Oct 5, 2015 / Community Pool

Community Pool

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

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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  2. Allo! I’m Leisel from Skill Up Skillet, a weekly updated geeky food blog. Do you like video games? Geek culture? Sarcasm? Food? If you said yes to any of these questions, you should be following! This October I’m kicking off a month of Nightmare Before Christmas themed goodies.

    First on the list of FIVE recipes for the month is Oogie Boogie Meringue Cookies. Say that five times fast, then head on over and check them out! They’re the perfect trifecta of crunchy, chewy, and sweet. Recipe here: http://skillupskillet.com/2015/10/02/oogie-boogie-meringue-cookies/

    I’m also bringing the monthly featured recipe poll back! November’s Featured Recipe will be a Legend of Zelda themed treat. Want to vote for something with no political agenda that won’t affect your life or taxes in any way whatsoever? Now you can! Vote in my in-no-way-depressing poll here: http://skillupskillet.com/2015/09/29/vote-for-novembers-featured-recipe-now/. You will be able to vote once a week throughout the month of October.

    Cheers and Happy Monday!

    Liked by 4 people

    2. Good posts. For the first, I would recommend using a stronger, more direct voice in the beginning (less ‘I think’ statements; these can show lack of conviction). That may help a bit.

      Liked by 2 people

    3. I thought your post about giving advice was very interesting. I guess it depends on the type of advice being given. Like you said, for a teacher giving so called “advice” on how to work a math problem, they may not use that method anymore, yet they’re still teaching it. But, if you are telling someone they shouldn’t get angry about a specific situation, yet you yourself are getting angry about it, you shouldn’t give that advice.

      Like

      1. Thanks for reading it. That was the general idea I was going for 🙂 it’s easy to give advice you yourself need but don’t make an attempt to follow. Maybe because it isn’t very good or not that relevant. But that isn’t the only reason so I might develop the idea in a future post

        Liked by 2 people

    1. Happy world teachers’ day from one to another – even though teaching utterly sucks (not the kids, just the workload!) I liked what I saw on your blog – so much so you gained another follower! Loved the little doodles for the header pic, my only ‘complaint’ would be I’d like them to be bigger. Because I thought they were nice and quirky 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thanks. My the workload does suck. And most of it is pointless. By the way I’m following you back just because of the orange soup. But I look forward to reading more of your stuff 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Oi. You know I love your blog but I really need to stop trying to view it on my work computer. For some reason your blog does not agree with a low-res monitor. Sheesh.

      Liked by 3 people

    1. I liked it! A haiku should always have a little twist at the end 🙂

      I’m participating in Writing 201 too. Haven’t posted my mine yet though. I’m still tweaking it so I’m waiting until this evening :/

      Liked by 2 people

  9. Hello swimmers. I am a normal teenager in south asian part of the world expressing my thoughts in my way that is writing and painting as for now. My thoughts and expressions are not shackled by the society and its norms. These are original straight from my heart. So welcome to my blog OPEN SHACKLES at http://www.salorocks.wordpress.com

    Waiting for your response.

    Liked by 2 people

      1. Hey there! Thank you so much for checking the blog out. I totally agree with you. As I was writing the post, I began wishing I could go back in time and take more pictures. Appreciate the feedback. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  13. I am a newbie blogger and I recently started a new blog with a more experienced friend. And while I have tried my best to keep it simple. I would love to get any feedback from the seasoned bloggers here on how I could improve the Blogs layout and my blogging style, to better suit my readers.
    TIA.

    Like

    2. Hey cool blog! My only two suggestions are to expand your About page a bit so readers can get to know you better, and to perhaps center your header as it’s a white space that seems like it’s not fully loaded.

      Like

  17. Hey !! I have just started this blog ” Brown Little Sparrow”, with every blog of mine I attach a short poem written by me and I would really appreciate if you all can visit the blog and give feed backs.
    Thank you !

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Your site looks good, your poems are good. I would suggest filling in the About section of your blog as people will want to know at least some basics about you

      Like

  18. Greetings Swimmers! I hope everyone is having a splendid day!

    In case you missed it Saturday or are hearing it for the first time, we had our VERY FIRST PROMPT for Prompt Stomp! So far there are some wonderful entries, and I would LOVE to see more! Come on over for a visit and take a look, you’ll meet some lovely people and gain a little inspiration too. https://themomhood.wordpress.com/2015/10/03/prompt-stomp-is-here/ (for more info, visit the Prompt Stomp Menu option)
    Also, October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I am raising awareness through my own personal story, which is also my entry into the first Prompt. https://themomhood.wordpress.com/2015/10/03/one-night-in-hell/
    I hope to see you stop by The Hood! Cheers! 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Geez. Your second link is a particularly powerful post. I don’t have strong enough four letter words to describe how hurt and outraged I would be. You’re an incredible person and I love reading your blog.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank You. You make me smile 🙂 I am so glad you came by to read, and shared your lovely comment. It means a lot that my story can have an impact! 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  21. Hi everyone, I’m a student blogger trying to balance my blog with everything else in my life. Recently, it’s gotten much more difficult to do so! I wanted to reach out and seek advice from you all about what I should do to try to balance it better. How do you spend your time managing a blog and the rest of your life? How do you prioritize? Btw, my url is catherinezhang.me for reference 🙂 Thanks everyone.

