Feb 16, 2015 / 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.

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    1. I love the look and vibe of your blog! It is great to see the personal pictures of your adorable animals. I like that you post about a variety of things to include recipes, books, and animals. I am following! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Hey Poppy! I love the layout of your blog. The pictures and text seem to “match” your personality. It’s super-cute.

      Great Valentine’s Day post. It was even-keeled and well-rounded, which not all discussion (read: rants) about Heart Day are.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Good afternoon, everybody!

    I have a few friends in Venice, Italy, and they would love to hear some feedback on the photos they took there during Carnival 2015: http://bit.ly/1Cxg8M0. If you leave comments on the site, they will see those, but feel free to reply here if you don’t want to leave them on the site. I’ll try to pass the comments along to them. Thanks!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I’d love to be able to visit the carnival – it’s so colourful. Thanks for giving me a glimpse. Just an idea to consider – you might experiment with cropping some of the pictures more tightly.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Hi folks. Mine is a general question, I suppose. Do you find that your “voice” has changed, as the posts, months, years, go on? I would like to think that my blog (http://fascinatorium.com) is a physical manifestation of my mind palace, but I’ve been going back and reading older posts and wonder if I’ve gone from writing about/for myself to writing for an audience (however small). Something to consider, or just something to get over?

    Like

    2. If we’re posting it on the internet, aren’t we always writing for an audience? I write with the expectation someone else will (hopefully) read it, so we might be coming from two different places. I also believe that someone’s writing could change over time, like everything else in life.

      The real question is: Does any change you’ve noticed bother you?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I don’t know if anything has changed, really. I think it’s more that when I figured out the stats page and seeing the traffic (or lack thereof). I think I got self-conscious when more people stopped by. I know it doesn’t make sense – yes, we’re writing on the farking interwebs, hardly a personal diary. But I write anonymously, so there’s always been a buffer. I think I just have to own it ans see what happens…

        Like

    3. Hi – I know what you mean. It’s odd when you can feel yourself changing the way you write to satisfy people you’ve never met. I have a feeling it happens most early on, because you’re acutely aware of your first readers and go into a hyper-customer-service spin to try to keep them happy. After a while you regain your own balance and you end up with something that’s true to you but more edited than something you’d write for yourself in a diary. I think.

      I was thinking it’s our one chance to know how Schrodinger’s Cat felt – the act of being noticed fixes you one way or another! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Speaking of high school science terms, I likened it to the Heisenberg Principle – simply by observing something, we can inadvertently change its trajectory, or even its very nature. Take that, Big Bang Theory.

        Like

    1. Hi yousratoday, great photos. I like the simplicity of the layout – it makes your photos pop. It is hard to find the name of your blog, though, and the follow button, since it is all the way down on the bottom. Look forward to seeing more!

      Liked by 1 person

  10. Hi everyone,
    I would really appreciate some feedback on my writing style and blog in general. I’ve recently published a post about winning the versatile bloggers award. However, I blog about a range of things including books, travel and being an aspiring author. Lately I’ve especially been enjoying writing random contemplations post. It’s always great to get feedback as it all helps me to improve.

    https://infinitedaydreamer.wordpress.com/

    Thank you 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Hello! I write poetry and short stories. Here is one of my more recent poems about that overwhelming sense of nostalgia that can come over some of us sometimes. Please feel free to give me your thoughts about this poem and any others on my blog! Thanks so much 🙂

    Nostalgia

    Liked by 1 person

      3. Hey! So I really enjoyed looking around your blog. The theme/layout that you’re using is great; It’s clean/simplistic and allows the reader to really focus on what you’re saying without sacrificing style. Also, I really enjoy your writing style! I’m excited to read more about your adventures 🙂

        Like

      4. Thanks! That means a lot. I’ve been playing with the colors a bit, and I hope to add more user interaction as time goes on, but I’m just a newb. Thanks again!

        Like

  17. I’ve written review of a visit to a landscape designer’s private garden. Instead of creating a new post, I added the review on to an earlier gallery of images, together with a few new photos. Then I sent out a brief post today to explain about the update.

    I have two questions:
    1. Would you be happy to get a post about an update to an old post?
    2. do you think it’s a good idea to keep the review and pictures together?
    3. My new theme Sela allows me to justify medium sized images left or right and this is my first attempt but I think this looks a little daft on my iPhone. I won’t use this feature often, but what do you think?

    PS This is my first time using this forum and I have no idea whether the links will work or not!

    Like

    1. Hi susurrus, I’ve been thinking about updating the first post I ever published – but I was worried the update would languish on the older post and be missed by people. I hadn’t thought of using a new post to direct people back. I think this is a great idea and am probably going to do it myself!

