Mar 21, 2015 / Community Pool

Community Pool

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.
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  3. I’m new here and I’d love if those interested in finding a new natural hairstylist or don’t mind being featured on my blog,please do so. It’s smartymisshair.wordpress.com. 😊

    Liked by 2 people

    1. one of the things i noticed straight away was the size of your font. its quite small and can imagine readers losing interest halfway due to difficulty in reading. Your posts are informative maybe you should think about changing the theme of your blog? If not, try and keep your posts shorter and more to the point. I hope that helps?

      Liked by 2 people

    2. Hi – I also noticed the font size and agree with Sara that maybe a theme change would be good. I thought your theme looked a bit “business like” for a personal blog.

      With comments or, should I say, meaningful comments, you need to ask questions, provide something controversial, opinions etc. This will open the debate.

      You don’t seem to blog that much (two posts this year, one post last year). If you can blog more regularly to build up a following, that will also increase interaction.

      It might be useful to look at your stats to see where your hits are coming from – are they direct hits (so someone knows your blog is there), are they coming from referrals, or are they all coming from the same place in which case it might just be a bot?

      Keep working at it!

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Hi – love the colours and fonts but for some reason, in your posts, all the paragraphs are in scroll boxes?! I don’t know whether you’ve chosen to do this on purpose but it makes the blog hard to read, especially on mobile I would suggest (and seeing as that’s where most people use social media…).

      The “pre” attribute in your CSS has “overflow: auto” in it. I think this could be causing the problem (if it is a problem for you!)

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Hey Samantha!!!!surely I m gonna visit it!…I’d u don’t mind, have u followed me or this was just a comment?I’m sorry I m New here so….sorry if you you minded it… THANK YOU TO VISIT!!😃

        Like

    1. Hello Arko! I loved the pictures on your blog, as well as your writing style. Very enjoyable to read. I would add an About Me section, just so your readers know what your blog will focus on. I would also add some widgets in your sidebar. For instance, a “Follow Me” widget and possibly one that shows your recent posts. I hope this was beneficial!

      Like

      1. Thank you @pursuePeaceBlog. I am very new to this concept and am still finding my way around this. Thanks a lot for the feedback. I will incorporate them at the earliest.

        Liked by 1 person

  15. Hi guys! I’m new to blogging (obviously that’s why I’m here (: ) I’d like to get feedback on this recent blog I posted. I’m not a native English speaker and it’s my second language, I’d like to know what I can do better and what I can continue to do to make my blogs entertaining and informative. The layout of my blog needs work but for now I’m trying to focus on creating interesting content first. (Blog about health and fitness and anything else in between that might be able to help others)

    Thanks!

    http://thefitnessnut.net/2016/03/22/four-things-i-learned-that-helped-me-lose-fat-and-stay-in-shape/

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I read the post on the front page. IMO it is too long. If it were me: take a long post and break it up into 3 shorter posts. You get 3 post for the price of 1. Works out for you and the reader. Good luck!

      Like

    2. Hey Oliver_NF7!

      As a fitness-nut myself, I enjoyed reading your post, but can see what you mean about the layout issues. I had a similar problem when I started and the feedback I got was to:

      1. Include links, pictures and videos to break it all up.
      2. If you’re doing lists, highlight or put the heading in bold. It helps give the body of the text more meaning and the reader will be able to quickly refer back to it should they for whatever reason lose track.
      3. Perhaps, and its just a personal though, but with a fitness blog it would be interesting to track your own progress to back your claims and give your story more credibility. Not everyones into taking personal pictures, but it would be interesting to set yourself some fitness goals and document it so your readers can refer to it.

      Hope that helped!

