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. My automatic first thought was “Awesome layout!” and then I got excited to see you were from the south and curious if you like country music? My blog focuses on my journey of getting into the country music industry and all of the concerts that I attend and my adventures along the way chasing my dreams! countryheartbeat.com 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    2. Your layout is definitely appealing to the eye. Great job on that 🙂 Besides the aesthetics, I enjoyed reading through some of your posts. I can tell you put a lot of thought behind your posts. Keep it up! I wish you the best of luck 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

  5. Just wondering if there’s a reason for the slide shows I put on this post to freeze. I’ve had bloggers comment that it doesn’t show sometimes. I tested it and I get the same result.
    This was a wordpress challenge to showcase our feelings on our name. I started to out with just adding a few images and before I knew it I had added more and more. Is it too much for one article? Should I have broken it into 2 posts?
    Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you,
    Isadora

    I Was THE CHILD named Isadora

    Liked by 3 people

  6. Hello Community,
    I’ve been an intermittent blogger for a year but recent started blogging about twice a week. I’ve started off by keeping things simple with the layout and focusing on content. Now I think I might need to spend some time organising and maybe a site facelift.

    Any feedback is welcome.

    https://noexpertbut.wordpress.com

    Thank you
    ES

    Liked by 3 people

    2. I love all of the photographs on the blog! Cute articles! I also love all the gold! Do you have someone take the photos for your blog? I feel like I need someone to photograph me or I need to set up some photo shoots to photograph others! My blog is countryheartbeat.com if you happen to like country music or are interested in following along an inspirational dream-chasing journey!

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Hello! I think your blog looks great! Immediately I know exactly what the blog is going to be about. The layout is great and I found everything easy to navigate. Great job on that! I think what can help strengthen your blog is by creating categories relating to what your blog is about. That way, people don’t need to scroll, scroll, scroll, just to find certain posts. For example like: “Make-up”, “Fashion”, etc. I hope that helped! Goodluck 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  8. Hello fellow bloggers!
    I have been blogging for three years now (per the congratulations from WP), and have recently published about my 52/52 challenge: new thing I want to do this year, one per week.
    I invite other people to do a similar challenge as well! It can be 52/52, 365/365, 4(seasons)/4 – what ever is meaningful!

    Let me know that you think or if you’re doing something similar! Or if you have any feedback on the post or my blog!

    Thanks!

    52/52 Challenge of 2016

    Liked by 4 people

    1. I love this idea. At the beginning of the year I made a list of about 10 goals I wanted to achieve in the new year and that seemed like a lot so trying to achiever 52 somewhat extensive and thoughful goals is very commendable. Just a suggestion though. You said you wanted to go to another state. I suggest California because I heard it’s great most months (I live there).

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you so much for your time…I do appreciate it ; )
        I can get so lost on all this shitters lol…
        Nope it did not post twice that I noticed but I would have not cared either way.. Just a big thank you to you Alex.. Keep in touch
        Hugs
        Suzette

        Liked by 1 person

  11. Hello beautiful bloggers!
    My 4th week here and so far I’ve survived 😀 Loving this space and the freedom to be able to express my thoughts.
    Here’s a link to my site: https://crossallboundaries.wordpress.com/
    I would absolutely love to receive any feedback or thoughts that you might have about my work.
    Also here’s a link to my recent post titled, “I’m a BITCH.” : https://crossallboundaries.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/im-a-bitch/
    Hope you like reading it! 🙂

    Liked by 4 people

  15. Happy day everyone! I’d like to share to you this poem that I finished just this month but started last January. And I also made it as a response to one of the daily prompts.

    It’s about bittersweet love (more on my blog) with a touch of music. Here it is, The Crank Music Box: https://thestrangeher.wordpress.com/2016/02/08/the-crank-music-box/

    Tell me what you think! And do read more in my blog if you like it and have time! Thanks!! 🌞

    Liked by 4 people

    1. You have a few typos and grammar errors (happens to all of us) and a few redundant paragraphs that interfere with your message. I would suggest reading your post again, I’m sure you’ll catch your mistakes. Otherwise, it’s a pretty good post. I hope this helps.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Thanks for the feedback thistlehammerer. Yes I think I need to brush up on my grammar a bit. Also it’s a fair point that you mentioned about the redundant paragraph. I do tend to waffle sometimes. I guess quality is more important than quantity.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. If I were choosing a title for your post, I would do, “Help Me Hear You.” Your post provides valuable information to all of us. I agree with Thistlehammer that you have repeated some things unnecessarily. If you reduced the length by half, you could get to the high value-added part which you have placed at the end.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. My personal guideline is to create a post just long enough to make my point. If I can do it in 100 words, that’s what I do. If it takes 1,000 words that’s okay as well. My aim is to not repeat myself or put in unnecessary content. For an example of crisp writing, see my leadership blog: http://gracelead.co

