Feb 8, 2016 / Community Pool

Community Pool

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

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?

Did you just start blogging and you’re not sure how to get going? Has your blog been dormant for a while but you’d like to give it a jolt of life? Join our free Blogging 101 course (or any of our other offerings at Blogging U.).

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).

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    1. Hello,

      You may post pictures by clicking Add Media, (the very first icon on the first line after the title at the WordPress editor, which is what you open when you start writing a post/page.) then clicking the ‘Add New’ button and browsing through your device in order to upload the desired file, or you may click the ‘Add via URL’ and paste the link of the picture in question. A third option is to drag the image from wherever it is to the panel itself.

      Happy blogging!

      Liked by 5 people

  3. Hey everyone!
    My blog is basically about things that are not normally talked about. I am not afraid or scared to discuss things that people normally wouldn’t. I rant about alot of things that I feel passionate about, from whatever I’m going through or just some advice I found helpful. I would love some people to comment on what they think, or to share their opinions with me. I want to be known to the world and I want to be the person to make a difference. Thank you for reading and I hope you take the time to check out my blog.
    http://www.strikedbyepicness.wordpress.com

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Good for you to start a blog! I like that you have the desire to improve the world. I would first say that your age definitely shows in your writing (that’s not necessarily a bad thing). I like that you had some poetry and thoughts from other places, but I wish that you would look for more positive aspects of life rather than just looking for what’s wrong in the world.
      I feel like many, many, many blogs and other publications only point out what’s wrong with everything rather than saying: “Hey, this is what is good and worth while in the world.”
      Anyway, I think if you’re writing with passion than that’s better than writing something everyone loves that has no soul.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Hi! Thank you for checking out my blog first of all. I think that I write about all the negatives in the world because I am used to it and that is the one thing that I know for sure. I haven’t really found any good in the world yet. I am trying to improve my blog and myself through this journey and hopefully one day I will be blogging about how happy I am and how much I love my life. Thank you for giving me some advice about how I can improve.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi – I found your blog very interesting. Skype interviews, eh? The process of getting teaching contracts abroad seems to have changed since the old days of writing directly/phoning schools and finding work that way. And it sounds highly competitive.

      You ask about your photos – is the one at the top of your most recent post the view out of the window of the Marriott Hotel? If it is, I suppose you could have titled it, to tie it to your words. But it wasn’t wrong, just not sewn securely into your post. I’m not from your side of the world, so your photos all look impressively New Yorkish to me. What function would you like them to perform?

      Your writing’s full of character, so no to the ‘void of character’ question. Your personality shines through.

      Do NYC schools not offer sabbaticals to long term staff like yourself?

      Good luck with your blog and with your overseas adventures. Expect change, but not the changes you’re expecting.

      Best wishes

      Elaine

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Thank you so much for your feedback! I will definitely add captions to my photos! I should’ve been doing it all along but haven’t got a chance to. I was thinking of having the photos set the scenery of where I am now and as I (hopefully) travel abroad, see the difference. I am curious about the changes that may happen from going overseas? What did you experience? Again, thanks for checking it out!

        Liked by 3 people

      2. Working abroad, in my opinion, is one of the best ways to live abroad because you have an understandable role. Yes, you’ll experience changes, not so much from the things you see around you, but from the challenges that aren’t part of life in your native country, where you’re fluent in the language and in the cultural norms. As they say, you take yourself with you wherever you travel. Are you thinking of the Middle East for the wages or are you particularly interested in Arabic culture?

        Liked by 1 person

      3. I’ve been working with students of various cultures for many years. I’ve been getting more and more students that are Arabic speaking. As with my Chinese students, I am impressed by their ability to acquire the language despite the difference in letters, characters. I’m inspired by all my students to go out there and see where they’re coming from. And a decent salary is quite motivating as well!

        Liked by 2 people

      4. Oh and yes, we can take a one year sabbatical after enrolling in an educational program approved by the superintendent. One in every 10 requests get approved, which shouldn’t stop me from applying, but it’s third on my list of career moves I’m applying for.

        Liked by 2 people

  5. My newest blog is part of my Photo Shuffle Series-I let my Ipod randomly choose a song that I pair up with one of my own photographs. The latest is about a song performed by both Odetta and the fabulous Rhiannon Giddens. Let me know what you think about the concept and other suggestions!

