Jan 5, 2015 / Community Pool

Community Pool

The place for tips, 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

984 Comments

Comments are closed.

Close Comments

Comments

      1. Just a couple of thoughts…. I don’t know what your ‘theme’ allows but I think your site might benefit with some ‘widgets’ such as a follow by email, or WP follow, (makes it easier for bloggers to do so) maybe a tag cloud widget or latest posts widget..makes it easier if people want to choose which posts they want to read. Another thought is for you to use category or tags as that’s how bloggers find you easier…. hope this helps a little… Diane

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi…just a couple of things… It is usually a good idea to break your post up with more paragraphs… seems easier to read for others… Really important to use categories and tags with every post because that’s how others find you… like if your story is about family, or it’s humorous or about Christmas… you would use tags ..family,sister,Christmas,humor, etc… hope it helps .. Diane

      Liked by 1 person

    1. The colour palette for your blog is really good. all the shades of green work well together, it looks very professional.
      I think the picture at the top could do with a bit of cropping as its quite a long scroll down to any text but otherwise, keep blogging!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I like your branding, it looks really professional. The yellow background to the posts is a bit brash, but if your doing this for effect it is certainly working! your title at the top could do with a background as it its difficult to read the orange text against the multicoloured background.

      A nice start though, keep going!

      If you have a spare 5 minutes check my blog too!
      https://artartz.wordpress.com/

      Like

    1. Hi Joe,
      I think you chose a nice, visual theme for your blog and I enjoyed looking at your pictures from Iceland! A possibility that I would consider is to post less images per post. The impact of each individual picture is just stronger if there is not a whole bunch of other images competing for attention. I would probably suggest to divide post like the Iceland one into several smaller post in the future. It’s very possible that others feel different about this though!

      Like

  11. Happy MMXV ! Anyone out there using the Spectrum theme? I’m setting up a new blog and was experimenting with it, but could not figure out how to get my photo image to display. Have done it in the 2014 theme for now.
    I can see from the demo that Spectrum is set up to display photos. What step am I missing? Thanks!
    http://spaloa.com/

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I might be misunderstanding your question, but I think what you’re asking about is displaying your featured image (more info on those: https://wordpress.com/support/featured-images/). The reason this doesn’t work in the Spectrum theme is that the theme doesn’t support featured images (whereas Twenty Fourteen does). You can browse through the many other themes that support featured images here:
      http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/features/featured-images/

      Like

  12. Hey guys!
    I’d like to know how to make a blog post more visually attractive. I have 3 posts till now, and it seems pretty plain, as compared to some of the blogs that i visited.
    Appreciate the feedback! 🙂

    Like

    1. I think a judicious use of images will go a long way toward making your posts more visually striking. In case you’d like some ideas on how best to find and use images for your posts, here’s a piece we published last year on finding free-to-use images online:
      https://wordpress.com/dailypost/2014/04/30/free-images/
      And here’s another on one thinking about your posts’ layout as you integrate images into them:
      https://wordpress.com/dailypost/2014/05/26/balanced-post-design/

      I hope you find these two helpful!

      Like

  16. Hi everyone 🙂
    My friend has been working on her blog and would really like some feedback 🙂 She’s too nervous to ask on her own so I decided to help her out 🙂 Please check out this post regarding Ebola http://wp.me/p2zIV7-4o Thank you in advance 😀 Please leave her a positive comment/like if you like her work.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi! Nice blog so far! The only thing I would suggest is somehow put the title together rather than leaving “ion” at the top just hanging. Also, I would suggest to try other themes that would better suit your blog that would help to get the best response from readers for your serious topics. You seem to like art a lot. Are you an artist? 😀 Anyways good luck with your blog!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you so much!! I wasn’t really expecting anyone to actually reply haha, I’ll take into consideration every piece of advice that you’ve given me. Btw, I’m not an artist just an 18 year old Engineering student. Art is a passion just like writing

        Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you for reviewing my blog! You have chosen a great theme for your blog as well! Hemingway Rewritten was my first choice but eventually I settled for Tonal, btw I like your humorous style of writing and it is a good collection of paintings you sport there! Nice blog overall

        Liked by 1 person

    3. Hello Nocturnal Reflections!

      I just read your poem ‘The Stranger’ and I greatly enjoyed it!–I left a comment on your page sharing my thoughts about the post. Your site has a different feel to it, it is absent from being cluttered with images and widgets which works well for the tone of your posts. However, I would have loved to see an image in your ‘About’ page and I thought there could have been more there describing your posts. Overall, great job and I look forward to reading more from you!

      Liked by 1 person

  22. Hi there! I’d love for you to check out my blog and let me know what you think of the topics I’ve talked about. I want to appeal to non-vegans as well as vegans as a collective audience, but focusing on those topics to educate and give insight 🙂 Any comments/criticism would be amazing!

    Like

    1. I’d like more explanation of the calculator you’re using–who developed it and why others believe it’s a good one to go by. I’ve never heard of it, so I’m curious. You’d build more credibility if you did this, so your posts aren’t just you saying things are good now, especially since you say you aren’t a nutritionist. Back up your ideas with others who are in the know about this kind of information and misinformation. I’m a vegetarian and I’m always looking for new ways to know if I’m being healthy or not–you don’t tell us how many calories you’re ingesting, and I know calories are a big part of overall health… I’d certainly like to know that as well! Thanks for sharing.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. My calorie values are actually on the CRON-O-Meter pictures! I think that would be great to go into more detail about the website. Do you think it would be worthwhile for me to list various different videos/links/documentaries/books at the end of a post when I talk about something like that?

