Oct 6, 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).

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Photo by Brian Cantoni.

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  2. When we’ll be able to use WP in 100% via iPad devices. ATM the WP app is quite problemactic and situation with adding and editing images make it almost impossible to use WP. Any plans to improve that ?

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    1. We are constantly working on new improvements to our mobile apps, including making media integration a smoother and more complete experience.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. It’s a really nice post, very funny.

      I just think that the introduction, in which you talk about your motivations for the post, it gives people too much to expect. Perhaps it would be best at the end? I just think it doesn’t help to explain your fiction before we can read it.

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      1. Thanks a lot for tuning in, that’s actually something that didn’t occur to me — I put in the introduction thinking I’ll answer the original challenge, but then it turned out to be something slightly different. You’re right that the introduction is now quite unnecessary. I’ll keep that on mind the next time!

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    3. Hmmnn Yeah… You have a good concept/idea but it would have been best kept in your notepad! you didn’t need to tell us before the story…it makes the reader kinda read absent-minded since we already know what its about.

      Just my thoughts though

      keep writing, I see you have great imagination and humour!

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      1. Haha, meaning I should’ve kept the entire post in my notepad or just the introduction 😉 ? Thanks for your encouragement though, it’s great getting honest feedback, and very helpful. Happy blogging to you!

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    4. Hey there 🙂 your closing line was your best. That did not come out right. Let me try that again. Your closing line was the best because it was short, sharp and hilarious 🙂 I enjoyed the story but agree with other commentators that some edit is required. We’re all so guilty of spewing verbiage in excess, particularly when we’re in the moment. So, in the words of Tim Gunn, step back, edit, edit, edit. I’m looking forward to reading more of your posts; they put a smile on my face.

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      1. Hey, Sheela, thanks a lot for tuning in and for giving your honest opinion! Yes, I agree, there’s still a lot of editing to do — I don’t edit my already published posts because I prefer to have my mistakes visible so that I shouldn’t forget about them — but I will take your advice for my future posts. I guess I’ll need to wait a bit longer before publishing something and try to edit what I’ve written with a fresh eye after some time’s distance. If that makes any sense. Thanks again and happy blogging!

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    1. Hey,

      I really like your blog, I think that you’re very brave to not go back and edit your posts if you come across typos – a great way to improve! Your writing is very honest and open, it really makes it fun to read. Keep up the good work 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Zee, congratulations on starting your blog. A few things I noticed. Your header is a bit to light. It’s hard to read. If you want to stick with with the pink color maybe make it a brighter pink, so it’ll pop more. Second thing is you use ‘I’ a lot. You could probably condense quite a bit of your ‘About’ if you take out some of the ‘I’s’ and combine some sentences. Also, you might want to consider breaking that one big paragraph into three. And as always don’t forget to grammar and spell check. It’s easy to miss when you’ve written it and proofreading it. Good Luck.

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    2. Hi Zee- your photo on the Home page looks great. You may want to consider changing the color of your title and tagline as the light pink is hard to read against the white in the photo. I can’t quite make out the entire tagline. Best of luck with your blog, it looks like you are off to a great start! 🙂

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    4. Hey Zee (yup, it sounds cool, alright). Blogging is a wonderful way to converse, isn’t it? 🙂 I concur with others that you may wish to break up the content a tad, so it doesn’t appear as lengthy. I find that stepping away then returning to edit always works in spotting grammatical as well as typing errors. Best of luck to you.

      Liked by 1 person

  7. Hello everybody! I’m very, very new to blogging and would love some advice on how to reach out to readers, especially when I have such varying blog content (it’s a mix of travel writing, veganism, TEFL, feminsm and personal things- I know, I know). Would anybody be able to read a couple of my posts and give some criticism?

    Liked by 2 people

    2. Cool blog, great sense of humor! Are you using any categories or tags on your posts? People tend to search by topic in the Reader for things that interest them. Maybe use a few tags (but no more than 15 combined categories and tags or it won’t be seen) such as travel, vegan, adventure, etc. 🙂

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      1. Thank you for the advice! I am using the tags and categories but I’m still a little confused as to the difference between them. Adventure is one I haven’t thought of, strangely enough!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I also found the difference between categories and tags a bit confusing at first. Categories are the overall subject the post falls into (so in the case of my blog – film, TV, games), and tags relate specifically to the topic of the post itself (e.g. review, news etc). I hope this helps/makes sense! Your blog looks great, with beautiful photos 🙂

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    3. Hi – I read your travel post and your post about sexual harassment at work.