        Liked by 2 people

    3. The title and subtitle of your blog are good. So is the little photo at the top. Tells me right away what your blog is about. Navigation works well too.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Your grammar is a little erratic, but nothing terrible. I would suggest that if you want an audience to forget something your best bet is to not bring it up. Telling someone not to think of something is a sure way to make him think of it.

      Liked by 2 people

  19. Hello, all,
    I’ve been in a dry spell of late, save for last week when I had a big surge in readership. I’m curious if anyone can spot a reason for this, because I sure can’t. I’d love to be able to capitalize on whatever it is I did right last week, haha.
    If you’d be willing to look over my last few posts I’d be grateful. The site is https://thistlehammertransmutational.wordpress.com/

    Thanks in advance,
    Alexander

    Liked by 3 people

    1. I’ve found that I absolutely cannot predict what will get a big response and what won’t. Since your post last week was about Valentines Day, I would surmise that people want to read about love. Personal stories seem to be popular for blog readers.

      Liked by 2 people

  21. Hi! My name is Ruzele, I have been posting 3 times a week with weekly weigh ins on Wednesday for a few months now. I am documenting my journey to find health and happiness. I have lost 50 pounds so far and have about 150 to go! I would love some feedback on the layout of my blog, as well as the content I post. I have kind of hit a wall as far what to post about.
    Thanks! ❤

    Liked by 4 people

    1. I love your blog!! What an inspiration. The layout is great and of course the content is amazng. I like how you made progress a separate tab, makes it easy for readers who may be more impatient to have the option to go see results and also get more of an idea of your journey. Good job and keep it up. You will motivate so many by showing people what you go through, emotionally and physically to obtain healthy lifestyle. Your very strong!

      Liked by 2 people

    1. I read your newest post. I think you did a good job of explaining your life at the moment.

      Some comments if will you let me:

      I’m not sure why you highlight so many words in different colors. I found it distracting.

      I’d like to see a little more on your ABOUT ME page, if that feels comfortable to you.

      You’re 19; I’m 40+ years older than that. People my age have been through times that seemed impossible, but we survived…. so we know we can survive again. You will survive and thrive too. Good luck.

      Liked by 3 people

    1. Your blog is delightful. It is visually pleasing and easy to navigate. Your personality clearly comes through. I read several of your posts. They made me laugh. Once, I even said out loud, “You go girl!” I do a biblically-based leadership blog that might interest you, http://gracelead.co

      Liked by 2 people

  29. I’ve not really ever blogged before but have decided to start blogging about…well anything and everything really. I have a bit of an introductory blog up which is about my anxiety story. It also touches a bit on my pregnancy and how my anxiety has been affected. I’m sure this particular subject may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I’d be interested to have constructive feedback. Hope someone enjoys it/can relate.

    Liked by 5 people

    1. I found only a single post on your blog, and it is very well written in a conversational style which is always good for a blog to begin with. I think you need to write regularly, and although I am not an expert, I would like to suggest a few points if you would consider:

      1. While writing about anything that motivates you to write is a good idea, but I recommend that you develop a niche’ topic too. I mean to say that your blog needs to reflect a certain topic as your specialty which people should refer and relate to when looking for information on that topic. And apart from that niche’, you may add posts on general topic of your or your audience’s interests whenever you feel like.

      2. Always add pictures, infographs, or videos wherever you can in your blog posts. Its just that we humans find posts which are more interactive easy to focus on and engage with.

      3. You need to add some life to your blog i.e. think about colours and textures. Everything is quite dull in that white and grey. I guess these colour choices reflect the anxiety and mood swings you might be having because of your pregnancy. But you might like to consider them reflecting through your words only, and not by making the whole environment of the blog colourless for your visitor. Keep the blog outlook attractive and engaging for your visitors, and let your words speak to them about how you feel.

      Keep up the good work, and please do visit my blog sometime and let me know if I might be missing something on my own blog at http://www.cognitivebackyard.com

      Cheers!

      Liked by 1 person