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).

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  1. Not crazy about the video sorry. The music at the beginning is too loud and as a musician intro music should be more melodic not a chord strum on an electric guitar.

    Regarding blog content. It appears to me most people write about themselves. That suggests they are trying to create a brand around them.

    When you look at blogs like Mashable or Breitbart they write about others. So your video example – instead of saying I write about …….. why not say something like, if you want to learn about…. or you want to vacation in Scotland, let me show you the sights.

    Just my two cents.

    Liked by 7 people

    1. LOVE IT! Great post, great content. My only suggestion: the image with the faces is a bit hard for me to read. On my monitor, it comes up as pretty tiny. Might just be my settings, but making it larger could help if others also have trouble reading it.

      Would you be willing to check out one of my posts? Click my name and choose whichever post appeals to you most 🙂

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Thank you for the feedback – I will check that picture out
        Really like your posts and blog layout too – need to look on my laptop too as prefer that to mobile

        Liked by 4 people

  5. Wow, it certainly looks like I had done a pretty good job this past week at publishing a bit more posts on my blog than usual, including one that explains the history of the traffic sign; And this week, may I ask all of you fellow bloggers and blog followers out there this one thing-That you please hold on to your hat, because there might be more posts to come that might be informative to you, as well as to entertain you! Meanwhile, although I am going strong with new posts that have been published as well as others that would be published soon, I will be making an announcement in a few days or so that concerns what the future would hold for Dream In Music-Now, I am NOT going to announce this now, because that would spoil the surprise! Anyway, please keep visiting my blog this week for that very special announcement! In the meantime, I hope that each and every one of you bloggers out there, as well as my blog’s followers, will enjoy this August salad of the best posts and features around, all right here at Dream In Music, which address happens to be http://www.j2w7.wordpress.com! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some planned drafts that need to be written! See you later!-JW 😉 😉 😉

    Liked by 6 people

    1. Just commented. Nice content, okay use of images. Consider adding more — in a post that length, more images will help break up the text and add a bit of color to the post (though you may have intentionally left it colorless on a post about depression).

      Would you be willing to check out one of my posts? Click my name and choose whichever post appeals to you most 🙂

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Yes you got that right..due to the topic I stopped myself from adding more pictures as it might dilute the topic in hand. Thanks a lot for your feedbacks. Will help. I am surely checking it out.

        Liked by 3 people

  10. Dear all,

    I am an Amsterdam based actress who writes about her endeavours, adventures and favorites places in the city. Last post revolves around the Euro Pride 1016 but i’ve written posts on art and other events as well, and i even put up some nice routes for you to explore the city. So feel free to drop by and leave your feedback!

    https://amsterdive.com/

    And now, time for me to explore your blogs! 😉

    Liked by 6 people

    1. Nice post on pride — just commented 🙂 Good use of images and good post length. Looks like you had a few grammatical errors (“I” should be capitalized, “everybody” is one word with no hyphen, etc.) It’s not a huge deal, but readers take gramatically-correct blogs more seriously. Otherwise, awesome blog!

      Would you be willing to check out one of my posts? Click my name and choose whichever post appeals to you most 🙂

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Oh thanks for the corrections, really appreciated! The “i” is an old habit of mine. I used to think there was no logical reason to write the “I” in capital, despite the convention, and despite being aware it is a ‘mistake’. It was like i felt it was pretentious to write “I” in capitals. However people keep on pointing that out to me so i’ve been thinking about sticking back to the rules 😉 Similar thing with everybody. I know it’s not correct but i wanted to play with the word since i was writing about a subject that has a lot to do with bodies and identities. You are very right though, when you say people take gramatically-correct blogs more seriously, ‘I’ do too! 😉
        Thanks for the feedback again!

        Liked by 3 people

  12. Hi everyone, I’m Gloria from “Sun Requiem”. Check out my website at https://sunrequiem.wordpress.com. I post regularly, several times a week, about literature, poetry, music, current events, science, life experiences, and a wide variety of other subjects. I’m looking forward to checking out everyone else’s blogs here!

    All tips, comments, and feedback are appreciated! ❤
    ~Gloria

    Liked by 6 people

    1. Nice blog! I love the layout. Good use of images, good post length, etc. Rock on 🙂 My suggestion: when writing/editing a post, insert the “read more” line. It’s one of the options when you write a post. When inserted, your “blog” page will show a piece of your post instead of the whole thing; by doing this, it is easier/faster for readers to scroll through your posts and click on only the ones that they are interested in reading.

