Sep 14, 2015 / Community Pool

Community Pool

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.
Show Comments

773 Comments

Comments are closed.

Close Comments

Comments

      1. Thank you so much for your feedback! I loved your post, there is so much truth in it and the part about the pepper situation and everyone claiming they were Scottish made my day. Thanks for giving me a good Monday laugh! 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Loved these – visual AND they have the word pie in them. What’s not to like?! I made an infographic last week in a post for the first time, it’s fun to mix things up a bit 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Are posts about subjects that may be a bit uncomfortable to some people really that hard to promote? For example, I have 2 posts about when I was raped, “Stolen” and “Additional Comments About Stolen” and I think I have only 1 like. I have considered the possibility that they were poorly written but I have been reassured by many people over the years that they are well-written. So how does one get anybody to read a post about a potentially uncomfortable subject? I also need feedback about the theme and appearance of my blog; I keep changing it because I’m very new to blogging and I’m not sure what works or not 🙂 Thanks everybody!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. maybe people feel strange “liking” a post about a very serious subject? I have in the past read posts that I enjoyed a lot and left without “liking” them for various reasons. One was because I felt it was too serious a post to just throw a like and would’ve instead needed (I felt) a thoughtful/heartfelt comment I couldn’t quite put together. Other times I had already liked a number of posts on that site and felt a bit stalkerish to keep liking like there was no tomorrow. It’s not just about likes. People do read but sometimes the reaction is neither comment nor like, although one appreciates what’s being written.

      but if you want people to read your posts on any subject you need to reach out (add, comment on) to other blogs/communities with similar subject matter.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I took a look at some of your posts but specifically how you tag and categorize them. I think if you use less of them but more specific ones it will be easier for readers to find your posts… ie topics that people will likely search for.. family,love,parents,depression, etc. Those are just examples. If you make the them too wordy they won’t be found as easily and also a caution. It is advised that you don’t use more than 10 . Just some thoughts…Hope it helps some. Diane

        Like

      1. That’s what I’ve been wondering about, since I am so relatively new to blogging, if there are unwritten rules or courtesy or politeness about what to like or not like or comment on, etc.

        My understanding is that if I like something on other blogs, even if it was about a sensitive or uncomfortable subject, then I will mark it with a like, or leave a comment about WHY I liked it.

        If we mark “likes” on only safe, P.C. topics, then won’t that hinder writers from writing about tougher subjects?

        For me personally, writing about when I was raped was almost as tough to go through as the violent act committed against me. It took me years to finally complete my poem, “Stolen” but it was eventually a cathartic and helpful thing for me to finally get on paper.

        And I guess, as we all do, I would like validity and approval of what I wrote about, or just a simple acknowledgement of some sort.

        I realize that rape is not a happy, breezy thing to read about but maybe it was also my hope that putting my poem and experience out there, in a public forum, would generate discussion and comments; maybe it would help somebody else who had also been raped to know that it is not the end of the world, you can survive and be oh so much stronger for the surviving as well.

        I’m pretty sure that any “likes” my poem may generate will not mean that it’s being liked by people who condone or have ever committed a rape. I guess that is possible, but highly improbable. At least I hope so! 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Your first post was defiantly thought provoking but I felt a little dropped into the deep end with the second. I would suggest perhaps an image of the game and a bit of information about what the game is about for those of us who don’t know.
      Otherwise it looks like you’ve made a pretty good start.

      Like

      1. That true I could have dropped some pics in etc. But just getting used to how it all works but thanks for feedback will try working it all out and the idea for first post was to try and get people to think

        Like

  5. Hello! Akanksha here…an artist who has a passion for writing and communicating. Starting to have a blog has drawn more of my attention towards writing. Hope you like reading some of my posts. Please feel free to comment your views and feedback, on 16akanksha.wordpress.com
    Thank you ! 😀

    Liked by 3 people

  6. Hi everyone, uhm you would not believe how nervous i am right now. I just decided to start blogging today for the first time ever! I have literally never done anything like this. But please check out my first post africanentity.wordpress.com/2015/09/14/justthinkingoutloud/ and let me know what you think and where i might need some improvement. Thank you 🙂

    Liked by 5 people

    2. I just started too i will go check your blog out, could you possibly do the same for me? I would really love it if you told me what you thought 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    1. I love your site! The pictures are gorgeous and the layout is really nice. I get a really good sense from the blog of “you,” which can be hard to do when there are so many bloggers out there and everyone can kind of blend together. Followed!

      Liked by 2 people

  9. I just recently began to blog but I have almost 50 years of collected quotes, etc. in my commonplace books that I have transferred to my commonplace blog: https://jeneanebehme.wordpress.com
    If you are doing a high school, or college paper and you need a particular quote that would be helpful to include, please check out my tags, categories, archives, etc. and I’m sure that you will find many appropriate quotes. Thanks everybody!