      Enjoyed your post about hitchhiking in Mordor – your
      enthusiasm for seeing new things really shone through your words. There’s a tangible energy to your voice. Loved the photo of the little bird!

      I was a bit bemused by your post on your obnoxious student. Are you still teaching him? Is it one of those jobs where you have to give your mobile number to ‘VIP’ customers? (There are hotels like that here) Although I agree with everything you say about his behaviour, can you not anonymise him a bit? Aside from the fact that he might enjoy the notoriety, you might make legal problems for yourself by using his real name and photo. Also you’ve given him a big part of your narrative. I care more about your thoughts than about his arrogant sexism. It doesn’t vary much from country to country. Have you seen the everyday sexism project? http://everydaysexism.com/ By the way – suzie81speaks writes very vividly about male bullying of women on her blog.http://suzie81speaks.com/2014/08/20/the-tale-of-a-sociopath/

      Good luck with your blog.

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      1. Thank you so much for your compliments and advice.

        The student thing is a strange one, I work in a private language school and luckily he isn’t my full-time student. I’m the Principal of the school and although I do have some classes my job is also training and managing teachers and looking after their well-being.

        After re-reading my own post I guess I do put too much focus on his words, instead of my own. I admit this was probably due to my want to just write and publish it hurriedly before changing my mind. Regarding the anonymity, it was something I toyed with, but I felt that giving him anonymity also gave him protection from criticism. Being in Thailand there aren’t really any legal issues but I would be interested to hear yours and anybody else’s thoughts on publishing names etc for abusive behaviour, it’s something I’m still mulling over.

        Oh, and thank you for the link, it’s a fascinating website!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Hi – as you’re the Principal, can’t you throw him out of the school? Has he messaged other teachers in that odd way?
        Could you introduce classes on ‘social etiquette in English’ – with a snazzier name! – so that people who are learning the language learn what’s acceptable within its culture. If he’s learning English for future business purposes he’s going to come a cropper if he starts speaking to female executives in that rather bizarre way.
        It might be interesting to Thai students to discover the differences between what’s expected in Thai culture and native English speaking culture – I’m thinking of the US, the UK etc. Without judging or putting one culture above the other, but just exploring the differences.

        I’ve never lived in Thailand, but is that kind of messaging common in Thai?

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      3. Unfortunately the student’s behaviour just wasn’t enough to warrant kicking out, sadly I don’t get the final say!

        It’s funny you should mention bringing in these topics into classes, as we have brought in discussions about feminism, sexism, racism and language appropriateness recently (the perks of being the Principal and being able to work with/ hire open-minded awesome teachers!).

        Most of my students are in fact Russian, but we do teach any nationality at the school so it definitely is important to explore cultural differences and also tackle the problem of ‘simply’ translating from one language to another, because what is perfectly acceptable in one language can translate to complete rudeness in another – specifically English where we’re such sticklers for politeness!

        In regard to ‘those’ kind of messages. I feel that they are something that happen all around the world, and as a young female teacher I am especially vulnerable when I’m amongst so many men. I guess it depends on your workplace and how they tackle a problem like that. Luckily this student hasn’t shown his face since this chat so maybe we’re rid of him after all!

        Liked by 1 person

    4. Hi, I just stopped by and read your latest post (the Mordor one). If you had a “like” button under your post, I would for sure have clicked! I like your pictures and in general your writing style.
      I am fairly new to blogging myself, so maybe my advice doesn’t count as much but I would consider making the text column wider and the font bigger. I think my eyes are quite ok but reading your post was a bit less comfortable than it should be. If the text was wider, that might also make your pictures bigger and I think they deserve to be given a little more space! Another idea would be to make the text left-aligned instead of center-aligned. It doesn’t look bad like this but it sure makes expect to read poetry.
      I agree with the others here that using categories might be a good idea if you have mixed content.
      All the best!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you ^.^, and I never really thought about my text size, because my laptop is touch-screen I’ can mess with the webpage sizes really easily.

        I’ll work out how to change the text size and alignment!

