Sep 29, 2014 / Community Pool

Community Pool

The place for advice, feedback, 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?

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 smoother.
  • 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

921 Comments

Comments are closed.

Close Comments

Comments

  2. Howdy WordPressers!
    I have a brand spanking new blog called The Multi-Coloured Collar, to do with all things career for somebody who is trying to achieve their work dreams!
    I would LOVE any feedback on the site; anything to do with the writing style, the menu, the logo… whatever catches your eye!
    If you see something you like and would like to work with me, then do not hesitate to contact me!
    Here’s the link: http://themulticolouredcollar.com/
    Here’s some lovin’: ❤
    Cheers everyone!

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Really like your blog! Some of the advices you offer sound familiar but (a) it doesn’t hurt to read them a second, or even a third time, and (b) you have a good, easy-to-read style of writing. Keep it up!

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Hi Lauren – I love it. Not only are the colours inviting, your theme is also very focused. The blog is quite easy to navigate, and your writing style is friendly, upbeat and approachable. Very useful when you’re writing about career advice. Maybe you’re already getting to it – but I’d be curious to know more about your multi-coloured collars in your about page!

      Liked by 2 people

    5. Immediately I was drawn to your bio and I really like your personality 🙂 Keep on incorporating your personality into your writing..

      Like

      1. Aw thank you that’s lovely of you to say! I certainly will. My old blog (LauGraEva) was indeed all personality but I wanted to have a go at creating something not entirely about me! Haha. Thank you again!

        Liked by 1 person

    7. Hey there!

      Your blog looks really cool -I’m a new blogger too but sadly haven’t had much time yet to properly explore and customise!

      I’m sure I will be asking you for some advice on how to make my day productive as finals start approaching!

      Like

    8. Your blog looks spacious and open – in a very good way. I think it’s the colour scheme – lots of white and the text size that does it.

      Like

      1. Yes, it actually did help me to sort out my thoughts about the matter, so you are right about the therapeutical function of writing 🙂 Thank you for reading and happy blogging!

        Like

    1. Hi there! Your painting is beautiful! But I think it would be really nice for us readers to know what inspired you, if this is a real landscape or something you imagined, in what context you painted this.. Things like that so we can get to know you better and appreciate the painting in a different light 🙂

      I just followed your blog by the way 🙂 You can check mine out at http://prettylittlethingsxo.com/

      Liked by 2 people

    7. WOW! Your painting is so cool~ 😀 I’m so jelly. You should really keep up the blog and continue to post more of your fabulous artwork! When posting – do try to minimize the number of exclamation marks… it kind of makes the post sound overly excited. Unless you mean to come off as superbly excited, use periods or connect the sentences together. Hope I helped!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Enjoyed your post! I would like to read more on the religious/cultural background of the festival, although you do give your reader some clues to get the general picture. Speaking of pictures: I like the idea of blogging with your own pictures, might do that myself in the future!

      Liked by 2 people

    3. Hi there, being a fellow SEAsian, I always appreciate blog posts focused on local culture and traditions. Anything which allows glimpses into “our” world. My only feedback, and I believe this has already been brought up, is for some historical insight on Durga Puja. Significance of the Pandal, why the lit Diyas, that sort of thing. A little more about India and Kolkata (I’m assuming that’s Calcutta?) too 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

  6. Hi everybody ,
    I posted two new “articles” + changed my blog’s theme ..

    so I hope to get some feedback on the posts and the theme ( and the blog overall if you wish ) ..

    The two posts :

    Xavi Hernandez and the Tiki-Taka “Life-Cycle”

    Let’s Talk about Devils

    The link to all posts in English :

    http://100and21.wordpress.com/category/english/

    RATING is so important to me , so please rate what you read ..

    Thanks in advance , appreciate it.

    Like

      1. I write whatever strikes me at that moment and my blog is the end result so yes, it’s a little of this and of that 🙂 thank you for visiting. I really appreciate it.

        Like

    1. Hey, I’ve commented on your blog a couple of times and I follow you 🙂 I love your simplistic theme and your style oft writing 🙂 One thing I would suggest is that you don’t use the colourful GIFs on the top of some of your posts, it kinda hurts my eyes haha 😉 just a personal thing, but not big enough to put me off your writing in any way 🙂

      Like

    1. Hi – I enjoyed reading your About page and then moved on to a couple of reviews. It’s wonderfully easy to navigate your blog.
      I liked the way you divided the page in your reviews – Diagnosis, Highlights, Final Thoughts. I’d have liked a bit more explicit information – you call songs ‘memorable’ quite a lot. I wanted to know what quality made them feel memorable to you.
      Keep up the good work!

