Aug 31, 2015 / Community Pool

Community Pool

The place for feedback, tips, 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.

Photo by Brian Cantoni.

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  1. Hey guys and gals! I’ve been blogging for a few weeks now, and would just really appreciate some feedback on my blog in its entirety. If you would, take a minute and peruse my page and let me know what yall think!! Any and all comments are appreciated!!

    http://newishwife.com/

    Liked by 1 person

    2. I personally have found that taking the time to sit and read others and comment/like, really brings more readers to your site. Every time you comment, you promote! This past weekend, I had about 5 hours of just sitting, reading and putting myself out there.
      I also started looking up link parties and Meet and Greets, which is another way to meet others who do the same type of content you do as well as throwing your blog out there for many others to read and check out and hopefully follow.
      Here is a great link to get you started. Janice is wonderful and has some really awesome tips.
      http://mostlyblogging.com/

      Check out this post on her site:
      http://mostlyblogging.com/how-to-quickly-find-3000-new-blog-followers/
      (I ended up re-blogging this, because it helped so much!)

      I hope this helps you out! Good luck!
      Cheers!

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Wonderful blog. Very honest and open. It has a lot of “words” on the page. Have you considered adding images to attract eyes to the posts? Just wondering because I am a pretty visual person.

      Like

  6. Happy Monday all! I’ve committed to writing a new post every Sunday night. Just put up my latest one in the wee hours this morning. I haven’t settled in on a niche yet but would appreciate a little feedback for some of what I’ve done so far. Everyone here writes so eloquently, I’m concerned a little about how my “voice” comes through. I’ve been steadily improving my activity but hope to capture a bigger following soon.

    Check out my site at http://debbiedeywrites.wordpress.com

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you, Michelle. I tend to “write like I talk” so conversational works for me. It’s always a rush when someone actually cares to read and then continue the conversation in comments. I appreciate yours.

        Liked by 2 people

  7. Hello All!
    We are a local San Diego food blog, part of a local catering company in the area. We share recipes, office tips, and pieces about local restaurants with our followers. We also have a community project LIVE on kickstarter, take a moment to check us out, we’d love some good feedback about our site and our blog!

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Wonderful blog. Very honest and open. It has a lot of “words” on the page. Have you considered adding images to attract eyes to the posts? Just wondering because I am a pretty visual person.

    Like

  9. My blog is primarily about motherhood! Toddler and baby days, I would like to find other fellow mom’s of young kids that blog so we can be on this journey togrther!
    Lifehowiknowit.com

    Liked by 1 person

    2. I personally have found that taking the time to sit and read others and comment/like, really brings more readers to your site. Every time you comment, you promote! This past weekend, I had about 5 hours of just sitting, reading and putting myself out there.
      I also started looking up link parties and Meet and Greets, which is another way to meet others who do the same type of content you do as well as throwing your blog out there for many others to read and check out and hopefully follow.
      Here is a great link to get you started. Janice is wonderful and has some really awesome tips.
      http://mostlyblogging.com/

      Check out this post on her site:
      http://mostlyblogging.com/how-to-quickly-find-3000-new-blog-followers/
      (I ended up re-blogging this, because it helped so much!)

      I hope this helps you out! Good luck!
      Cheers!

      Liked by 4 people

    3. I tried to access your website from an iPhone and it is not mobile friendly. I would recommend trying a different theme that is set up for mobile traffic since so many people look at blogs from their phones. Currently on yours I have to scroll over to read every line and see the entire site.

      Like

      1. I’m not sure if you were replying to my link or not? Thanks if you were! I will take that into consideration. I use an android and it appears mobile friendly on mine but I will definitely check that out. Appreciated!

        Like

    1. One of the fastest ways is to read other people’s blogs and leave helpful comments. It seems like the WordPress community is really great about reciprocity. Search topics that you’re writing on in the reader and engage with other bloggers. They’ll head on over to your site and return the favor nine times out of ten. There’s also Blogging 101. I met a bunch of new friends through Blogging U. Many of them now follow my blog and I theirs. I hope that helps! Audrey

      Liked by 3 people

  12. Hi all! I just published the second installment of a new weekly feature I’m doing on my blog. I tried tweaking this week’s movie analysis based on some of the feedback I got here last time round (thank you again, all). Please check it out and give me your feedback and suggestions. Anything to become a better blogger!

