Aug 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? Are you redesigning your blog and could use some layout or design advice from your more seasoned peers?

The Community Pool is for peer feedback and advice. Looking for more specific information? Check out some of these resources:

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).

Looking for free, self-guided courses to help you get started with your blog (or revive a dormant one)? Check out our current offerings at Blogging U.

To help us make the Community Pool a productive space for discussion, here are some tips you might find useful:

  • 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!
  • 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.
  • If you haven’t looked at our Commenting Guidelines in a while, now might be a good time.
  • No running on the deck.

Are you a new blogger looking to share your very first post? We have a special forum for bloggers just like you in our weekly First Friday posts.

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  1. Hello fellow swimmers! I am new to blogging and would love any feedback. I have written two posts which are geared more towards high school seniors and college freshman. However I would love to widen my audience and get opinions on how to make my blog more appealing. I prefer you leave advice in the comments section. Thanks in advance! https://thebestofbrianna.wordpress.com/

    Liked by 1 person

  3. hi friend am new here and i have learn alot since i have joined wordpress blogging sites am so much grateful for wordpress help to the world in growing and building their future in all ways i give them more than five stars.
    i will use this medium to tell you about my new blog like as i said that am new to wordpress, i have a blog friends and my blog is about computer tips in desktop publishing and other informations. Please friends i will be happy if you all will take your good time and go through my blog site and tell me what am lacking behind it and what i need to do to be among the best as you all are.

    here is my blog site address http://tipsoncomputerdesktoppublishing.com
    thanks for your help and interest for the reviewing my site and leaving a comments and signing up to follow and i promise to follow also whosoever care for me and love to check my blog and to follow it.
    thanks friends love you all @wordpress.com
    best regard
    Innocent Cyril

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It looks like your blog is in quite the early stages, so the first thing you could do is to start putting titles into things. Title your blog, title your posts (especially because your theme is photo-heavy), and so on. Spend an afternoon in the Customizer generally faffing around with your theme, particularly colors, widgets (you’ve got some Text Widgets that could use some content or just be trimmed completely – your call), contact info, an About page, and more. It’s a lot to do, I agree, but think of it as moving into a new apartment. You’ll be staying in it a while, why not make it look like a place that’s all just for you, you know?

      And by the way, even though readers in the Pool could click on your name to find your site – in the future, especially if you want to feature a specific post that you’ve made, copy the address and paste it here. Here’s an example: https://scicasual.wordpress.com/2016/08/08/smarty-genes/

      Liked by 1 person

      4. WHOA that banner is huge! I’m not familiar with the theme you picked (which looks better for what you seem to have planned), but I wonder if there’s a way to just have *that* picture as a static front page to welcome the reader instead of having to scroll quite a bit before the blog begins…

        Now, some things to do in the Customizer – get familiar with your theme, how it behaves, maybe put some things in that “Text Widget” that shows up in your pages (or get rid of it if you don’t know what to do with it).

        This theme also looks to be social-media heavy, judging by the number of social media links you have next to your e-mail address. You plan on using them?

        Like

  13. Hey bloggers!

    I just published a new edition of my series Thankful For…, which showcases things I am recently thankful for in creative ways. This post features a really cool campaign from Zappos which puts a unique spin on the cardboard box. Check out me having fun with this awesome box. This Thankful For… is kind of different than other ones, but it was very enjoyable to make.
    Let me know what you think of it. I like to see new blogs so I will definitely check out yours as well!
    https://wondersinthewind.wordpress.com/2016/08/11/thankful-for-week-15-imnotabox/

    Liked by 2 people

    1. This was so enjoyable to read – I would have never thought you could make a blog post out of a cardboard box. So amusing!