      Like

    2. I love your blog theme. It is so perfect for what your topic, and it’s user friendly and just plain amazing! By the way – maybe you could divide the music into different genres? Then if we want to find a specific set, then it’d be easier to find.

      Like

    1. Oooh, by your post, I see you live in my city. 🙂 I see that your blog is pretty random, and that’s good, but focusing our blog helps you if you’re wanting more followers and readers.

      Like

  11. Hello fellow bloggers, I recently started blogging last october 2013 and i am really a beginner at this. please feel free to send me suggestions on how i can improve my blog. I open to suggestions. I want to learn how to add a photo in my post and write from that photo that i’ve attached. thanks again, coffeelady 🙂

    Like

    2. Thanks for sharing! This is the kind of post I would like to be able to write: short, offering relevant information and showing your own personality. You also managed to give your blog a consistency, if alone by the structure of your post’s titles. One thing I don’t like is the category “uncategorized”, which I try to avoid using myself. Other than that: excellent blog!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you so much for your lovely comment! Yes, the “Of’s” have remained the only consistent thing on my blog, but I do try to have posts that deal with roughly the same area. The “Uncategorized” category irks me as well, and all the posts in it are from when I was new to blogging and didn’t understand tags and categories. I have been meaning to give my blog an overall edit, but I’m daunted by the prospect of it!

        Like

    4. Your Sunday Quotes post is a good idea. I have a similar feature where I post a short piece of fiction every Sunday – flash fiction or a snippet of one of my works in progress.

      For some excellent quotes, try the Good Reads website for a daily quote. Good luck!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Yes, Goodreads is a great resource. It’s a great website for getting to know about books and keeping a tab on your reading habits as well.
        Sundays are days to relax, aren’t they? If you can, that is. I just feel better to start the day and week with something simple and solid, instead of slaving away on a big, sloppy rambling!

        Like

      1. Hey love the idea for your blog, a really easy tip to start of is space out your writing. Huge chunks of texts look daunting and a little ugly your content is good so make smaller paragraphs or just little sentences, you will be amazed how much this can help. Keep up the good work

        Liked by 1 person

      2. HiYa sharingrecovery 🙂 yes – keep talking/writing/blogging… there seems to be much misunderstanding surrounding mental illness… I view it as any other illness – the experience of it can range from very mild and not too bad, to very debilitating and horrible… I particularly liked the post about the jail blog – very inspiring to know this person’s writing closed down a dysfunctional prison. My Curly N Crew blog is based upon mental health also… Cheers!!

        Like

    4. Well done!
      I know how difficult it can be sharing things that have been disturbing, so I applaud anyone who examines themselves on a deeper level in this way. Great writing 🙂
      Suggestions: I also agree that the text can be broken up more. And any time you can utilize images always helps. Have you gotten into your Widgets yet? One of the suggestions WordPress has is to try experimenting with a few different types of blog templates even just for fun to see how your blog would look. Since you are using mostly text, maybe it would be interesting to experiment with some other templates WordPress has to offer – just to see how your blog is laid out?

      My own blog is to share survival stories and inspirational journeys. I hope you stop in for a visit sometime.

      Be well, and all the best on your blogventures!

      Liked by 1 person

  15. Hi there!

    I’ve been blogging for a few months now and I just recently started a new feature on my blog – every week I post workouts that I design myself and create an infographic to go along with. My most recent is right here: http://prettylittlethingsxo.com/2014/09/29/prettylittleworkouts-arms-toning-workout-for-pretty-girls/

    I would love to what you think! This is only my second workout so far so there is room for improvement I’m sure, as always 🙂

    Thanks in advance and I’ll gladly check out your blogs too!

    xo

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Hi there!

    I’ve been blogging for a few months now and I just recently started a new feature on my blog – every week I post workouts that I design myself and create an infographic to go along with. My most recent is right here: http://prettylittlethingsxo.com/2014/09/29/prettylittleworkouts-arms-toning-workout-for-pretty-girls/

    I would love to what you think! This is only my second workout so far so there is room for improvement I’m sure, as always 🙂

    Thanks in advance and I’ll gladly check out your blogs too!

    xo

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Hi guys! Just started a travel blog to document my various adventures and hopefully inspire people to do some ‘think outside of the box’ traveling. I am not going on the next journey (Hitchhiking 2,300km to Morocco from the UK) for another 2 months so I’m going to fill it with various ‘budget’ travel tips for now amongst other topics. I have literally just finished my first EVER blog post in my whole life today and I would love some feedback on it and perhaps some tips. Thanks guys, happy blogging! 😀

    Like

      1. Hello! I did make a post but I deleted it as I’m going to wait a little while to start putting content onto the page. Your welcome to have a look at the page if you like, but so far all I have done is set up a menu and link it all up. Thank you for taking interest anyway 😀 here is the link http://littlemanadventures.wordpress.com/

        Like

    1. I like the idea of a sports blog (I’m a Giants fan so I ride an emotional roller coaster). At a glance, your font is small and difficult to read. I might suggest making it larger. Also, fill out your About page and tell us why we should come to you for sports opinions. Best of luck to you!