    Thanks all. It’s “The Avengers: God Calls Us to Be Heroes” http://wp.me/p6m715-6K

    Liked by 1 person

    2. You have a great looking blog. I really like it. Keep it up. It looks like you have a icon in the middle of your about page though. You might think about moving it to the top or bottom of the page.

      Liked by 2 people

      2. Well, interestingly enough I have a 24 inch monitor. When I look at your blog at the full extent of my monitor it showed the proud and pretty icon jumbled in the middle of the first paragraph of your about section. If I minimize my screen down to a more normal size your about page looks just fine. So perhaps there is nothing you can do about that other than view your blog in different formats to verify what it looks like. Sorry if I caused concern. If I were you I wouldn’t change anything after all. but, it is strange that it looks fine on a smaller screen and incorrect on a larger screen.

        Liked by 2 people

    3. Hey Giulia – blog is looking good – i really enjoy the Welcome font you have going [probably more than the title font altho i get how a title font needs to be easy to read]

      Personally i would move latest posts above categories on the right simply because i think someone might be more attracted to a fun title than a category but that’s just personal preference or maybe something to experiment with – i like how uncluttered the sidebar is – i could learn much from that.

      The general look of your posts with the big pic to the left is really amazing – i assume that’s your theme but it works really well.

      All in all you have a classy looking blog.
      Keep on
      love brett fish

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Also just read Every Night Has Its Dawn and it is such a well-written piece. i take it English may not be your first language as there are some tiny grammar errors but you make up for that with some intricate words and a classic style of writing – if you want to lose the errors you could ask someone to proofread for you or it may have happened if you posted too quickly as i often do… but REALLY good stuff – thanks for sharing.

        love brett fish

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Thank you. In fact I had not thought about inversing the order of Category and Latest Posts in the side bar but that’s a great suggestion, I just did — thanks for the suggestion!

        Like

  14. HELP!! How do you make your social media icons larger? I have mine in the social media widget, and I don’t see any way to make them larger.

    Liked by 3 people

    2. i love your banner – so much fun – well done – and completely expresses what you are trying to be and do…

      Your theme as well – look, background, vibe is really fun and that’s what you want to be going with with your subject material. Really done a good job.

      One thing i have been experimenting with lately which i like [when i remember] is the cut-off function [Read More] where you add the icon after a paragraph or two and that’s all it shows on the front page and then when someone clicks read more it jumps to the rest of the post – your posts are longish and so it’s nice to get more of them on your front page at once so people get more choice?

      But ja, it is great
      Keep on
      love brett fish

      Liked by 1 person

    1. As long as you aren’t mean in your comments and you still have respect in a possible debate over something taboo or controversial. Other than that, I think you can pretty much post/talk about what you want.

      Like

    3. If there was something against bad language in blogs I would have been in trouble a long time ago. Generally if you’re not a jerk to others in the community you’re pretty much fine.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Good morning! I’ve had the same thought, Fabuleesy, but have concluded the same as Valerie. Write well about all the things that interest you and gradually you will attract readers.

      Like

    3. Yeah, I’m not having a problem with the variety at all. And I probably laughed at hipster Adolf harder than I should have. But seriously, don’t piss off amateur artists.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi there – one of the best ways is to comment on blogs that are similar to yours with perhaps a link back to a post that is similar to people will go ad check it out. Another way is to invite other people to guest post for you so that you can tap into some of their audience when they share their post on their social media and also if you know someone who might be up to returning the favour.

      Depending what you write on, finding groups on Facebook or articles in the press dealing with similar things and leaving links back to a blog post – starting a Blog page on Facebook and putting all your articles there and growing an audience – asking friends to share a post you particularly think is strong so you can target their friends and pushing things through to Twitter if you have and other social medias…

      Hope that is helpful
      love brett fish

      Your blog looks good – has a nice neat look and feel to it – just need to get some people to visit and a bunch of them will stay i’m sure…

      Liked by 2 people

    2. I agree with Brett, you’ll most likely really want to connect with old and new followers through social media. I might recommend rearranging widgets a bit to orient your follow/subscribe buttons closer to the top so they look less like an afterthought. Networking is a pretty powerful thing once you figure out where to look.