    Photo Shuffle-Waterboy

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Hello from south central PA! I have 2 websites that I made to help animals that cover many different issues. I’m always tweaking and trying to improve and appeal to my audience. I’m really looking for constructive feedback if you can help, I’d appreciate it. Thanks in advance for taking time to visit.

    Welcome

    This site has moved!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Jan! I like your blog, it really oozes kindness and maturity. The variety of your posts is nice as well 🙂 And congrats with your engagement, must be exciting!

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Nice to see you again, Steve! What a wonderful idea you’ve just had!

      The thing is, have you considered WHERE your fellow subscribers may live at? If they are across the big pond, you may have trouble sending the gift in question.

      Cheers!

      Liked by 2 people

    3. Hi Steve Austin,

      I have just followed your blog and wanted to say that I really like your posts! As a new blogger I can’t really offer advice, but I think the flow and format of your show the love giveaway post is great.

      Look forward to reading more 🙂

      Darel

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Hello, Melis:

      What a nice blog name! It was enough to get me started, and, what a delightful start…

      I really like your writing style, and the contents are good – but I don’t know why, or if this is a problem, don’t get me wrong – I just couldn’t navigate through your blog. I mean, I didn’t know where to browse first.

      I felt identified with your blog, as I am an aspiring author and a passionate reader as well. I hope that one day when I visit the local bookstore, I’ll find one of your novels.

      Happy Monday!

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Hi,
        Thank you for your lovely feedback! I love finding fellow aspiring authors who I can often relate to. I will see if I can make my blog easier to navigate around since at the moment I rely on the sidebar categories to organise everything. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Hi Melis – I liked the enthusiasm that shines out of your blog, but, like DreamCarver, I couldn’t find my way around. It would have been great to have been able to click on titles like Prodigy by Marie Lu in your list so that I could find out something about them. I had to leave your blog to look them up elsewhere, but links would have kept me with you.

      Good luck with your blog and your voracious appetite for books!

      Elaine

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Hi, thank you for your feedback! My post was mainly just a book haul list and I didn’t consider linking them to other websites because I’m hoping to review them. I think DreamCarver was referring to navigating around my blog in general (I could be wrong). I’ll make sure to edit it when I have time and add links to Goodreads 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

  11. Hey everyone! I’m a travel blogger and I recently published a post about a frightening, yet funny travel experience I had in Belgium. I typically publish travel guides and not personal stories, so I would love feedback on my post and ways to improve my writing in the future.
    http://travelfareatwell.com/antwerp-zoo/

    Also, I’m always looking to connect with other travel lovers, so feel free to stop by and say hi, I would love to chat!
    http://travelfareatwell.com

    Liked by 2 people

      1. Hey Charlotte! Thanks so much for reading and I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Yes, reptiles are so creepy and definitely shouldn’t be wandering around haha! I’ve heard that a couple times about the follow button, but it seems to have disappeared when I went self hosted a few months ago. I think the follow button shows up on mobile phones or you can sign up for my newsletter on the sidebar of my site for post updates, exclusive tips and more. I’m so sorry for all the difficulty in following! I’m definitely going to look into it. Happy Travels 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

    1. I would add an about page – talk a little about what you’re using the blog for. From the Title Contenders post it’s clear that you’re writing about the EPL, but are you focusing only on the EPL or are you writing more of a general football blog with news from leagues around Europe or around the world? What kind of posts will you be writing? Are you going to be writing match recaps or previews, talking about the top goalscorers, writing about the league history?

      You can also add more tags so people browsing the WordPress reader find them. For example, instead of just tagging your Title Contenders post “football”, you could add “EPL”, “Premier League”, “Leicester”, “Manchester City” and other relevant words. Just be sure not to use more than 15 tags + categories for one post or it will be hidden in the reader.

      I have a football (soccer) blog too, if you want to have a look: http://www.soccertranslated.com

      Liked by 1 person

      2. I can’t help but grin at such a snarky remark. xD

        As for your poem – impressive. I don’t know how you poets do it – I am really incapable of writing any poem, even in my mother tongue. I admire you and I envy you. That was amazing. And the rest of the content of your blog is equally enticing.

        Happy blogging!

        Liked by 3 people

    1. I read through a few of your posts and I love them. I think you write well. I can relate to some of the anxiety advice you offered (lately I’ve been trying to reevaluate myself and become more comfortable in my own skin). You have some good work on here, keep writing. I look forward to hearing more from you.