    Like

    1. Hi Catherine. Bit of a tough question for sure! I guess it really depends what you are trying to get out of your blog. If you are seeking for it to be a launching pad into professional writing or editing or something similar, I would think you would really need to devote very specific time to it. If on the other hand you are writing for yourself, and just appreciate doing something that makes you happy I don’t think you should put that sort of stress on yourself. A lot depends on the nature of the blog. Seems like yours is a little bit of everything as opposed to a Daily Thought type of blog. Writing daily can be very difficult. What a lot of bloggers do are editorial calendars as a way to keep them balanced and focused and committed to getting their blogs out. I don’t worry about that myself. My blogs escape when they are ready I like to say, which is usually every 1-2 weeks now, although I just started a new series that will allow me to do shorter blogs in between.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Hey Robert. Your words are very comforting! I still don’t know exactly what I want to get out of my blog. It’s sort of a creative portfolio and way I can connect to others. I don’t feel a huge pressure to consistently write, I just want to write. But with college getting much busier, I don’t have the time to. When that happens, my thoughts get a little scattered and I get a little stressed. So I guess you could say I just need to find time to write a little bit everyday, even if it’s not for the blog. 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Ok, no worries, I had sent you a link to Suzie’s blog, http://suzie81speaks.com, in particular her posts Blogging tips, The Sequel and Blog Advice1:Increase Your Traffic. She gives great tips on blogging and would probably give some good pointers on time management as she’s a busy girl too. Not to mention an overall good blog. Hope this helps~ 🙂

        Like

    4. As a student and blogger as well, I feel ya! My best tip is to make use of inspiration and free time and write as much as you can, but don’t post them. Save drafts and work on them when you can so on days when you want to post, you have one ready to go! I currently have 4 drafts that I’ve had for months, but there were times when I had 6 or so, because I would have bursts of writing motivation, but I know that when exam time comes, I won’t.
      Hopefully that helps! Happy Blogging! 🙂

      Like

  22. I recently started a new series on my blog called Photo Shuffle. Very short blogs in which I pair a photo of mine up with a song chosen at random by my Ipod. Been a lot of fun thus far coming up with things on the spot instead of planning more elaborate blogs. Here is my newest-https://robpatdoy.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/soundtrack-of-a-photograph-photo-shuffle-5/

    Like

    1. Hi Debra, what I did was create a Facebook page for my blog. I post all my blogs and in my case additional photos and then share them with my personal page. I created a Twitter page only for my blogs as I have a love/hate thing with Twitter and can’t see the need for two Twitter accounts. I do think a separate FB account with your blog name makes sense

      Like

      1. Hi Robert, thanks for your input! Yes I’m on the fence about Twitter- I don’t use it much and not sure of the need to but I would like to post to FB and a separate page makes sense. The FB site is then designated for Public visibility then? Cheers

        Like

      4. What I would suggest is linking the FB page you create to your blog in an effort to make it a community away from WordPress. Try it out for awhile before changing any settings. I’m sure you will want to invite some of your friends there anyway, and then you can see if it becomes something that can become an entity of its own

        Liked by 2 people

    2. I’m so glad you asked this. I am not on facebook and have been wondering if I should set up a page for my blog to generate more readers. I’m really torn. Personally fb creeps me out

      Like

      2. To kill a mocking Bird !!! I just loved it! To say, I had received it as a general proficiency prize in class twelve! N you evoked out real good memories..thank you so much!

        Liked by 2 people

  25. Hello All! Do you always practise what you preach? Is it always easy to know what is right and do what is right? I discus this and more, keeping in mind how I go about it in my blogging. Would be lovely if you could go check it out!

    Liked by 2 people

  26. Hello lovely bloggers!

    I am a teenage girl who blogs about baking, beauty, fashion and faith, as well as a couple of lifestyley posts thrown in!

    Im still pretty new to the blogosphere and would love a bit of feedback on my blog and new blog design! ❤️

    I would love to meet some other bloggers too, so please comment on my blog or on here if you’d like to have a chat!

    Lots of love,
    Graciellen xxx

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Astra, I love your topic (I also post about books and writing stuff). Format wise, I may suggest adding the “read more” link into your posts to make finding earlier posts on your home screen a little easier (that way the whole post doesn’t show on the home page, but you can go into the post to see the whole post).

      I also love that you have your currently read and recommended reading pinned to the top of your newsfeed.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Right, so. With your current book (which I’ve read 7 or so times) I’m sure you have no problem pronouncing my name. =P

      A couple of things I noticed… your tagline “Your only a novel away from another world”, *You’re (pretty please). Also, did you know that your footer widgets are the same on each side? You might want to look into that and correct as needed. Cheers!

      Liked by 1 person

      2. If you scroll to the very bottom of your blog to check out the footer you’ll see that you have Archives and Archives, Categories and Categories, Meta and Meta… like that. It’s redundant information that should only need to be listed in there once.

        Like

    3. Your blog looks great and I really like the way you’ve manage to put together such a professional outlay for the site in such a short time.
      My only criticism would be that I’d like to see why you picked a book as your recommendation. What made you think that everyone should give that book a read?

      Liked by 1 person

    1. So I don’t suppose you’d be interested in relocating to take pictures for my blog for no pay… I’m kidding of course. The pictures look great, I’m really enjoying your site.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. It’s nice to see a photoblog where the photographer looks at his photos critically and examines how to improve them.
      I don’t read German so I had to rely on Google Translate which means I can’t really make any comments on the actual structure of the writing, but I really enjoyed what I saw of your work.

      Liked by 1 person