      Like

  21. Hi everyone! I’d like to introduce myself and my new blog on here: http://www.thetallblondestrawberry.wordpress.com I share a lot of fashion, artistic and rambles of a creative..ME…and would love to connect with more wordpress bloggerrrrs! 🙂 I’ll browse through the comments below, pop me one as a reply so I can see what you up to and vis-versa 🙂 ciao for now! x

    Liked by 2 people

      1. Thank you hun! 🙂 I appreciate your feedback! Your writings are quite whimsical 🙂 I’ll be sure to follow

        Like

    2. Hello – I don’t know how I missed your blog before! I remember you commenting on the commons. The blog has a lot of interesting content and I browsed around a bit. I like your photography – the compositions and colours are great. My only comment would be the quotosphere page – right now it feels like a bit too much white space. I’d be happy to see some colour or photos embedded. But I could see how some people would like the zen feel to it.
      Great job!

      Like

      1. Quick follow up – the quotasphere page doesn’t have the tabs on top – maybe consider putting all tabs on top for the reader to access your main pages easily again? I do like those quotes.

        Like

  24. Good morning! I am upgrading my account soon due to shortage on storage and was wondering if anyone had recommendations or advice on how to make a photography-heavy blog consume less storage space!

    I took a drive to Estes Park/ Bear Lake at sunrise for my latest blog post and would love to share the beauty with you guys! So stop on by and let me know what you think!
    Thank you! Have a beautiful day!

    http://www.capturedwanderlust.wordpress.com

    Like

    2. Your pictures are so pretty~ 🙂 I wish I could upgrade my account some time in the future, but right now I don’t post much since I’m really busy nowadays, but if you’re committed then an upgrade would be fantastic! The features they come with are also super cool.

      Liked by 1 person

    4. Hiya,

      I think your about page is looking great! All round I really enjoyed your blog, your photos are fantastic and it’s very nicely organised, keep up the good work, you have a new follower 🙂

      Like

    5. Definitely gives a lot of information and background about why you’re writing your blog. The only thing I would suggest is proofreading a little bit to make your blog a little more polished (capitalizing “i” and stuff like that). But it seems like you’re having a great time and really enjoying yourself. It looks like an amazing journey, I followed you!

      Liked by 1 person

  26. Hi everyone!

    My blog is little more than a week old. People have been following and liking my posts, but so far no one left a comment telling me exactly what they like about those posts. I just wrote a new one, and it would be really helpful if you could tell me if it’s interesting or not, or if it’s not well written. English is not my first language, so I don’t mind people pointing out grammar mistakes.

    Thank you

    notsodailydiary.wordpress.com

    Like

    1. – You started with the beginning, how life was in the early years of life – and then you linked it to the grown up world, where things went from easier decisions in life, to the more chalenging ones. That was an interesting start.
      Now there is no one to tell you what to do anymore – other than yourself and your conscience – which perhaps was the reason you struggled so much with this particular decision.
      You wrote: “Opaque gray facts don’t tell you what to do”. I understand what you are saying – sometimes grey matter is exactly that – grey – a color that doesn`t really feel like a color and yet it sort of is, it has its own name at least….
      Interestingly enough – what could be a “opaque grey fact” to you, may be something else to me. So I kept reading to see if you were going to let us know what your grey fact was! You didn`t and that is just fine, because the point with your post was`t neccesarily to reveal your personal opaque grey fact – but to show us the struggle people can have when they have to make decisions they feel is _their_ opaque grey fact.
      I read between the lines in your post, that this was a more chalenging life-altering decision for you, you didn`t mention it, but it seeped through the lines. Otherwise you wouldn`t have felt the need to write the way you did.
      I liked your post for these reasons.
      Hope that was helpfull to you. Keep up the good work! 🙂
      ~Mona

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Hi! Thank you for taking the time to read my post and give such a detailed reply. I’m glad you enjoyed it. The decision I was referring to was if we should move from our apartment or not. Nothing too serious, but it was enough to make me think about the process. Like I said, I kept searching for some kind of sign that would tell me what to do without having to actually decide. That scared me a little, and that’s why I wrote the post.

