Feb 15, 2016 / Community Pool

Community Pool

The place for feedback, advice, and blogging camaraderie.

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).

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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      1. Blogging can very therapeutic. One thing I would encourage is to have a comment box in your posts. (which you do have on your “about” page. I have experienced the blogging world to be very caring and considerate.
        Thank you for sharing this on the community pool.

        Liked by 5 people

    2. I’m so sorry to hear. It’s great you’re using blogging as a means to help the state that you are in. I read your post “my fears” and it was very deep and genuine. I appreciate how raw you can be in your writing. I really wish you the best of luck. I hope things work out for you. Cheers!

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Good afternoon guys! Happy Monday! My name is Mark and I have put my heart and soul into writing my debut thriller novel for the past year. It is now in the editing phase but I need as much support as I can get so please do stop by and say hi if you can! I would be forever grateful for any feedback and if you can follow then even better! Take care, Mark.
    http://www.markdraycott.com

    Liked by 5 people

    1. Hey, I like your blog, but there are a few things that can be improved upon:

      First, I noticed that some of your writing can get a bit clunky in places. In your post about how writing can change your perspective, you write “When you are face to face with someone you almost spot them instantly. The same cannot be said for a book making the whole process a lot harder.” The language here is a bit unclear. What do you mean you can “spot” someone? Also I think you intend to say “the book-making process” or “the whole process of making a book.” It’s a bit difficult to pinpoint. Look out for these pesky sentences.
      Second, I’ve noticed some minor errors in wording; you say “there” when you mean “their” (In your “Book Two” post) and you say “expensive” when you mean “expense”(in your “What a Year” post. These kind of small errors are hard to combat against. These happen to me a lot, only real thing to do is proofread a bit more.

      I do enjoy your blog; the posts about how to write a psychological thriller and the post about habit. I wish you the best of luck with your book! Happy blogging! 🙂

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Thanks for stopping by Andrew and thank you for the feedback. The ‘spot’ was not in relation to ‘someone’. I believe it was in relation to personality and manner? I may be wrong. I could have kicked myself at the ‘their’ spelling. These definitely occur through lack of proof reading I agree. Something I have taken a lot more seriously with my novel. It will be put through its professional paces. Thanks again and good luck to you too. Take care, Mark.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Lol. Can’t agree more. The one topic thing, never worked me. I just got bored and stopped writing.

        Do what you love and are comfortable with.

        Liked by 2 people

    2. The typical answer is, “It all depends.” If you want to share what is going on in your overall life, I’m guessing it would be difficult to have one main topic. Most lives are not one-topic lives. On the other hand, if you don’t want to share your whole life, but want to engage on one small slice of it, I think sticking to a main topic would be easy. I have two blogs, one focuses on leadership http://gracelead.co and one is a photo journal of various aspects of nature http://naturecalls7.wordpress.com

      Liked by 2 people

    3. I’ve been on both sides, and they’re both good options. My topic blog was very structured. I was limited in what I posted but because I liked the topic, I had no problems, except attracting people who wanted to read about that one topic.
      My blog now is very open, I write about whatever I want. And while I like the freedom, sometimes I do struggle with what to write, as I do try to vary topics.
      You just have to decide what it is you want to write about, as there are no rules to blogging!

      Liked by 2 people

    1. I’m a huge fan of new year’s resolutions. My year tends to end in a very hectic fashion. Fast paced at work, lots of trail races and too much family. Then everything crashes to a halt in January. It’s a great time for me to keep the momentum going by creating some checklists. By April, the nice weather will put me off track again. This is my most productive time of the year on personal improvement.

      Liked by 4 people

    2. I enjoyed it very much! I think your new year’s resolution is great! I agree that although failure happens, it doesn’t mean we need to wait until 2017 to restart. So keep at it 🙂 I took a look around your other content and I love it! Especially your about page haha. You’re very genuine and raw in your writing and it’s something I can definitely appreciate. I gave you a follow! Keep up the great work!

      Liked by 3 people

    1. Hi Violet – I can see why you’re popular. There’s a real warmth to your writing and, in the post you linked to, the story reels your readers in. We want to know why the man is feeling happy, so we read on. It’s real high quality storytelling. Your grandchildren/great nieces and nephews are going to have a gas!

      Best wishes
      Elaine

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Hi Seb, I received your request to follow me, however it is a blog site that I no longer post entries to. If you would like to follow me check out: susanbodyrenovations.com
        Would love to have you follow me. I love your site!
        Thanks!
        Susan

        Liked by 2 people

  17. Hello friend’s!

    Once again I’m looking for feedback/view’s for my blog. I’m an amateur photographer, shooting both film and digital, street and landscape but with the odd piece on other thing’s as well.

    Let me know what you think, below is firstly an example of a regular film photography series I have been posting;

    Medium Format : Eight

    And then this which is a little different, it’s about some diy/customisation of one of my camera’s that I carried out;

    Olympus OM-D EM-5 : Custom Skin

    Let me know what you think and if you enjoy it drop me a line 🙂

    Thanks in advance.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. I’m not much of a photography expert, so I wouldn’t want to give any advice if I don’t really know what I’m talking about, but I will say you take lovely pictures. I look forward to seeing more from you. Happy blogging! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  20. Hello everyone,

    I recently published a post about Beyoncé’s new video and super bowl performance and would love to hear your opinions! You can find that here: http://chinsontour.com/2016/02/10/white-people-get-in-formation/

    I also this week have a mini-series going live with 7 different guest bloggers discussing their experiences with blogging and giving any advice they may have! You can see the first of seven here: http://chinsontour.com/2016/02/15/behind-the-blog-fro-girl-ginny/

    I hope you all have brilliant days!!

    Liked by 2 people

  22. I’m new to my blog. I just started posting recently to an old blog I made in high school. I have mainly been blogging about my college experience and would love to have some advice on some of my more heartfelt posts or an LOL on something you find funny. Much appreciated!!!

    Liked by 2 people

    3. Great layout! It gives me a very modern and artsy feel. Your content is great too. You’ve got lots of interesting categories going on that I think it’s great. Keep it up! Best wishes to you 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    1. I like how your page provides useful/valuable information to other musicians who might be starting out. I’m not a musician myself, but my blog is all about working my way into the country music industry and getting to Nashville and living my dreams!

      Liked by 2 people

    2. I loved it! It was relatable and very entertaining! I think those tips definitely will help. At least I think it’ll help me. Aside from the great content, I love your layout! It’s a very elegant feel 🙂 Keep up the great work! I wish you the best of luck!

      Liked by 2 people

    2. Cute and clever post! The one minor suggestion I can make is to put the title of the blog in a simpler font. With the artsy background and curly lettering, it’s a little too much going on, for my eyes at least.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hey Justine, I think you are making a great use of your Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. Great header, great layout, and and the kind of things you are writing about, life experiences, book reviews, and travelling – its a great mix in your line of work.

      I think you are doing a great job all in all, however, connecting with like-minded bloggers in your niche’ will reward you in the long run as a writer. Very well done, and I am going to give you follow.

      While my own blog doesn’t really connect with yours in terms of niche except I have tried to reflect on my experiences here and there as well, care to give a critique? I will be grateful.

      Cheers!

      Liked by 1 person