile picture for your avatar. 😀 Thank you for the lovely comments! 😛

        Like

    3. I continue to click to your blog whenever I see your post. XD I just want to ask, where do you get all of the pictures of women in dresses underwater?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Aw thank you! 🙂 I click on yours frequently too and I really liked your posts esp the one on being alone — it was really super relatable. The latest one was super funny and honest too, thank you for sharing. 😀 Ah, the photos are all taken by an underwater photographer Elena Kalis. Isn’t she amazing? ❤ She does the sort of photography I would love to venture into once I get better at land (?) photography. 🙂 ps. Your drawings are extremely cute. 😀

        Like

      2. Thank you thank you! And ohh, that kind of underwater photography is pretty new to me. I’m used to photography being just landscapes 😦

        Liked by 1 person

      3. I actually have only been exposed to Elena Kalis because I managed to get a glimpse of a photo of hers on Instagram, and then it was head over heels in love and she features alongside my works all the time hahaha 😀 But most of the time I think landscape/portrait/macro shots are more common yeah? 🙂

        Like

      4. Oh? That’s cool. And yes, those usually are. At least natural shots, but the how she does the whole underwater thing, like with having people get in dresses and hang underwater til they have a good photo, that’s something really unique. :O

        Like

      5. Yes it’s super inconvenient! You have to take into account how every ripple would cause the dress to float unnecessarily and you only have a limited time to take your photo cause you don’t have much breath left. Also, lack of natural lighting (underwater) make underwater photography a pretty challenging task. 😡 But it’s so worth it! 😀

        Like

    1. I would suggest taking some time to find the best theme for you. You might find one a bit more professional that you really like as you can preview what they look like with the content you already have. Also not sure what kind of pages you want but maybe you can create specific pages to categorize your posts and have similar ones on the same page. Other then that a nice start. If you don’t go have a look at my page and tell me what you think.

      Like

    2. I would suggest adding widgets to your sidebar. 🙂 (You would do this by going to your Dashboard, and then finding Appearance on the left menu. Scroll over that and click on Customize. Under Custom Design, you’ll see Widgets. Click on that, and then click on Sidebar. There, you can search for various widgets to add.) Maybe include a follow button, a search box, the widget that lists some of your recent posts, etc. 🙂 Just make your blog look more busy, but not too busy.
      And you can play around with just how much stuff you want to add. Nothing is concrete as you can always change stuff up again.

      rachsthoughts.wordpress.com

      Like

  7. Hi everybody,

    I started a blog about my travelling experience last year. I try to write regularly, and I hope I can write the subject in an original way because I want to share a personal experience hoping it can help people somehow if they plan to travel. I also want to engage discussion, get some people to comment but I think the one reading my blog are mostly my friends so they talk to me directly not through the blog. Then I thought I could “advertise for it” but I don’t really know how because I would like that people find it relevant and have something to say not just write comment for the sake of having some but to have a cnversation. Here my last article, what do you think I could do?

    http://thetravelinsect.wordpress.com/2014/08/31/the-road-less-traveled-or-my-evs-experience/

    Like

    1. Very cute article!
      The pictures were fun to see, and the post itself was interesting- I mean, who doesn’t like baby sea turtles? 🙂
      The layout of your blog is also nice; mine is just white and grey. I’ve really got to change that…
      anyways, good job!

      Liked by 1 person

  15. I’m new to WP and am feeling a little bewildered! I’ve posted twice in the last two days: if anyone has time to check out my posts, as well as my overall layout, and provide feedback, I’d be very appreciative!

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Hey, I have a development blog for an indie game I’m making as a hobby project. The blog is sort of geared towards people who are either interested in or a part of game development, so if that doesn’t describe you, you’ll probably find it difficult to understand and/or boring.

    Anyway, here’s the link. I really don’t know what kind of feedback to ask for, so just give me any general tips.

    https://wordpress.com/read/blog/id/73103623/

    Thanks in advance. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I enjoyed your post “Prevention is better than cure – Lets invite Socrates”. I also think that your theme and layout fit what you’re blogging about. Nice job! 🙂

      rachsthoughts.wordpress.com

      Liked by 1 person

  24. Hey please check out my blog, I could use some constructive feedback. I’m just getting started and would love tips on how to keep posting consistently. This is my blog:
    frenchkush.wordpress.com

    Thanks and happy weekend fellow writers!

    Like

  28. Hi,

    I’ve recently updated my menu’s to include a ‘Bookshop’.
    Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to buy anything, but I was wondering if you might look it over and tell me if it is user friendly.

    I’ve done it by linking ‘invisible’ pages using the image of the book as the link. It seems to work for me, but I know what I’m expecting it to do.

    Please provide feedback on if it works, if it easy to navigate or if there are any changes you want to suggest.

    http://tphogan.wordpress.com/

    Thanks
    TP

    Liked by 1 person

  29. I’ve an interesting question to ask WordPress users (not self-hosted); what happens if your storage space runs out? Are you going to buy additional storage space or start a new blog?

    Liked by 1 person