      Liked by 1 person

  16. Hi Everyone!

    I just posted a new blog. If someone or a few people can check out the blog and let me know if the tone is inviting and entertaining, that would be great. Thank you in advance.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Hello AccidentallySingleBlog — I checked it all out. It looked great! MUCH better than my blog looked when I first started. I’m no professional, but I have a few tips. Your About Me section is good; however, I would look into cleaning it up a little. Maybe give a little bit better description of what your blog will focus on…I know it is about being single, but there was just something missing. I would also add a “Follow me” widget to your sidebar. That way, non WordPress users can more easily follow you. This was a big problem for me in the beginning. I hope this is beneficial for you!

      Liked by 1 person

  19. im 17 , im a writer and oh HEY. im sort of tired of writing with no friends to read my posts. I will make you think. please let me know if you like my stuff 🙂 feedback would be awesome

    Liked by 1 person

  20. Hi all! This is a great idea thanks to everyone participating. I’m new to blogging but I’ve always enjoyed writing. I created a blog to intertwine my passion for writing and my real estate career virtualrealestateblog.wordpress.com. I am interested in any tips on how I can market more and get more readers/subscribers. Thanks in advance!

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Hey quliabryant!

      I love that you’ve managed to successfully intertwine your passion and profession…something I’m trying to do with my own blog, but like you I am also looking for a way of getting more readers/subscribers.

      What do you feel has worked for you so far? I found that blogging about generic topics got a few views, but when I targeted the article toward one person in particular, the post did much better. People are much more willing to share if the blog contains something about them they might be able to benefit from!

      Let me know what you think 🙂 Have a great day!

      Liked by 2 people

  21. Hey everyone , i’m new to blog and i pretty much have got no friends to read or to give feedback over my posts . Do check it out and drop your comments . Thank you 🙂
    yamunasriravichandran.wordpress.com

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Hi YAMS!
      I just visited your site and read several of your posts. My heart ached as I read them. They seem to be filled with much pain and some anger. I don’t believe any real good piece of writing can exist without making your reader feel something. Emotions are huge. They will either cause your reader to relate and draw them into your writing even more or they will be confused by it and not know what to do with your words, with your story.
      So first, I want to commend you on making your readers feel something. The piece of advice I might offer is to figure out ways to let your reader know why they should care about whatever it is your are writing about. Paint a more vivid picture. For example in your “Lies” post sharing a line or two of common scenarios most people have encountered. Many you wrote about, I have not personally experiences and I wondered, “OK, where are they going with this”. It felt like you were sharing information, which is awesome, but then tell your reader what to do with it. We cannot make those connection on our own. You’re off to a great start and I hope so much my thoughts and critique here is useful to you. Also, incorporating pictures might help too. Pictures help to round out what our words are often incapable of depicting!
      Blessings!
      Karyn
      https://saturatedinseattle.wordpress.com/

      Liked by 2 people

    1. EARL JAMES!!!!
      I hope you can sense my excitement there! I just visited your site and my first reaction was, “Wow! I can’t wait to see what he’s got going on here”. Your design is very appealing and made me want to explore! Really, really nice job.
      Your poems!!! Off-the-hook! I only wished there was more! They are relatable and paint beautiful word pictures in my mind!
      I have no constructive advice for you because your site and published pieces are incredible! Just keeping doing what you’re doing. I’m a follower now, btw, because I literally cannot wait to see what you put out next!
      Blessings,
      Karyn
      https://saturatedinseattle.wordpress.com/

      Liked by 2 people

      1. I’m actually speechless! 😀 I don’t know what to say really, I am really touch . I really appreciate everything you said 😀 and actually I’m feeling very pressured right now HAHAHA, pressured to publish better poems but you became an inspiration for me to continue doing the craft 😀 Thank You very much! 😀 you are much appreciated 😀 Thank You again and Happy blogging too 😀

        Liked by 1 person

  23. Hi to all fellow community pool swimmers!

    I started blogging about 3 months back and have had some pleasing numbers on some select stories, but others absolutely bomb in comparison. Anyone know why this is?

    I find that writing blogs about other people, rather than my own experiences, helps get more shares and likes: people are much more willing to share something if it is going to benefit them!

