May 18, 2015 / Community Pool

Community Pool

The place for advice, feedback, and friendly blogging conversation.

Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/63057306@N04/5734415538">Beachfront Solutions</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">(CC BY-SA 2.0)</a>

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! We tend to delete duplicate comments asking for feedback on the same post.
  • 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!
  • When leaving comments, please remember not to add your blog’s url as your signature. It’s kinda spammy: after all, your handle links directly to your blog.
  • If you haven’t looked at our Commenting Guidelines in a while, now might be a good time.
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    2. maybe try and sign up on my blog for email alerts. In the meantime I will try and figure out why you cannot follow on wordpress!! Happy writings!

      Like

  4. Hi!
    I’m Janice. My blog offers tips on engaging readers, improving content, and increasing traffic. I am looking to grow my readership. Here is the link to my About page so you can check out my blog. http://wp.me/P5jxvv-1 There is even a free incentive for signing up. Just scroll down to Free Cheat Sheet.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. hey Christina,

      Thanks for sharing your blog with us. Just scrolling down before reading any of it, it looks like quite a friendly blog – decent sized pictures, enough space, contrast between written word and pictures. Definitely eye-catching.

      Like the title Blob post which fits really well with the fact that you were catching people up on a few weeks. Kinda long for a blog post but since it was the big catchup and since there was so much different stuff that made it stay interesting.

      So on the whole it is looking good. About Me page is full of interesting stuff but typically [from what i’ve read on here] shorter is better so if you can sum up yourself and the vibe of your blog in two paragraphs and a picture even better [i struggle so much to write short and need to go look at mine again i’m sure] but typically ‘About Me’ is the grab-you trailer to the rest of your blog so i would aim for everything on one screen as much as possible. The rest of your blog will do the rest.

      Keep on – it’s fun
      love brett fish

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Hi, Brettfish! Thank you so much for the amazing and thorough feedback of my blog!! i really appreciate you taking the time to check it out and for the help. I’ll be sure to visit your blog =)

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Very cute! Love the white background, which makes your colors “pop!”
      You have a very bubbly writing voice which refreshed my spirit this morning!
      Keep up the happy-work!
      Hugsnblessings!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Hi, Dawn Marie!! Thank you so much for your feedback and your time! =) I really like the white background, too! Aww, that’s exactly what vibe I want my blog to be like! Thank you for letting me know this! Have a nice day!

        Like

  7. Hi all! I’ve just kind of set up my blog how I think I want it. I need a little help with a few things, namely:
    Personalised ordering of posts in categories;
    Linking header image banner to gallery page;
    Creating excerpts of posts rather than displaying full text unless heading clicked on; and
    Converting hyperlink YouTube video to an actual Video where it doesn’t do it automatically.

    Any assistance is much appreciated!

    https://leonwark.wordpress.com/home/

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I can’t help with all of those, but I can aid with a few.
      *As far as I know you cannot choose the order of dates within a category, it is chronological by default I think
      *Apologies, I don’t know. Consider asking in the forum (https://wordpress.com/forums)
      *Depending whether you write in the old or the new post style, there is a button on the first line of tools which has a block above, a dotted line, and a block below. It is either three buttons in from the left or four. If you hover over it you get the text ‘Insert Read More Tag’. Click on it, and where it is, only text above that will be displayed on the home page
      *Youtube URLs on a new line should generate the video, but if they don’t click on ‘Insert Media’, then ‘Insert from URL’, and put the Youtube URL in there
      Hope this is helpful, please ask if you want any clarification (you can contact me directly at https://thebookblogger2014.wordpress.com/contact-me/)
      Best, TheBookBlogger2014

      Liked by 1 person

    1. hey Srishti,

      Thanks for sharing – your blog piece very much reads like a spoken word especially with all the big words you used in it – has an amazing flow to it. Keep on.

      Only thing i would try figure out is how to make it stop breaking words in half at the end of sentences cos that is a little distracting…

      but keep on
      love brett fish

      Like

      1. yeah I just figured out on that and changed my theme’s code !
        Extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused !
        However there is another one I wrote up, think you could read up the same.!

        A Quick Night

        Like

    2. I think you’ve actually got quite a narrow subject base and I like that. People will know what to expect and more or less what they’ll be reading about when they follow your blog. It’s obvious which category each post shown on your home page falls into from the photos you’ve used so it’s easy to find your way round.

      So far so good, I’d say!

      I’m also pleased to see you’re a Man Utd fan 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    1. I really loved your photos, particularly the in-depth photos of flowers. I would be curious to hear in the posts where you took the picture, and what kind of flower it is of. I additionally liked the photo of the workers from above, and would be interested to see more of a similar kind-rush hour traffic, random streets… You have a new subscriber!

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Hi Hammad,

      I really like your site. Nice and interesting content. Especially I love the blogs I like feature with all these big pictures of other blogs. But this is a contra point as well. It draws (at least my) attention away from the main content and in the “worst case” someone clicking on one of these links and your blog is kinda gone and forgotten. Well as I said before only in the worst case. On the other side your blog is following the mind of networking and that’s good as long as others link to your blog as well.
      The feature with the hiding menu is pretty neat. Even if I didn’t find it at the first sight so I was kinda stuck on the main page. Regarding all other things keep on going!