      Like

    1. I would change either the font color on your banner, or change the banner itself. Your banner is bright, but your banner text is white, so we can’t see it. Also, you’ve posted a few nice pictures, but you’ve not written much about them. If you want your blog to be more about pictures instead of a lot of writing, perhaps you could consider using a different theme, one that’s more suited for photography? WordPress has quite a few that you may be interested in.

      https://scicasual.wordpress.com

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Thank you very much, every suggestion is helpful, I will change that and try to be better in next posts, have a nice day ☺️

        Like

    2. I love the new banner! And found the edit of your one travel pic so amusing. It looks like some of your “dummy” posts are still on the site – not sure how to remove those, but check it out.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Lol I fixed it, thank you for noticing. I saw your blog as well and I will gladly come to try out that ice cream though! Hope you will come to my site in the future so we can exchange our stories, xoxo

        Like

    1. I just recently started a Blog using WordPress, too! How do you like it so far? I’m addicted already but when I want to edit a Blog, it sometimes deletes everything I had previously! Talk about DEVASTATED! I’ve been copying everything I write before editing now. #firstworldprobs

      Like

    3. I can relate so much to your second post! Well done. I’ve also just started a blog – hopefully it’s not one of those moments that’ll come crashing down for me!

      Like

  20. Hi everyone! I love that this is a thing! I got lots of great advice (being a new born Blogger) and I found some awesome Blogs! Please feel free to take a look at my rants and recipe (soon to recipe with an “s” on the end). I encourage any and all feedback! I love writing and sharing but I am struggling to figure out how to get an audience!

    Mom Antics- The Terrifying Tale

    Liked by 1 person

    2. I love your tagline! I’m also new to this, so I don’t have much to add other than I can’t wait to try out your choc chip cookies!

      Like

    4. Your site is attractive. You write well and you are funny! One strategy to increase an audience is to create Tags in the WordPress Reader to find posts on topics similar to yours. Then put likes or comments on them. This will increase your visibility with those most likely to enjoy your blog. https://gracelead.co

      Liked by 1 person

    5. Your blog seems lovely! I have the same theme for my blog so I like it alot 😉 what I personally prefer is that if you open your blog page you get to see your posts shortly, I mean that I can read a few lines and then click on ‘read more’ or ‘continue reading’. Like this you have more of an overview of different posts. But, like I said, this is what I personally prefer 🙂 Looking forward to more recipes! If you like to give me some feedback, always welcome https://curlygirlabroad.wordpress.com/2016/08/11/cape-cod-by-bike/

      Liked by 1 person

  21. This was a pretty helpful post! I am a new Blogger and I am just wanting to kind of share my story about struggling with anxiety and depression for most of my life and how I have found certain things like Young Living Essential Oils, Yoga and Diffuser Jewelry making has helped me.
    I also just opened my first Etsy site and I was terrified to do so. But, I have found some sort of peace within myself in creating it!
    http://www.etsy.com/shop/stressawayessentials
    I think it would be wonderful to meet other people with similar experiences as me and just share how we have tried to overcome our battles and have someone around who understands! 🙂
    Thanks so much!!!

    Like

    1. It’s so lovely to see a blog that has the potential to help people with similar struggles – thank you!

      Like

  26. Hi bloggers,
    Still relatively new to WordPress but have managed to teach myself so much thanks to online info!
    I’m trying to select a better template than twentytwelve for silviawroteit.wordpress.com. I write about a handful of very different topics that interest me 1. books, 2. travelling 3. raising a teen 4. health and wellness. I’m looking for a format where I can be able to click on the page name and have my posts appear on that page and not always on the Post page. Currently, the other pages are static.
    Can someone recommend a theme where posts tagged to a page actually appear on that page?
    Thanks everyone.

    Like

    1. I’m not sure I get your struggle and I can get access to your blog but are you talking about making categories? Because you can turn those 4 topics into categories, add them to a menu, make a static home page and nly have the posts showing up at each of the categories you created. And I think you can do that with any theme pretty much.

      Like

    2. I agree with Axis of Action. You can make those 4 things your Categories. Most (perhaps all) themes let you put your categories on your menu. You would then assign each post you write to one of those categories. When a person clicks on a category in your Menu, WordPress brings up a page that displays all the posts in that category. See the link to my site which uses categories in the Menu. https://gracelead.co

      Like

  28. Thanks to all of those who have stopped by to take a look at my blog. Still looking for comments, constructive, creative, and even just a good word. Please check it out:

    Liked by 1 person