May 25, 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.
  • No running on the deck.
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  1. Hi!
    I would love to start a blog, but I really don’t know where to begin. Some and any advice would be great!
    Jane

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I’m new(er) too, but just in general I would suggest figuring out what the blog would “be”. Photography, essays, cooking, etc? What are your interests and what do you want to share, and with who? If you can answer those questions, I think you’ll be well on your way!
      Good luck!
      Tracy
      http://viewfromthehandbasket.com/

      Like

    1. I agree with collegelady17! Love your writing style. You are clearly brilliant and I am looking forward to more from you. I like the theme. It works really well with your message, writing style and content. Well done!

      Like

  3. I absolutely love your blog. It is sweet, open, and everyone likes to read things that cast a new light on everyday things. You’ve got a great writing style and the theme you chose is simple and easy to navigate! Please keep writing!

    If you feel like checking out a blog, I’d love to have mine critiqued. I’ve been out of the blogging world for a few months and I’m trying to get it back into the loop. Here’s my new post if you’re interested. Thanks!

    https://collegelady17.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/when-to-let-go/

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Hello 🙂

    I have left a comment here before asking about my general writing style and format, and I received some very positive feedback and advice that I was able to take on board and I was extremely grateful for.

    My last few posts seemed to have been advice based and I want to steer away from that for a little while, so I did a post about my trip to the zoo haha to keep things a lighthearted and fun:

    https://livingforthatdream.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/toni-went-to-the-zoo/

    I’d love some feedback about the content for these types of posts, when I am writing about something I have done or somewhere I have been. I would be more than happy to return the favour :-).

    I did another post about when I went to Budapest for comparison:

    https://livingforthatdream.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/girls-just-wanna-have-fun/

    Peace!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Really good photos! It would also be interesting if you can write something about the pictures. And write about your adventures too! 🙂

      Like

      1. thanks very much 🙂 the posts in my blog talk about each travelling adventure 🙂

        Like

    1. I liked the imagine this part,very informative,I am a student and i have seen some of my friends freaking out and getting very angry when someone threw a ball at them to catch,now I know the reason,the theme and writing style were also great.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you so very much for the feedback. It is much appreciated and I am glad you found a personal way to connect to it. I just read some of your blog. I like it!

        Like

  7. Hello everyone! I’m a young college student blogger, and I’m looking for some feedback on the cohesiveness of my posts. I’m not sure of how much of a theme (subject wise, not visually) to stick with, and feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

    audreysmusings.wordpress.com

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hello! I personally am much more interested in the posts that give insight about you as a person, the funny stories, the personal stuff that shows your voice. I’m not one for numbers and statistics xP

      But honestly if you like to post different kinds of things, who says you need a theme? You don’t have to choose 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi there! Please don’t post duplicate requests to review your blog within a single comment thread — it’s a bit spammy and we delete the repeats. Thanks!

      Like

  15. Hi

    I’ve recently started writing a blog about books I’m reading (I know, ANOTHER one of those), mostly to practice writing, and to keep track of things I’ve read. But I would also be quite keen to start off the odd discussion about the books themselves with others. Here is an example post

    “Swamplandia!” by Karen Russell

    If anyone could give me any feedback on ways of improving my layout etc, that’d be great!

    Cheers, Lisa

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi, its great that you post so regularly. What you could do is just show a small piece of each post on the homepage. That way it might get more visually appealing, and less overloaded with text. Also it will be easier for readers to find the books that interest them in order to kick off discussions. Another thing you could do is delete the About Page, since there is no information on it. Or even better: Update it, even if its just a few lines about you and or your blog.

      Like

  16. Hello, I have a couple of different questions:

    1. I just published a new post https://pregoshape.wordpress.com/2015/05/28/workouts-for-men-2/. Since my target group is very small I wanted to know if this is appealing and motivating to everyone else.

    2. I was wondering how to get more WP readers to read a freshly pressed post? Is there something like groups, where I can post to other people with similar interest?

    3. I recently changed my whole layout and would be interested to get some feedback about it.

    For instance is it annoying that coming from the homepage you have to click through two images to get to the category?

    Looking forward to your comments!

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Hello –
    My blog is super basic and plain. I love to write, and I honestly do it for myself. I get good feedback from my audience (mostly friends and family) but none from real writers. I am 18 and I aspire to write really well. Please check out my blog, which by the way is named after myself – The Young Kat.
    If I had to give one of my favorite posts, I would share this one: https://theyoungkat.wordpress.com/2015/04/24/dearest-2015-grads/

    I would love to hear back from you with tips or simple constructive criticism if you have any.
    Also, I feel as though my look is boring.

    I am so open to anything 🙂
    Thanks,
    Kat

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi! I don’t think your look is boring at all. The vibrance of the header picture makes up for the white-and-blackness of the posts. Does your theme allow widgets? Maybe you’ll like it better if there are some widgets going down the side of the page.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hmm, that’s odd. I have the same theme as you and none of my homepage pictures have done that. I’d advise re-uploading that picture and then setting it as the feature image in the post again. Good luck! Love your blog so far 🙂

      Like

    1. Hello! I think including pictures is a very good idea, especially for the kinds of things you’re writing about. Words can only trigger so much emotion, and the visual aid can definitely be powerful.

      Like

    1. I think you write in a flowing and beautiful style. Yes your post made sense – to me you are struggling with wanting to recapture the desire to run again against the pain it causes, as well as the looming marathon you feel committed to do. In the end running four miles is a small victory…maybe setting smaller more achievable goals is what you have realised. On a personal note, I’m a walker for fitness, and this is something you can do for your whole life. Running burns the calories, though it can cause more injuries…good luck with running, and writing.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment. I am not a natural runner, but I find it challenging to push myself to do something outside of my comfort zone. But besides that I try to ride my bike and go hiking just so not to end up with all the running injuries I have heard of and have experienced as well.
        Thank you again for stopping by, I really appreciate your feedback.

        Like

  26. Hi all. Interesting to read the different stages and topics of bloggers. I’m a Young Adult writer, and my book Collision is due out soon. I’m intending to write more regularly on my blog ( aiming for weekly at least.)
    My recent blog May 27 was on the cover of my book, and I’d love some feedback on the design and concept of it. Also my blog page is a bit blah…can anyone suggest just a few ideas to pep it up. It’s a big learning curve, isn’t it….but fun too.

    Liked by 1 person

  27. Hi all. I’m getting started with blogging and my themes seem to be emerging organically around life/work, cycling, dogs and extrapolating from stuff I read – both books and articles. I’m interested in taking on board any practical advice about how to leverage my work thru channels like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook by using images, tags, hashtags, how often I should re-post material before I do a new one, etc. I’d really welcome any practical advice about how to build a readership. I attach a link to my most recent post below. Thanks in advance

    https://wordpress.com/post/69667222/50/

    Liked by 1 person

  28. Hello Everyone!

    I have a relatively new blog – mostly travel stories from India. I also write non-travel posts under ‘Others’.

    http://lostinmaps.com/

    Please let me know how I can improve in terms of layout, writing style, pictures etc. Also, should I have a different blog if I want to publish many posts that are not related to travelling, or can I have a separate category here itself. Any kind of constructive feedback would be appreciated. 🙂

    Thanks
    Swati

    Liked by 1 person