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Nothing much to it. Find a subject you love and write posts about it. 🙂
      Welcome to the blogging world. I hope you have fun! 🙂

      Like

    2. Well, you started your blog and that’s the first big step. Now tell the world about yourself! Add an About page, consider adding a tagline. Pictures and widgets are highly recommended. Play with what you have and connect with the community; coming to the Pool was a great start. Good luck!

      Liked by 1 person

  27. Hello all! Hope I’m not too late to the party 🙂
    I’ve been trying to decide if I want to change my blog’s theme. Currently, I’m using the Intergalactic theme, and I like it. But the featured images sometimes become too overwhelming on the home page as you scroll by. I’ve gotten a comment about it before and decided that it couldn’t hurt to consider changing it. If someone could take a look and give me some feedback, I would be very appreciative!
    http://nerdilyblog.com/

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I actually really like the huge pictures behind the post title. It kinda feels like scrolling through Instagram. 🙂 I also like how unique it is. I’ve been blogging for a year now and I think I’ve only seen a design like this one other time. It makes your blog memorable.

      Like

    2. I like the current theme, but I can see how it could get a little overwhelming to look at after a bit. I suppose I’m boring, because I picked one theme and stuck with it. Regardless of whether you decide to make the change or not, your comic book earring tutorial is perfection! Loving the new tutorial feature.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. “World wide web include billions of websites, Where some has free valuable content, some has great premium content, But mostly websites have no content, As webmaster are publishing many sites just for earning purpose, So you’ve to browse Google search to find out required data.”

        Like

    2. Your posts are just fine. I’d agree with Pankaj when he suggest you look for an alternative theme to make the page look a little better. You might also want to consider adding visuals – I find that helps.

      Cheers!

      Like

    3. Definitely a different theme. What can you do to increase interest? More widgets, adding visuals, fleshing out your About page… step back and take a critical look: Someone clicked your link. What will you do to keep them there and keep them coming back for more?

      Like

    4. While I like the idea of the theme being similar to paging through a book with the post being titled as you would an actual chapter. I do feel that some kind of colour or imagery, no matter how simple, might add to the impact of your writing.

      Like

  30. Hello everyone! I’m Chelsea, one of two from the duo 2 Really Broke Girls.

    We have a blog with no set subject; we write about our daily lives as, you guessed it, two really broke girls and are looking for tips on how to improve our blog whether it be content or layout. Of course, we love the compliments, but we would appreciate some constructive criticism a bit more.

    We will definitely share the love and check out everyone’s blog!

    Liked by 1 person

    2. hi there – i love the simple banner with the heart – looks great and the writing of 2 really broke girls fits with that…

      i don’t see an About page – do you have one of those? Something that gives a BRIEF sense of who you are and what you’re both about and what you’re trying to do with your blog…

      Perhaps you could add some tabs if there are a few different types of posts you write so Fashion, Life, Realtionships or whatever – just because it makes it easier for people to find specific posts and also helps people rediscover a post they enjoyed before whereas at the moment you would have to scroll forever to find it…

      hope that helps but it really is looking good
      love brett fish

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Hmmm it is tough to make suggestions as I am quite taken by your page.. here are some to consider:

      Perhaps a more bold, creative font for your header would add to the rustic heart you have put in place.

      As a reader, I imagine I would like the title of each post to be a bit more visible/present.

      Your photos are absolutely stunning 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      3. Thank you for the feedback! Unfortunately they’re about another blog whose link was mistakenly shared as ours. We’d appreciate it if you could take a look at our blog at 2reallybrokegirls.co. If not, thank you!

        – Alex, the other broke girl

        Like

      4. I love the layout. Perhaps I could suggest trying another font? As a reader I feel that I might like to feel more connected with a font not as straight forward.

        Other than that, I love the pictures that you have included, although when it comes to the articles that don’t have images in them the page starts to look a bit too white. Maybe consider some colour play there as well.

        Love your work 🙂

        Liked by 1 person