    Any feedback or suggestions would be very much appreciated! But in the meantime I’ll just keep swimming! Have a great day.

    Liked by 3 people

    2. Hi Jason. I am about three months in to my blogging experience as well. I was having this same issue. Now, of course, I still have some posts that do so much better than others; however, if your categories and tags add up to 15 or more, your post DOES NOT appear on the reader. This would mean no one sees it. I was creating as many tags as possible, thinking the more tags I had, the more activity I would generate. However, you want to keep that number below 15. I hope this is beneficial.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Thanks for your feedback. Much appreciated!

        To be honest, I’m not getting many views from the reader anyway…Facebook friends and Twitter followers are my main source of views. How would you recommend achieving a more visible presence in the reader?

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I wasn’t getting ANY likes until I posted something about motherhood. Then, one of my tags was motherhood and I received MANY likes (compared to zero, that is) and about four followers from one post. I would do a couple posts where you could tag a VERY popular subject. For instance, I seem to get a lot of hits off Christian, Motherhood, and Parenting. I don’t know what your tags are generally, but try to do some tags that will be searched by a lot of people.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Hmm thats the thing…I mainly focus my posts on soccer, and still have no likes on any of the posts (apart from Facebook, Twitter shares, etc).

        I always tag “Soccer”, but I simply presumed that there would be so many other blogs dedicated to the sport that mine was being lost in all the numbers, but Christian most likely has even more! Even if it is the worlds most popular sport!

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Another thing you could do so it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle is pair your posts with a really inviting picture. Have you tried just tagging sports instead of soccer? Make it a little more general. I would switch a few things up and see if any of them help.

        Liked by 2 people

    3. Hello Jason, i liked your blog, the subjects you’re approaching and the layout, for me at least, the posts are kind of long and the attention spam of an internet reader is not longer than a 3 year old’s.
      Liked a lot that you also posted in spanish.
      My original blog is in spanish, but not long ago I created an english twin for it.
      here’s the link to both of them
      https://thereadingcouchblog.wordpress.com/
      https://wordpress.com/stats/insights/elsillondelectura.wordpress.com

      I would say the easiest way to get more readers is to publish here on the pool and using the correct tags, for example, for some unknown reasons, my first post in spanish “El conejo de felpa” is still the most visited each month.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Hola Lina!

        Thanks for your feedback. I had been warned about the length before, but my borderline OCD attention to detail means I struggle to leave anything out!

        The Spanish thing was just an experiment to 1. keep my Spanish family in the loop and 2. see if it would attract more viewers…hasn’t worked in the first two days, but I’ll keep my fingers tightly crossed!

        You mentioned publishing the posts “here on the pool”…you’ll have to forgive me but I’m extremely inexperienced with this whole blogging malarkey, so didn’t quite get what you mean!

        I checked out your blog and felt it suited the overall feel and message perfectly. That’s what I’m hoping visitors will get from mine. Out of interest do you blog just for fun, or do you try to generate business from it too?

        Gracias. Espero que tengas buen dia!

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Hello Jason, by “here on the pool ” I mean on this space, the Community pool; it surely has helped my to not only get more readers, but to know other bloggers and is always nice to find new topics to read about.
        Regarding your question, I write just for fun; as you may see, I love the language and writing is a vacuum for my brain; I just do it so I can share my mind with the readers, and maybe encourage them to pick a book and read it,

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Ah, it all makes sense now! I’ll make sure I keep in the loop on here from now on.

        I made it my new-years resolution to read more, but in my senior year at university, and with the blog, it’s proving difficult to manage my time. Any good, not too long, motivational books you would recommend?

        Liked by 1 person

      4. well it depends on your type of book, but I always recommend Stephen King, maybe the four seasons, they’re 4 stories, not that long. Let me know! here’s my email if you want to talk any further lmbf1229@gmail.com

        Like

    1. Hi Amanda,

      Loved the layout of your blog site, but if the majority of your readers have a short attention span (like me!) a few pictures, external links and videos might help to break up the body of text.