      For your subject especially, I also think it was a good idea to keep the review and pictures together. The page looks great on my computer.

      Like

      1. Thanks for your comments – I appreciate them. Just one comment in return about your blog – it might be worth taking another look at the tags and perhaps adding a few more. I’ve not seen hashtags being used much on WordPress – though I’m quite new to this myself. And I loved the Serenity image you shared!

        Like

  18. Hello, I would be interested in some comments on my blog https://spiritualadvocate.wordpress.com/

    It is a religious blog, specifically Catholic, but I hope not heavy handed.

    I am using the Coraline theme, and wonder how it looks and feels to someone that may not be particularly interested in the content. And then, for folks interested in the content, I am curious to hear thoughts on content and length of post. I fear the posts are too long, and am not sure the writing lends itself to someone sticking through the whole post. Anyone willing to wade through a post or two, I’d appreciate the feedback.

    Thanks!

    Like

    1. Hi Frater, I browsed through a few of your posts and can’t help wishing the layout was a little wider, since the posts are so long. A theme with a wider layout for the main text might help cut down the scroll time a little.

      Also, I thought your last two posts were very interesting, but I’ll admit I didn’t make it all the way through them. Is it possible to chunk them into shorter blocks? You could make a long post into a series, and link them together with categories, tags, or pages.

      Like

      1. Hi girl_dreaming, and thanks for looking at my blog. I really appreciate the feedback – do you know of a clean theme with a wider layout that you would recommend?

        Also, I will work on the breaking into logical chunks. Thanks for the feedback.
        FB

        Like

      2. I can’t think of one off the top of my head, but there are good sort options on themes page to narrow your choices.

        Go to your stats page and click “Themes”. Then click “… MORE” and play around. I might try the “Minimal” type with one or two columns. Hope this helps!

        Like

      3. I had it set up with three columns, borrowing from a blog I was doing that I deliberately wanted to look like a news paper. So, I changed to a two column format and I think it helps. Thanks for the feedback.

        Like

      1. Thanks, I will do that. I did change mine to two columns since the theme had that option. One column seemed too wide on my laptop. But I will look at some other themes.

        Regards

        Like

    1. Your poetry is beautifully breathtaking and the layout really suits your posts, the mix of styles means that each time you post it’s fresh, new, and enjoyable to read. You’ve got an about page and a contact page. In all-excellent!

      Like

    2. Your blog is clean and pleasing to the eye. I would have liked more white space with “Afternoon encounter with the dark hair boy” though. Overall. I enjoyed your content.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you for the feedback. 🙂 It’s much valued.
        More white space, hmm…I shall keep that in mind.
        It’s good to be critically analyzed, for it gives one the chance to improve upon the follies. Thanks!

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Meils, this looks great. I may not follow (bit of a creepy thing for a middle aged man to do) but good luck, keep adding content regularly and it will grow into something you are really proud of.

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Love your blog! I love the layout of it, I think it is very modern and eye-catching. I would suggest maybe give us a little more insight in your “About” page. I know you don’t have much to say, but maybe you can start with why you started blogging and the purpose behind it (if you have one). Otherwise everything is great, I’m excited to follow!

      Liked by 2 people

    2. Love the Hunter S Thompson quote, matches the presentation and theme of the blog nicely. I love the naturalism of your style and particularly enjoyed Swan Song, having recently graduated from university it struck a certain chord 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  26. Hey everyone, we’re three history students who have set up a blog about how climate change affects the individual and what individuals can do to stop it.

    We’d be really interested in hearing your first impressions and some feedback on how to make it more interesting for readers 🙂

    Liked by 4 people

  27. Hi Everyone

    I am fairly new to the blogging game, but would love if a few people would like to stop by whilst passing through and let me know what you think about my blog and posts.

    If you get to read any of my posts, leave a comment and let me know what you think 🙂

    If you have any suggestions on a blog topic etc, let me know 🙂

    Thanks 😀

    Blo88er

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Blo88er.
      You need to embed a link to your blog in this post (copy and paste from the toolbar is how I do it – though there are probably better ways for less lazy people than me)
      Then we can all drop by.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I really like your blog and your topics of information. One piece of advice I would give is to use the “read more” tag for your posts so people can click through to them to read further. With longer posts, it can become cumbersome continuing to scroll down to find more. Otherwise I really like your subjects and style of your blog. Keep it up!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you very much for looking at my blog! Okay, thank you for the advice, I’m still relatively new to blogging so I’ll be sure to give that a go with my future posts!

        Liked by 1 person