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Hello! I have a problem with my embedded Youtube videos not showing up on the Reader like it does for some folks. I’m using the Nucleare theme. Can somebody tell me is there’s anything I can do?

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Just to clarify, I think you’re referring to VideoPress, which is indeed a paid upgrade and allows you to upload video files to your site. by contrast, YouTube embeds — and other media embeds — are free for everyone.

        Liked by 1 person

    3. Your theme doesn’t affect the way your posts are shown in the Reader — it’s that you’ve chosen only to display excerpts of your posts there rather than full posts. If you revert to full posts in the Reader your video embeds should work just fine.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Ohh thanks Ben. I did not know it affected the videos as well. Have to check it out then. It’s just that I wanted people to read my posts over in their natural habitat than on the Reader, so I’ve gone for only excerpts.

        Like

  13. I started blogging yesterday and would really like some feedback on my blog and how to improve it. So far I have only wrote 2 posts an introduction and a review, likes and comments on ideas would be much appreciated, thanks❤️

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Hi there! Your blog (so far!) looks clean and fresh – great if you’re going to be mainly beauty focussed. I’d suggest filling in the About page as this come up blank from the navigation buttons. And use the ‘read more’ button to help break up the text / making it easier to scroll to other posts. Hope this helps 🙂

      Like

      2. When you’re drafting a post, on the formatting toolbar (where you select bold/italic etc) there’s a little icon that looks like a box separated by a dotted line. If you hover over the icons with the cursor it will give a description of each function 🙂

        Like

  14. Hey fellow bloggers!
    I have just written my first blog post on my page, after only setting up the blog yesterday. Im super excited and would love to get some opinions on my first post and the layout/accessibility of the site so far.
    I hope you enjoy reading 🙂
    Tom

    Liked by 4 people

    2. Love you blog. I also have a travel blog and ant wait to hear about your trip around the world. I like your usage of social media widgets. I was viewing from my iPhone and it looks pretty good. Keep it up. Look at other people’s blogs and see what they have that you like. Are you categorizing yet?

      Like

  15. I have a humor post to share this week about shopping in Primark, a popular, cheap, clothing shop in the UK. I’m still trying to figure out which type of post works best for my site (advice, humor, reviews, etc), so I thought I would throw this out there for anyone who’d like to give their opinion on what type of posts might fit best for me!

    Liked by 2 people

    2. Just a couple of thoughts. Add more categories to your posts whenever possible as some readers just search that way. I notice you only use 1 usually…but many tags. I would increase your categories. For example if I write a post on humour,quotes,family,life I might use them as categories and usually it is suggested 10 or less tags…. I didn’t realize when I began blogging the importance of categories and tags, but that’s what will increase traffic…. Hope this helps Diane

      Liked by 1 person

  20. Hello All, My name is Sonal ,I am an engineer by profession, working in IBM.. Traveling is my passion my love… Here is my first blog about my Solo travel to Switzerland … Its not complete it … will finish in next couple of days .. Have a look at it and let me know how it looks … any feedback is most welcome … Thank you !!!!

    Go Solo girl

    Liked by 2 people

  23. Hello all,

    I’m enjoying exploring all of the blogs that have been posted so far.

    I’m posting a link to a piece of poetry that I wrote but I welcome all feedback on my blog. I think my layout is kinda boring but I get a little overwhelmed when I scroll through all of the choices. Every time I go to change it I wind up keeping it because too many choices. LOL

    If I am ever taken in to police custody…

    Liked by 3 people

    2. This is a really strong piece of poetry, it would be great to hear it as a spoken word piece.
      I think simplifying the colours on your blog might be a good idea, just because the bright pink and black are so vibrant and glaring that they distract from the actual writing for me.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you so much. I performed this piece and cried like a baby as soon as I said my daughter’s name. Sighs

        Thanks for the tip about the colors. I’ll look in to changing that.

        Like

    1. I checked your blog, and from my point of view it’s very well written, i love the way you combine your posts with pics you take yourself, i would like to see longer posts and more pics 🙂 i followed you btw 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      3. Wow I love the mood of your blog!!! It’s so positive and uplifting – everybody needs a dose of happiness in their lives! Your blog is so well written and inspiring, but the best thing about it is the mood it leaves me in after reading!! Keep it up ☺️😊❤️

        Liked by 1 person

    2. I am not a fashion/beauty blogger but I know there are many out there who are, so hit up those tags and start networking with fellow bloggers!
      Happy Blogging! 🙂

      Like

  25. Hello! I started a new blog! It d be great to have any feedback about the posts, poems or layout of the blog. Please do tell me bout it on the blog itself! It’ll help me a lot! Thank you!

    Like

  30. I’m new here, been posting since February, might give my posts a little bit of your time, and check them out. If you like them , follow me please. If not, comment here what should i do to make my posts better. Thanks 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

      7. Can you please msg me on facebook? i would like to write something about this ” community pool” . It captured my attention. Sorry for commenting too much but i can’t help it 😛

        Like