Aug 24, 2015 / Community Pool

Community Pool

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

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!
  • 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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  1. Hey Everyone! I’ve done some re-vamping on my blog, and would love some feedback! Also, does anyone know how to get a pinterest board widget to show up if you have the free hosted version? I’ve tried everything and it shows either just the link and not the board, or it takes me to a plug-in list and I have to own my website for that to work…any and all help is appreciated!

    https://thenewishwife.wordpress.com/

    Like

    1. The way Pinterest embeds appear doesn’t depend on your plan, it’s just that we only support some content from Pinterest. You can learn more about it here:
      https://wordpress.com/support/embed-from-pinterest/

      Some widgets from other platforms might not work properly on WordPress.com if they contain code that we don’t accept for security reasons. In those cases, though, there’s an easy way to create your own widget to achieve the same results. The detailed instructions are here:
      https://wordpress.com/support/widgets/create-your-own-widget/

      Like

      1. Thank you so much! I’ve seen a few pages with the Pinterest board widget and couldn’t figure out how they did it.

        Like

    1. Great stuff. One suggestion is to break up your posts a bit more (more paragraphs and spacing) and maybe even cutting the writing into more episodes, as unfortunately, the average attention span won’t read the entire piece as they are long. But great stuff!

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Hi Kailashstories, I have a suggestion for your title. Just a few grammatical errors: “If you want stories that thrill you…(I’d put a few periods like the other lines instead of a comma) Or touch your heart…Or make your smile…you’ve come to right place.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Hello fellow swimmers! I just launched my site back in July and I would love to hear your thoughts on it. I changed the theme a few days ago to improve it’s readability as well. Thank you so much! Hope you enjoy my content!

    http://rosearianna.com

    Like

    1. I like the minimalist look to your home page. Easy way of seeing your most recent posts, and looks slick without being complicated. I’m kinda jealous actually ha. Cool site I’ll be back.

      Like

      1. Thank you so much for your feedback. Your site’s posts are hilarious! Your points in Sidewalk Etiquette are so true.

        Like

    2. On first impressions your home page looks really good. Your style of posts are really unique and interesting and I love the little features such as the bar with arrows (not sure what to call it) that comes up at the top of each post. Things like that just make your blog look really professional and modern. So cool 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  7. I have a question: Is there a way to be able to format writing as you wish? I write poems, In which I like to lay out differently to say, a rant. Whenever I write my poems up, with the spaces I want, WordPress gets rid of my spaces between lines and mashes it all together. It just doesn’t look right. Oh and last thing… *Runs around on the deck.*

    Like

    1. I’ve definitely seen this discussed in the forums. I believe there’s a way, but might take a plug in or a bit of coding. You should be able to find the forum, if not let me know and I can dig it out as believe I bookmarked it.

      Like

  8. Hello. I have been the WordPress platform since February this year. I have been blogging about this, that and the other. Could you take a look and tell me what stands out to you? Perhaps with some feedback, I can focus on certain topics. Thanks for your time.

    Liked by 2 people

  9. Hi everyone. Just wondering about the look of my main page. Should I leave it as is, or use a plugin to add a “read more” feature, so that you only see a snippet of each post (i.e. feature image and the first paragraph), and have to click the “read more” button to display the article. I want people to easily scroll through content, but also want them to read it, so not sure what is most attractive.

    My blog: https://societycamp.wordpress.com/

    Thanks in advance, great community here!

    Like

  10. Hey everybody, I am new to the blogging thing and I am just looking if I should pick one topic to blog about or to keep it random with my rambling. I tried to make the layout of my blog as simple as possible, I don’t want people to have a hard time finding anything. Let me know if this layout is alright or if I should change it to something simpler.

    URL: https://ramblingkori.wordpress.com/

    Thanks guys, for reading. Happy blogging!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. The blog is really good, but I think you should stick with a single topic. If anyone is going to subscribe, it’ll be because they like the topic of your posts.

      Like

    1. Your sentences are well structured and your blog flows well. Also a fan of the way you introduce points by putting them in a personal setting.