        Like

      2. I did indeed enjoy your writing, you express yourselv very well 🙂 Although it wasn`t that huge lifechanging thing you dealt with – it was clear from what you wrote that the decision rattled your bones, perhaps more than you realized at the time 🙂 To move can be scary, after all: you know what you have, but not what you are going to get 🙂
        All the best!
        ~Mona 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  27. Hi guys! Just started a travel blog to document my various adventures and hopefully inspire people to do some ‘think outside of the box’ traveling. I am not going on the next journey (Hitchhiking 2,300km to Morocco from the UK) for another 2 months so I’m going to fill it with various ‘budget’ travel tips for now amongst other topics. I have literally just finished my first EVER blog post in my whole life today and I would love some feedback on it and perhaps some tips. Thanks guys, happy blogging! 😀

    Liked by 3 people

  28. I really need and want an honest feedback on and about my blogs:
    jenonlinenow.wordpress.com
    blissfulpages.wordpress.com

    I would love to hear from you guys, and if you don’t comment on my posts, I’d love you to email me at jsld12@yahoo.com

    Thank you so much! 🙂

    Like

  29. I have posted a new blog about 7 or 10 ten days ago called Brokenness. I haven’t gotten any comments. I have tags but that hasn’t seemed to help any. Could someone give me some tips? Thanks in advance.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Spend time on other blogs reading and commenting as well- oftentimes people will reciprocate with a visit to yours. Speaking for myself only I read many blogs but don’t always feel compelled to comment. 🙂

      Like

  30. Hi guys! My first time doing this, my blog is fairly new, and I have come to the conclusion that it could be really beneficial for me to get some constructive feedback from you guys 🙂
    – But note; my blog is mainly written in norwegian, but I do have a reserved spot in my blog for english posts also, simply because I find that it is a great way to maintain my english & it helps me sort thoughts & ideas in a different way when using english instead of my native tongue. Could you take a look and let me know if there is anything that need a look at, or if I am on the right track? Design ok? Here is the link to my english corner:
    http://denlykkeligeamateur.com/category/the-english-corner/
    Thank you in advance! 🙂

    Like

    2. Hi Mona – your blog feels very warm, thoughtful, thought-provoking and welcoming. I really enjoyed your post with the rainbow of eyeshadow – wouldn’t it be amazing if we could wear that kind of colour whenever we chose!
      Out of interest,can you feel yourself organising your thoughts differently when you write in English? I don’t speak Norwegian, but I can imagine there are things it’s possible to express in Norwegian that aren’t possible to express in English. Like ‘saudade’ in Portuguese or hiraeth in Welsh.

      Like

      1. Thank you for your words, that was much appreciated! It made me really happy that you said it felt warm and welcoming – and thought provoking – because that is what I try to do 🙂
        Re. organizing my thoughts differently… The answer must be a big yes on that one – at least when I am writing.
        My feeling is that the english language gives me enough space to express myself with some depth. Don`t get me wrong – I have no problem expressing deep thoughts and ideas in norwegian – far from it. But I find the english words more unintrusive if you will, and it makes me express myself more freely – the words doesn`t get in the way of what I want to say, if you know what I mean 😛
        I had to google the words you wrote, and I totally get what you are trying to say, and I also think you are correct. There are a LOT of feelings burried under those layers of old norwegian inheritage, and the words to come with it. But the thing is, a lot of norwegians aren`t really openly in touch of their feelings in a way that other people feel more comfortable with. I originally had a lot more to say, but I think I will make a blog post instead, it would be too much to write in here 😛
        Thanks again for your kind words! Let me know if there is something else you want to know 🙂

        Like

      2. Interesting how different languages suit different people in different ways. I have a good friend who only spoke Welsh in the family home but, once she went to school had to study in English. She’s bilingual, but she says that when she needs to talk about something close to her heart she can feel the pull of Welsh as the ‘right’ language to communicate emotion.
        I can imagine that English words would be more ‘clean’ and fresh for you – with no history.

        Like

      3. Indeed! An interesting example you had regarding your friend there. Talking about things that feel close to home, so to speak, it would natural to be drawn to what is most familiar. And I feel that too. But it is strange, writing in english instead of norwegian makes it sort of easier for me to “narrate” what I observe, like a bystander telling people what I see 😛 Like you said – no history involved ( to “cloud” my jugdement)
        Sorry for late reply, the timedifference is quite substantial O_o

        Like