Sep 21, 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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    3. I think you hit it out of the park with that baby picture! I’d come back for seconds on that 😉 “To err is human to edit divine.” I don’t know who said that, but someone must have.

      Liked by 4 people

    4. Yeah, I had done it once…..but fortunately I was done with my post. Just some finishing touch was pending. Since then, before starting a post, I always select ‘pending for review’ option. There you have no chance to get the post published, not even by mistake!! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    5. I think this has happened to more or less everyone at some point (myself included!).

      On the bright side, you can always revert a published post to a draft (just change the post’s status in the Publish module in the post editor), so that helps minimize the “damage” (which is rather minimal to begin with, I’d imagine).

      Liked by 1 person

  3. What can I say? I’m a sucker for dogs! And a dog—in the pool—on a float, well you took me to my happy place at warp speed 😉
    Thanks Ben Huberman. Thanks for the dog photo and the contribution you make to other bloggers who stop by at the pool.
    PS Auto correct renames you Guberman when I’m not looking.

    Liked by 7 people

    1. I really like the look and feel of your site. Beautiful photography. But I only read in English so I find it hard to know what I am really looking at! But that’s just me!

      Liked by 1 person

    3. There are few things you need to do:
      1) Write a post, not for others but for yourself. Pour your heart, in whatever you are writing. It should be appealing.
      2) Use tags in your posts, but remember that there should not be more than 15 tags in a particular post.
      3) Follow the blogs of your interest and related to your blog. Share your comments there. But again, comments should not be for namesake. You should mean, what you say or praise.
      4) Be regular with your posts at wordpress. A long time gap between your posts can get your blog into a cooling zone!

      P.S: If you’ll spread love, you’ll get love. And remember love comes straight from heart.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I found that to be a nigh on impossible task. As soon as you comment here you tend to get a flurry of people following you but they will rarely interact, the follow is it, I guess they want you to blind follow in return. To get comments, interaction on other blogs is a good idea, but the “conversion” rate won’t be 100% choose the blogs you comment on wisely – R.I.Ps advise is good.

        Liked by 1 person

      1. I have only written a few poems. Trying a new thing. I will continue to write prose. I write a bunch about healing from intense grief. But I also write about my life, life in Christ, recovery, and travel. Some ideas seem to just fit one style. Now I’m trying to break out and experiment. It’s great fun!

        Liked by 1 person

    2. If you’ll write it for yourself then you’ll make best come out of you. People will love to read your posts as it would have come straight through your heart!! Happy blogging… 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I agree completely!

        Posts that I thought about – planned who I wanted to reach or to speak to a specific group – were not as well received as those which I simply wrote from my heart. Honest, raw posts seem to resonate more with others.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Sky is the limit my friend.
        Ever since I started my own blog, it was the first time I touched fiction. It was a stretch for me like how poetry is a stretch for you. But you can never know until you try right? I think you’re doing great 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

      4. I noticed through looking at your posts. Your work is beautiful and I see your desperate heart for the Lord. You have a beautiful family and I would just like to encourage you to never stop your devotion to our Lord, Jesus Christ.

        Liked by 1 person

    5. Just write it down whatever vibrates your mind, poetry, prose or fiction, contemporary or just a thought..When it comes from your inner self, every word will gain a meaning and will certainly touch many.. We never know what our mind can do and produce unless it’s given the chance, so my friend just let you skies open wide for your thoughts to conquer as far as they could 🙂
      Best wishes and stay happy
      Rosalyn 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

  11. Greetings all! Happy autumn! I have a quick question: Should I leave my posts up on the main page of my blog in full or do that “click here to read more” thing? I have it all in full right now and I’m okay with it, but was wondering what other people’s opinions are. Some blogs have it, some don’t, and I’m alright reading it either way. Your thoughts?

    https://findingaid.wordpress.com/

    Liked by 4 people

    4. I personally wouldn’t mind just leaving your blog in full. The ascetics isn’t too hectic to look at because of your categories at the top. It’s easy to browse around and so I find your blog quite clean.

      Liked by 1 person

  13. Hello Hello!
    How is everyone today?

    I wanted to share with all of you my new page! I am attempting a new prompt event starting in October, and I have announced it in a post and I added a new page to my site. I would love some feedback. Any input is appreciated!
    Post: https://themomhood.wordpress.com/2015/09/18/extra-extra-read-all-about-it/
    Page: https://themomhood.wordpress.com/prompt-stomp-saturday/

    Also, because the seasons are changing where I live I have been taking non stop photos of the bumble bees before they go away! Here are some of the more recent photos.

    Daily Quote

    Weekend Shots…

    Okay enough for now!
    Thanks for taking a look and Thank You very much for any feedback!
    Cheers!
    Megan @ The MomHood

    Liked by 2 people

    1. The pics you’ve taken are simple yet beautiful ! and they’re pure YOU. your style, your point of view.
      About your writing and the post overall, it’s beautiful and i’m glad you liked it 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  17. Hey there !

    Well its my first time. Am new to blogging and right now I feel like Alice in Wonderland 😉

    Ok ! But it’s been exciting journey so far and I am learning new things.

    Would love some expert advice on the layout, right theme or look for my blog to start with. Though I have incorporated few things already. But I would like to have more professional look.

    I write for food, travel, photography, places & life style mostly. .

    My current theme Is 2011.

    Would appreciate your feedback, tips or advice related to look & style for my blog.