      Have a nice day as well!

      Kind regards

      Matthias

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Thank you very much Thorin for such an in-depth comment
        That hiding menu feature is because of the theme I’m using. I will look up for a new one where menu doesn’t hide up by default.
        Thank you once again for checking my Blog!

        Liked by 1 person

  13. Hey! I’m working on finding what content I enjoy putting on my blog most and I would appreciate feedback if there is any consistency to the format of my posts. Also, I am unsure if the theme I have effectively displays the material that I post. Thanks for any feedback.
    Joseph

    Liked by 3 people

  15. Dear blogger community. I started my blog about two years ago. I blog about costuming, miniatures painting and strategy games. Overall I like my design but I am pretty unsure about the overall layout. Sometimes I think it is pretty confusing. Unfortunately most of the pages are in german, but at least my question aims on the layout and not (so much) at the content – even if I would be happy to get some feedback or comment on it as well ;). So I’m looking forward about your feedback. Regards. Matthias
    (http://artsnmore.wordpress.com)

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Hi Matthias – thanks for sharing – i like the general look and feel of it – the graphics are amazing and help a lot – i think if you just look at the page there is quite a lot of writing as the links on the right are quite tightly connected to your posts but i don’t know that it’s a problem – you do focus a lot on pictures and i think that helps – if anything i would try find something that makes the whole thing a little wider but i do have a huge screen on my laptop so that might be why.

      But on the whole it looks very interesting and i love the option you have for some multilnguage posts – quite a lot of work you have put in there and love your collection of Star Wars figurines.

      All the best
      love brett fish

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Tara, left some words on your blog – really love the look and feel of it with the picture in the background and the white writing which isn’t detracted from by the picture – really well done. Post does feel a little long but it was very interesting and loved what you had to say especially with the focus moving from love to trust and how they are linked.

      Good one
      love brett fish

      Liked by 1 person

  17. Hi guys and awesome bloggers!
    So, I have had my blog for quite some time and have started up again for a project we’re doing at school. I am still young, nearly in high school, and would love some feedback on my blog! Do stop by if you have the chance. I am passionate about photography and poetry, and I do my best in blogging about these things. Thanks,
    Olivia

    Blog

    Liked by 2 people

  20. Hey guys! I started a blog through which to share my lyrics and poetry. My first track and lyrics are up and I’d love your feedback on it all. If you like what I’m trying to do, won’t you please follow and support me? Thanks for your time, fellow bloggers. One love.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Hi, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I saw your blog, but I found the ‘Weekend’ post actually made me laugh (particularly the twist in the first one), and you’ve got a new subscriber!
      The only thing that I am not so keen on is the high usage of smiley emoticons, which may be a little overboard. If you’re looking for suggestions, perhaps a regular post of some kind of series, eg ‘Funny Fridays’ which may bring back a regular readership. Last suggestion, some nitpickers (ie me) dislike typos when reading posts, so just running through a spellcheck before posting may be an idea. These are just ideas which I find, but they may be your style and you may like them, so feel free to ignore them. I would really enjoy reading another with the same or a similar style.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. your suggestions are really worthy .. like gems for me .. and yes a series .. why not .. in next posts you will be viewing the changes .. 🙂 and i am glad you had a look .. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Hi, Bhavpreet! You’re more that welcome to post your link here, but please don’t re-post the same thing repeatedly — it comes across as spammy, and the duplicates will be removed. Thanks!

      Like

  26. hey there Community people,

    Two very different posts this weekend if you have time to look at one of them i would be so grateful:

    [1] A share as one of my ongoing Taboo Topics section of rarely spoken off issues and themes was from my friend Michelle and this story of her husband’s fight with lymphoma cancer: https://brettfish.wordpress.com/2015/05/19/taboo-topics-cancer-meet-michelle-and-xylon-van-eyck – this section of my blog is aimed at sharing stories to encourage others who may be going through similar journeys but be feeling quite alone.

    [2] The second is my second ever list in my attempt to bring more personal humour to my blog and this one was well received [with two people declaring it the BEST. LIST. EVER] and so would love to know what you think and which book you might personally choose: https://brettfish.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/10-books-besides-50-shades-of-grey-that-should-be-sold-alongside-mine

    Thanks a lot – looking forward to visiting a few new blogs now as i try to do every week to keep the reciprocity going. Thanks for your time.

    love brett fish @brettfisha

    Liked by 1 person

  27. I would like some suggestions to make the my blog more appealing. I feel very shy about blogging, and I’m not very adept at marketing myself. I just want to make a blog that looks good and feels good to the reader. I’ve always wanted to help other people, but I really can’t help myself at the moment, I just want to share my experiences and hopefully some peace can come to myself, and hopefully someone else.

    Liked by 2 people