      As a fitness nut, I’m interested to find out how you hope to inspire others in the fitness aspect :)!

      Have a great day.

      Like

  25. Hi people

    I am new to blogging and I appreciate your comments. It is quite encouraging for newbies like me..
    I will be sharing my opinon on issues concerning men and I will appreciate if you comment and subject. THANKS

    Liked by 3 people

  26. Hey everyone! I have been blogging for about three months now and still get such a ridiculous thrill every time I get a like. I have been averaging about 10 likes and a couple comments for my posts. This was so good for awhile, but I seem to have hit a rut. I’m gaining few followers with each post and I’m looking to increase my likes and comments. Any suggestions on how I can increase my activity? Thanks a ton! pursuepeaceblog.wordpress.com

    Liked by 3 people

    1. PursuePeace!

      OK, I just have to say, I like you! I started with your About Page and knew I would relate to you as a wife, mother, church-goer (Christian), who likes to write about this and that. You seem down-to-earth, which automatically makes you relatable. I wrestle with my faith bc there are things I have yet to comprehend, and I grew up in the church! (This is what I write about) Sigh! Anyway, this isn’t about me!

      I read your first two posts, which are vastly different. I like variety. It shapes who you are and where you are coming from to your readers, so I like that you’re not a one-trick pony, as they say (or something like that). I like that there is a common thread throughout your blog however, a solid foundation so to speak!

      Your content was on point; relatable, drew your readers in, caused them to feel your frustration, desires for better and more, as well as your sadness and loss. As I read, I wanted to read more!

      The only piece of advice I could offer is to consider breaking up your content. Your paragraphs are long, which grammatically is fine, but to the eye, a little tiring. I like too, that you incorporated pictures here and there, but I am wondering if more pictures and ones that are more vivid in color would catch your readers attention. I need to do this myself! (I am still learning!) I’ve read that putting some phrases in bold or italicized print also helps break up content, so it’s more appealing.

      In short, your content is great. I mean, really great! I think it’s just a matter of fine-tuning the aesthetics. The hard part seems natural to you, so way to go! Btw, I’m a follow of yours now! Can’t wait to see what you put out next!

      Blessings,
      Karyn
      https://saturatedinseattle.wordpress.com/

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Aw thanks so much for all the wonderful compliments! I actually prayed yesterday that God would give me a little pick-me-up in terms of my writing and you were definitely the answer to that prayer, so thank you!! You also offered me some GREAT suggestions. I plan to definitely incorporate them. Pictures are my biggest struggle for sure. My son is vying for my attention now but I intend to check out your site as soon as I get a chance. I am interested to see it 🙂 Never been to Seattle myself but I picture coffee shops and clouds, which are two things I thoroughly enjoy 🙂

        Like

    2. Your site is visually pleasing and the content is good. The only thing that might discourage readers is the length of your posts. One thing to try for generating comments is to ask your readers some questions. My site is about biblically-based leadership http://gracelead.co and it is an example of super short posts combined with a library of longer book summaries and tools.

      Like

      1. Hello, nice to hear from you
        I will do as you recommend
        I have 2 entries now and I Hope you saw them
        Please How do I increase my visibility. THANKS

        Like

      2. well, sharing your site here on the community pool is always a plus if you want to get more readers, also using tags will help readers to find your blog.
        Hope this helps.

        Like

    2. One way to get visibility is to visit some blogs that are similar to yours and leave some comments on their posts. Another way is to set your blog up to automatically share posts to any social media accounts you have. http://gracelead.co

      Like

  30. Hey fellow bloggers,
    I’ve just started this blogging malarky and I’d really appreciate some neutral feedback (I tried asking my family but they seem to love everything I publish, which is nice but not very helpful 😛 )
    My aim is to bring new customers into my facebook shop, but I’m not sure that’s coming across all too well on my blog. Any advice?
    mysterydatewithabook.co.uk
    Thanks! 😀

    Liked by 5 people