    You can visit:

    Pinkpetals27.wordpress.com

    Thanks in advance

    Liked by 3 people

    3. Just gone through your blog, Khushi. Firstly, I would like to welcome you to the world of words at WordPress! Wish you luck for your blog!

      Few suggestions I would like to pour in:
      1) Since, your blog is more into photography. So, you may use a theme offering grid style view for your posts. It would look more catchy.
      2) There some wonderful widgets that wordpress has to offer like About me, twitter feeds, gallery (I would personally suggest this one as it would slideshow all your pictures), facebook link and lot more. Use them at right place (Sidebar or footer according to priority).
      3) Add more Menus, in form of category you post in, to give your readers a direct access of their interests.
      4) Keep ‘follow your blog’ button at top so attract more eyeballs and get more followers. You may add ‘follow blog through email’ button also.

      Keep on exploring new things by using customizing theme option. There’s lot to offer there. You may reply to this thread if you have any doubts. I’ll try to reply as soon as possible. 🙂 God Bless

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Hey ! Amazing suggestions. Thanks so much for sharing wonderful tips & for dropping by.

        Huh ! Quite a task thou 🙂
        But Will surely try to incorporate things like grid style photos, adding more menus & sidebar. 👍

        Liked by 1 person

    1. First of all, i need to take the chance to tell you that you’re beautiful ! and whoever says the opposite is blind.
      Now back to being professional 😛 I like this post A LOT. since we both have a lot in common !
      You’re a talented writer with a great sense of humor 🙂
      your blog looks good 🙂 and keep it up 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    2. I LOVE IT! This has some really great potential, love your sense of humor, the blog looks great, eventually I might invest in purchasing a layout, the free ones tend to be so bland and a beauty blog should have a beautiful layout, also perhaps a search bar? !! I would love to see a brow tutorial as yours look great!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you! 🙂 I’ve never thought of a search bar! Great idea! Your’re right about the freebies being sort of bland. Definitely something to think about!

        Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you 🙂 my layout supports the sidebar widgets, for Twitter you need a code and for Instagram you just allow access to your account, although I did it so long ago I might be wrong…

        Liked by 1 person

    3. I suppose it depends on the post. Some people need more time to buy supplies to make what you are mentioning. But, it certainly needs to be close enough to the holiday to be relevant. Martha Stewart has had her stuff out for months…

      Like

  22. Hello bloggers!
    I would love some advice/feedback on basically anything.
    The contents of my blog is primarily two things which are my writing and the places I travel to. It’s hard to find constructive criticism so most of the time I’m not sure if what I’m doing is really any good. So if any of you guys out there could possibly help a fellow blogger out that would be really appreciated! Thanks!
    https://pebblestonesteps.wordpress.com

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Very lovely blog, clean and simple, the name is great, that was one thing that really drew me in. The pieces themselves are very thoughtful, almost poetic. My only suggestion would be to somehow involve the reader, right now it seems to read like a diary, although an interesting one of course I did enjoy reading it. Perhaps some visuals, photos or just designs amidst the writing to separate thoughts or paragraphs.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Thank you! I really appreciate that.
        Yeah, I think I am a bit disengaged with readers when it comes to my writing. Perhaps your suggestions would help. If you look at my other categories like “Travels” or some posts from my “Musings” I actually include a lot of pictures that I’ve taken. Would love it if you could check them out 🙂
        Thank you for your advice on my writing though. I am grateful.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. I like your site. Especially for me the travel portion since I also have a travel blog. I think your site could benefit from more photos because it is word heavy. Especially considering some of the heavy topics you are broaching. The photo you used on your healthy mind, body, and soul post really jumps out at me as a good example. Something to think about for your visual visitors anyway. Cheers!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you.
        And yeah I also felt this way. It is very word-heavy and I do very little of photos. When I first started blogging, my intentions were to do more pictures and less words but it sort of changed. I think I need a fine balance between both since I also do writing. Thank you for your advice it was very helpful and informative. I really appreciate it 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

    4. As filthynapkin says it was the blog name that enticed me to click. For me the text is a tad too small (but then my eyes are screwed), I also thought that sometimes there was a lot of text and few pictures. Negatives out of the way I think that the blog is nice and clean, well laid out and from the few posts that I’ve read I can resonate with them a little, It is very hard to find a blog that hits that button, the blog that is about feelings, memories, observations etc, I like that, its what I try and do on my own (with varying degrees of success)

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you. Your feedback is appreciated. I definitely know what to do now haha. Your words are very thoughtful. I do try my best to bring that type of atmosphere into my blog. I actually also took a look at yours at it’s quite similar to mine. I will be giving you a follow 🙂 Perhaps you could do the same? It would be appreciated and maybe we can critique each other’s work for future posts to come 🙂

        Like

      2. Thanks for the follow. Honestly though write what feels good to you, do not write for other people, write for you, how you feel, and if people react to that then great, but if people don’t then it doesn’t matter, stay true to you and want you want to do here.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Definitely. I think everything I’ve written was solely coming from a place of my own heart. This blog of mine is intended for myself and not for others. But that doesn’t mean I won’t try and be relational with other bloggers. I think for me, I want to not only be expressive here, but also to build some sort of community. So that I can also experience other people’s lives and work. But thanks for the advice 🙂

        Like

      2. you should write what YOU like, in order to people like it.
        people like a lot of things bcz none are the same .
        If you like books, write abt books, if you like movies, write about movies.
        Write about what inspires you and share your interests !
        That’s the best way !

        Liked by 3 people