      Liked by 2 people

    2. Hi Basant!

      I checked out your blog and really enjoyed the layout and theme. I like that you include header images with each post, which I think is important for visual aesthetics. I also enjoyed your posts about anxiety, as that is something I struggle with greatly as well. Your photos are all very lovely!

      Happy blogging,
      Charlotte
      http://girlygeekgirl.com/

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Hi Basant, I really like your blog. I’m a big traveller myself, and hearing about your experience in Germany sparked my interest. I guess the only real comment I have is that a little more detail would be nice. I know blogs are supposed to be concise, but somehow I feel as if yours is almost too concise. That is really the only comment I could think to suggest. Best of luck!

      Liked by 2 people

    1. If you’re going to buy a laptop to blog only (to blog only!) then you might find a notebook-style laptop very practical. Small, light, and cheap. You could take it anywhere!

      Liked by 2 people

    2. If you do not need a lot of hard drive space (i.e. most of what you use your computer for involves the internet/the cloud for storing information) then a chromebook would be wonderful. Several of my friends have those, and they all enjoy using them. Personally, I have an Asus, and it’s a great computer, I can play a variety of games (from solitaire to Sims) and also store all of the writing I don’t want to keep elsewhere. I’ve had it for almost 5 years at this point and it’s still going strong.

      Gook luck finding one that you’re happy with (there are too many options out there some days).

      Liked by 4 people

      1. I won’t be using a laptop for much other than blogging and surfing the web. Although I play on consoles, there are the odd games that only have PC versions so would like something that I could play games on, an Asus sounds good! Thanks for replying 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  19. Good Evening everyone, well it’s evening for me, I don’t know about the rest of you lot.

    My blog is a photography blog, I’m an amateur based in Wales in the UK, I shoot a lot of images on both digital and film so thought I’d post a link to post’s of both type:

    First up – film https://the6millionpman.wordpress.com/2016/02/08/first-few-images-from-my-olympus-trip/

    Second – Digital https://the6millionpman.wordpress.com/2016/02/08/street-photography-olympus-om-d-em-5-sixteen/

    I shoot mostly landscape and street photography and have a few ongoing project’s that I post addition’s to regularly. Give my blog a browse, let me know if you like what you see. It’s always good to get the opinion’s of a fresh set of eyes.

    Thanks

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I really enjoy your landscape photography!! One thing I did notice is that on your other photos of animals and close ups of things, you might want to lower the f-stop so that the thing you want the picture of is more in focus than the background! I think that would really help the focus object stand out! Could you check out my blog? 🙂 I also do photography!

      Liked by 1 person

    2. It seems to me the piece is about falling out of love and grieving that. The same face shows up but not the person behind it you loved. Was this the intention? I posted poetry yesterday too, my first attempt in over a decade. Would love some feedback if you have a moment.

      Finding Bukowski

      Liked by 2 people

      2. No worries. When you are in WP admin go to Posts all posts. Click on the title of the specific post required and you should see the link details – copy and then paste this link whereve

        Liked by 1 person

    2. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you certainly have many beautiful places to shoot photos, and you contribute a lot of draw to your photos, as well! I know the world of Twilight fans wouldn’t mind seeing the occasional road trip to Sequim, Washington. I’m sure you’ll discover what makes your keyboard really sing; your enthusiasm about your subject will draw your audience to it. I sure hope that you have linked your WordPress to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Best of luck to you!

      Liked by 2 people

    4. You’ve got lots of good content. I like your posts. As for what else to do, that’s entirely up to you. You just need to think about your blog as one overarching story made up of a bunch of little stories, and think about which little stories are part of the big story. Or thing along the lines of a theme for the blog and go from there to think about what kind of content works.

      Anyhow, I really like your pictures and wish you the best of luck on your mission trip!

      Liked by 2 people

    2. I never hit the Disney phase as a kid, but you have a neat blog, especially for 13 years old, so that’s great!
      In terms of your blog layout, your theme is nice and colourful, which is great for your topic, but perhaps consider making and using a header that has Disney characters or something to help personalize your blog.
      Happy Blogging!

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Humor is tricky. What seems funny to one reader will be silly to another. I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong. Be yourself and don’t worry too much about the response.

      It’s my impression that shorter posts tend to be received better, but I’m not sure if yours is overly long.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Great you are a product reviewer. i would like to know more about yoh lets follow each other’s blog.
        Help me to help yourself to increase traffic.

        Liked by 1 person