      Liked by 1 person

  13. Hi all, I just posted a new blog article, and this one’s a big deal for me since it’s my first time writing on a controversial issue. Normally I avoid such topics in my writing, but I’m trying to grow and branch out as a blogger.

    I would appreciate any and all feedback on how I did on this first “argument” piece. Is there anything I can do to improve this article or future opinion pieces like it? Thanks so much!

    Here is the article: ” Abuse, Divorce, and Disjointed Marriage: Why It’s Not a Sin to Leave an Abuser” http://wp.me/p6m715-5l

    Like

    1. I enjoyed your post and feel like it’s a subject not spoken of often enough. Many people think the only just cause for divorce is adultery but it is helpful to see the scriptures laid out like that addressing abuse

      Liked by 2 people

  16. Hey everyone!

    I’m right at the end of my auto rickshaw extravaganza travelling across India but I’ve made more plans that enable me to steer clear of making the next big life decision and do something positive and great so follow me to hear about it!

    I hope you’ll enjoy it, comments would be wonderful

    Phil x

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Hay guys. Im wanting to use a new theme, more photo based. But i cant seem to get it right at all!! I used it once before and I couldnt get my pictures up. Any ideas?

    Thanks. Xx

    Like

      1. Really liked the short story “Burn me sunshine”. More of those. Would recommend trying make the structure of your writing a bit clearer. Read it back and make sure the written stuff flows smoothly. Also make use of images or if you have any drawing ability, try adding some sketches to add to the comic strip style that I think would suit you well!

        Like

    1. Hi Nick. Tony Deas here. I like the layout of the site. It will be even nicer once you have a little content on there. Content is everything.
      I know what you mean about getting around to doing it though. I work a lot and have to set down sometime late at night to get a post done that I haven’t gotten around to.
      The only thing that I noticed was that in your post you wrote that “it boils down the saying,” when I think that it should be, “it boils down to the saying.” It’s a little thing just thought I would let you know. I have to re-read my blogs over and over sometimes.
      I look forward to reading some of your post. You seem to have a good style of writing that flows well. I will try to learn that from you. It is something that I lack in my writing.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Hi Tony,
        Thank you for your feedback, it is pleasantly received and duly noted. Editing is not one of my strong points and something I must spend some more time on developing. Thank you for your kinds words and happy blogging!

        Like

  23. Hi everyone. My name is Tony R. Deas. My blog is at DeasCycles.com. I would love any feedback that you could offer on my writing style. I know that I tend use run on sentences and I try to go back to edit that stuff out. I will be visiting you guys sites as well and will give constructive ideas where I think that I might be of help.
    Thank you for your comments and time.

    That’s all for now. See you on the road.

    Liked by 2 people

  26. Hey everyone!
    My boyfriend and I recently started a travel photography blog. Right now I feel like the posts don’t always have the same format, and can vary in between. I was wondering if that’s an annoyance, or if it livens it up a bit and keeps things fresh. Any feedback would help immensely. I took the advice from the last community pool I commented in and implemented it so hopefully that has helped.
    Thanks in advance for the advice, I really need it ha.
    Dezz

    http://www.dezariphotography.com

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Hey Dezz,
      Just took a look at your blog and I don’t think there are any problems regarding variety in format so I wouldn’t worry about that. Have you ever thought of using a theme of blog where you use a featured image? I think this works well for photography blogs and use it myself as I think it gives a homepage a really aesthetic feel. Fair enough if its not for you, but just thought I’d mention it in case you’d never considered it!
      Annie

      Like

      1. I have thought about that. I’m not exactly sure how to do it though. Ari is the technical one so I’ll have him see if we find one that’s appealing. Thank you!

        Like

  29. Hi there people of the world. I am tired of seeing everyone against everyone else based on their differences, especially religion, so I just created Project: Free Faith in the hopes that people of different faiths can come together and enjoy our common ground rather than focusing on what separates us. I’ve only put up the one post so far but I would love to get some feedback on it and get a discussion going. It doesn’t matter what you believe or if you believe anything at all, you are welcome to come and discuss any and all aspects of faith or a lack thereof. Thanks for your time.
    projectfreefaith.wordpress.com

    Liked by 2 people