        Like

    2. Hi there!
      I enjoyed your posts, I have gone through a vegetarian phase at one point and loved it. I always thought vegan was something I could never conquer, but your posts are very informative and shines a light that I could! Also liked how you compared a meat-eater’s diet to vegans.
      Have a great day!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you so much! I really appreciate you following me. Do you think there’s any posts I could do that would appeal in a non-threatening way? I don’t like the stereotype and want people to witness a calm vegan who likes all kinds of people, no matter their diet!

        Like

      2. I think a lot of people don’t understand why someone would choose a vegan diet. Other people are just scared to learn about a different way of doing things. I think an interesting post would be your transformation from meat-eater to vegan. Forgive me if you already have a post like that! But I do think that would be interesting and give readers a look at veganism from your point of view.

        🙂

        Liked by 2 people

    1. The style is elegant in design, and I wish mine were so beautiful. I would like captions on the images, though–what are we looking at? And your initial story is very intriguing; I can see why you wanted to write it into a book. Are you the little sister? And forgive my ignorance, but what country are you writing in/from? We’re a big world of bloggers here and this reader needs some help sometimes, knowing where people are coming from. Hope you keep posting–archival research is absolutely beneficial… if the new blog is not about your family, and it is about your own town, I can’t wait to learn more about it. But what I’d also love is some posts about HOW you dig through the archives. Is it happenstance, what you find, or do you follow a certain method of digging? Thanks for sharing–please check out my site and let me know if my first post has any potential for other writers interested in the same kind of research you have! https//progressandpreservation.wordpress.com

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Hi Gwen,
        The city of Amersfoort where I live is in the Netherlands. And I wasn’t the little sister, that was my aunt Gerda.
        I will add information to the pictures in the future. Thanks for the tip. The ‘Koppelpoort’ is so characteristic for Amersfoort that I forgot to mention that.
        For my familybook I read a lot of information on how to do research and it also was a lot of good luck.
        So thanks a lot for all your feedback. I will now jump into your blog.

        Like

      2. Hi Gwen, liked your post! Although it’s a bit difficult for me to understand (being Dutch) you have an interesting way of writing: it makes you curious to read more. Also the pictures add value to it.

        Like

  24. I have been following Community pool for close to two years and decided this new year to drop in and see what it is about. Still don’t know how to look at the board to see other’s questions. But I will learn soon. Have a nice day.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. If you click on “Show Comments” towards the bottom of the post, you’ll see the comments pop up in a sidebar on the right side of your screen. There you’ll be able to scroll through everyone’s comments and links.

      Like

  25. Hi guys I started making a game and desided to create a blog around it to get my idea’s out on paper, while theres not a lot of content (and not much at all around game dev yet) its all work in progress any and all critisism is welcome especially on my writing style as it needs much improvment thanks – Greg 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Trickery isn’t going to win you many long-term followers, so I’d suggest a more straight-forward approach. Lots of people are interested in reducing our carbon footprint, so be up front about it. The concept of saving “pounds” of carbon is catchy in itself but your blog title needs to be about carbon-free bike camping, I think. I would definitely follow your blog if you forgot about trying to lure people in and just worked on the content, which is really rather interesting! If you provided insights into particular routes/ trips that are amazing, others could follow suit and benefit from your experiences. You could also promote particular local businesses you found especially wonderful along the way.

      Like

      1. lol! actually I wasn’t trying to trick people – it was a play on words (also because I tend to really hate those ads….). I so appreciate the feedback Gwen! I’ll work on some revisions.

        Like

    1. Hello Gwen. Really interesting subject to read about and written in a nice ‘matter of fact’ style that allows the reader to make up one’s own mind, quite refreshing. I’ll be following! Dookes

      Like

    2. Hi Gwen. You can sigh with relief, as have not set this up incorrectly. The like button shows at the bottom of your ‘About me’ page because it is a closed page. As you start to publish posts, at the bottom of each one, it says, ‘leave comment’. Readers usually know to press this if they wish to comment or like a post. I have liked your post, so hopefully it might make it clearer. To set up the layout of likes and comments, you must go to the “widget” section. Drag cursor over top left of your blog page and scroll down the drop down menu to ‘widgets’. You might be able to set it up to suit your own taste. The theme you’re using is similar to mine… you are welcome to compare. I hope this might help. Persevere it takes time!

      Like

      1. Any you would like to give. How to know if im going in the right direction with what my topics should be. How to set up the page with a theme that works well. I honestly have no idea what i am doing.

        Like

      2. You can edit the theme on the main dashboard. It’s good to put a personal header photo on your page to make the ideas your putting across instantly obvious. This is all included in the theme editor (clock customise)

        Content is important so you will need to do a few more blog posts before you start trying to make your site more popular!

        You have all the widgets on the side, you could maybe reduce how many of these because at the moment you don’t have a big archive.

        Hope this helps. Ask away if you want to know more.

        And while your at it check out my blog 🙂

        https://artartz.wordpress.com

        Like

  30. I love your blog and have now started my own. It’s early days but I’d love if you could check it out and give any feedback! Also, question to everyone, how would you suggest I get my blog more known?? Thank you x
    stopandlistentome.wordpress.com

    Liked by 1 person