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      1. Aaah I’m aware of this problem too Jill but I don’t know why I can’t seem to change the font colors for the widgets 😦
        I’m still trying to figure it out, Thank you for the feedback. I’m on it 🙂

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      1. Lol no no I think your eyes are perfectly fine ! It definitely is the color of my widgets, I’ve been trying to find a way to change it but so far I’ve been unsucessful. Thank you so much for taking time to check it out 🙂 ❤

        Liked by 1 person

      2. if I discover any useful advice I will pass it on – as you can see from my blog I keep everything uber simple as I know barely anything.. I do follow one good blog advisor – will see what it’s called and pass it on they know lots… 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

    5. Hiya! You’ve picked a nice theme, however the sidebar area/widgets are difficult to read – perhaps you could try changing the background or font colours?

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      1. Hey Luke, Sorry for a little late response, You are right. I kinda knew this problem when I picked this theme. I’ve been trying to change the colors of widgets but It’s not working. I’m still on it ! Thnaks a bunch for taking your precious time to give feedback. Hugely appreciated ❤

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      1. Thank you, I’ve changed the background now. But it’s very hard to choose a background which goes well with my header. I’m still trying to find something that works. Thanks for the help Ben 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

    1. This is not something I can relate to. In our culture, some of the older people might ask you your entire ancestry to determine if you are some long lost relative of a friend of a friend, but that is pretty much it… But familial ties are becoming looser, so even that is less likely.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. Hey, no problem! I’d love to read and comment on anyone’s blog, especially since they’re making the effort to share their writing 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      1. Oh me, oh my, I probably did >.< But I love reading and writing, and I love hearing about other people's experiences, and I also love helping others! So I don't mind at all 🙂 I'm going to go check out your post right now~

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      2. You’re the sweetest! I find reading other’s writing helps you find you own style and inspiration.

        I’m loving the honesty and raw quality of your own blog posts.

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      3. This is definitely true! After all, everyone’s style is shaped by the people whose writing they read!

        And you’re a darling! Thank you for that sweet compliment 🙂

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    7. You write with a discerning mind and maturity that far belie your age, and that’s brilliant 🙂 I too started writing at the age of 6 but lost my way for quite a bit. It’s just lovely reading quality pieces so, thank you for that 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I am sorry for taking so long to respond to this comment! I appreciate your kind words and I will store it in my mental encouragement box 🙂 It’s okay to lose your way as long as you find that path again 🙂 And thank you again for saying my pieces are high-quality! It makes me so happy to know that someone enjoys reading them 😀

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    1. Hi! I enjoyed reading some of your blog. Your writing is honest and almost poetically written. I would encourage you to share more about what drives you to some of the conclusions you write about in your posts. More pictures is always nice too! Be well.

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  12. I just started a new blog — a book club blog — and I’d like some feedback. The book club actually meets face to face and I wanted to use this to hopefully keep the discussion going amongest the group as well as anyone else out there that wants to chime in.

    Please let me know if it makes sense, if it’s to cluttered, etc.
    http://brokenspiners.wordpress.com/

    Thanks in advance.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. The basic concept is brilliant, keep that up!
      Design-wise I’d suggest to de-clutter the sidebar and footer a bit to make the site easier on the eye. Maybe make the pointers to the other projects a tad smaller as a start.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thanks Philipp, I’ve been playing around with the design for a few days and still wasn’t happy with it. I agree that it’s cluttered, but an outside eye is always good. I’ve been considering a signature at the end of my posts, which would include links to the other sites

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    2. hi
      i love the idea. i also agree with Philip Ulrich’s comment about de-cluttering the sidebar and footer. you could view it as making your book-blog more like a book and less like an e-book. reduce that digital feel. but that could be just me– still struggling with reading on screen…

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      1. Thanks and I don’t think it’s you. I feel like it’s cluttered and I wanted outside opinions. I never saw the digital feel, but now that you bring it up I can clearly see it; which means I’m going to have to simplify even more.

        Thanks for the feedback. 🙂

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    5. I like the idea of a book club blog and I also like the background pic you have up there. However, I think the traditional look of the background clashes a little with the modern, spacy header, both in terms of content and in terms of colors. Maybe you could try to unify that a little bit more?

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      1. Thanks for feedback and that’s a good point. Modern/Contemporary or Classic. And that may be contributing the clutter problem. Hmmm. I’ve got some thinking about a redisgn.

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      1. Thanks for the feedback. I did a lot of revamping yesterday and think this may be close to the finished product. I need to figure out how to use CSS, so I can change the font size in the sidebar. It’s a little small for my liking.

        Anyway, glad you like it and I hope you’ll not only follow the discussions but chime in once in a while, too. 🙂

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  13. Hello everyone,

    I was super excited to see this post as I have indeed just recently started a blog about some things I find interesting and important. I have set it up such that I have some pages with articles providing a working background of a few topics while leaving the main home page open for shorter posts/coments/etc. Any input on if this is effective or not would be greatly appreciated. Also, what might make the topic more interesting to people? More pictures? Thank you so much for your help and I will try to share my opinions with you others.

    http://energyrealities.wordpress.com/

    Pleas follow your bliss. Love and be loved.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Your blog has a nice layout and looks professional. Some of the posts under the different categories are quite lengthy and may deter some readers. You may want to break up the longer paragraphs to make it look less daunting. You have an excellent writing style that makes your topics easy to follow.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. i’m attempting something similar although trying to wrap it around a theme– my new life in IndoChina. so good luck to us both. i used to work in the publishing business and one of the most important rules is the need for white space. also the way you block your text with long paragraphs and not enough space between them makes it hard on the eyes. though this could be a function of your blog format. i’ve had trouble with a few until i settled on my latest theme.

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      1. Hello, thanks for the advice! I do seem to struggle with word press and its control over my spacing! It can be very frustrating to get things to sit how you want them to!

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  15. Would love some feedback on my blog of poetry, short stories, and interesting thoughts. Let me know if the theme looks alright and how the writing is please? 0r1g1nals1n.wordpress.com

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Your blog has a super sleek look to it- I absolutely love the look of it! Perfect color scheme, perfect photos, and short, precise paragraphs to your posts. Well done! 🙂

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    1. Well I don’t know that your thinking needs a change, but what I noticed on your lovely blog is a lack of sidebars and structure – enabling readers to browse posts through categories and adding different pages (about, contact, etc.) and widgets, for instance, could open up various ways to look at similar topics. If you’re not really sure how to address any of this, keep your eye on blogging 101 course, it’s awesome in teaching people how to play up the basics (I’m just finishing it). 🙂

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Thank you so much! I will look at that for sure! As you’ve probably gathered, I’m kind of a rookie at this so any tips I can pick up are MUCH appreciated!

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    2. I quite enjoyed your style of writing and did not, in the least bit, feel as though I was reading/watching reruns 🙂 I would, however, suggest using images? Photos, perhaps? Not only will they break up the content, photos also help to make each post unique 🙂 good luck!!

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    1. love the photos– are their yours? the poetry was enchanting, i liked “discombulated” in particular. i was looking for an about page so i could find out about you- is there one?

      what are your plans for organising these pieces? at the moment there’s just this long thread which isn’t bad but after a while i began to look for the end or the menu bar. so i could narrow my search, for example focus on poetry.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. You can buy a domain name from the store on your dashboard which allows you to remove the .wordpress part and name it whatever you would like (so long as it’s not taken) – hope this helps 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I visited your blog, left a comment and actually followed you! I like your simple-honest writing style… But then I couldn’t find your About page! Is it that you haven’t created one?

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    3. I left a comment, too, and also like your blog. Your posts are marked as “uncategorized” which will make it harder for people to find you. It took me a while to figure out all this stuff, but the WP support section was great. Hope you enjoy your online adventure!

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    1. I’ve already made a comment on one of your posts, but now for the layout: I like the layout of your blog, and they are very readable. I think increasing the post (text) width would improve readability, but as it is now it is perfectly fine.

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  26. If you are a fan of the X factor let me know what you think of my Twitter post round ups on my blog. Hope you are all well on this very wet monday…

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    1. I just love the design of your blog (the content as well, and we happen to live in the same country atm ;)) and I’m looking forward to your posts 🙂

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    2. Very appropriate design. As a travel blogger my first move was to check out your travel tab, but alas it is currently empty. Liked your graphics as well. Good job

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  29. what is our culture turning to in africa? my people does not value homemade things anymore, from foods to dressings,my question is “what will the king of creation say to africana that prefare european culture, greetings or damnation?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi, Idowu… Is that what your blog is about? I would so much like to see your posts!…you seem to have a strong convincing voice…
      But Bros? How do we link your site naa? you didn’t drop any link?

      ☺

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  30. Hi everyone! I’m starting up my WordPress as a way to practice my writing (I’m in j-school and started writing for the school magazine). I’m looking for feedback on the meat and potatoes – the verbiage – rather than the design or layout. It’s my first post, but I’m completely open to constructive criticism. Thanks!

    http://mintcreativ.wordpress.com/

    Like