      Would you be willing to check out one of my posts? Click my name and choose whichever post appeals to you most 🙂 [you can also see an example of the read more thing on my blog]

      Liked by 2 people

  13. Hello, swimmers! Hope your Monday is off to a great start 🙂

    On my blog, I post two types of things: I write about meaningful living and I also post links to my writing publications (in magazines, journals, etc.) I get a good bit of traffic to the meaningful living posts, but a lot less to the writing publications. Is there any way I can “spice up” some of the publication posts to get more views? 🙂

    Meaningful living post: https://natalieschriefer.wordpress.com/2016/06/27/lessons-hiatus/

    Publication post: https://natalieschriefer.wordpress.com/2016/07/14/11000/

    Let me know what you think, and of course, I’ll review your blog as well 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  14. Hello all, my name is Tracy and I’m still trying to get more traffic to my blog. If any of you would like to check it out and give me any feedback at all it would be greatly appreciated. Its a tough world out here for bloggers lol. Thanks!! tracyhildebrandt.wordpress.com

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Just commented. Nice post, good content. My recommendation: try adding images to break up the text of your post. Images add color and also prevent the text from looking too overwhelming.

      Would you be willing to check out one of my posts? Click my name and choose whichever post appeals to you most 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Site looks good. I’d recommend a few things that might help people that land on your site for the first time to explore a bit more. First, add some of the side widgets-tag cloud, archive drop down, recent posts, etc. Whichever ones you feel you want. It lets people see how much you have out there and lets them choose. Second, I found that once I added the ‘Continue Reading’ feature to my posts I got more readers. When you just have an endless scroll to the bottom of the page it makes people not want to explore too far. When you only have a paragraph or two from each post on your home page it makes people want to read more. Just a few thoughts, otherwise, looks great!

      Liked by 2 people

      2. My pleasure. Open up any post and click on ‘My Sites’ and then ‘Customize’ and its pretty self-explanatory. You can even add links to your FB, Twitter, or Instagram if you want. Too much can be overwhelming, but it definitely helps improve traffic I have found. As to ‘Read More’ it is a choice in your toolbar when you are writing a post.

        Like

    3. As Robert Doyle write before, some type of navigation that makes it more easy to find your other content.

      And one other thing I was thinking of is that when you click on a post for read it, it’s feels a little wrong that i need to scroll down almost half the page before the content is showing up. So maybe if it is possible maybe make the “main” image a little smaller on the post pages?

      Otherwise good content 🙂

      Like

  16. Hi, lovely people of WordPress.
    I have a question about Google Search traffic. Hope someone can help me answer it.

    I have 2 blogs. One old inactive blog and a new one which I update once a week. I saw my old blog still got traffic from Google Search so in the hope of diverting that traffic to my new blog, I made a copy of the popular posts in my new blog. I didn’t delete the old post. I left one introduction paragraph there , erased the rest, and added a link to “Read more” which goes to my new blog. I thought I did good but strangely, all the Google Search traffic only go to my old blog.

    Here is my old post on old blog:

    Can You Escape?

    Here is my new post on new blog:

    Can You Escape?

    I am very confused. Any insight will be greatly appreciated.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Well the old blog is still getting better traffic on those post because the old site has better rating on google then the new blog have.
      One thing you can do without loosing your traffic and to get them to yor new blog is to redirect your old posts to the new blog. This way the people who clicks on your old blog on google wil lend up to the new site.

      I don’t know if this is possible to do when it is hosted on WordPress, but just contact the support and ask them if it is possible 🙂

      If it is not possible i’ll guess there is nothing much you can do about it more then just wait, It takes time. And just keep posting new good content to the new blog and the traffic will come if the content is good.

      And maybe set a link at the top of every old post to your new blog.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Well first of all, I would take out the test data from the blog, it is not looking so good with some default data that comes when you set up a new wordpress blog.

      And I would also try to take out the date in the photo of your self.

      Liked by 1 person

  20. hi guys!

    we’ve all heard the saying ‘Wrong information spreads like wildfire.’ and to be quite honest, a lot of misinformation stems from the conversations teenagers have among themselves. which is why, I’ve started The Teens’ Digest; my second post on “the sex, the gender and sexuality” has just been up, please tell me what you think! 🙂

    https://theteensdigest.wordpress.com/2016/08/02/the-sex-the-gender-and-sexuality/

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Just commented. Fabulous post. Awesome content!!! My only suggestion: consider adding images to break up the text a bit and add some color 🙂 Otherwise, rock on.

      Would you be willing to check out one of my posts? Click my name and choose whichever post appeals to you most 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    1. The site overall looks good 🙂 a nice design and easy to navigate on the bog it self.
      Just one little thing I saw was that you have the Pinterest icon in the top of the site that leads to your Pinterest site. And then little lower on the blog you have a url in the sidebar to your pinterest.

      Liked by 1 person

  26. Hello Community!
    I am about a little more than a month into this new adventure and would really appreciate some feedback. I am a PostADay blogger and am working to remain consistent and deliver on that commitment.
    https://manvsloneliness.wordpress.com/2016/08/08/day-38-the-man-and-the-chocolates/
    This is my most recent post, one that is very close and dear to my purpose and goal in blogging. It is a very personal one, but please do not let that stop you from providing honest and real critique. It is a good example of my style and subject matter, so any insights into either would be great.
    In general, I am also hoping that my blog’s purpose and mission would be relevant and helpful to others, and that my experiences would be worth sharing and noting. Please look around the blog, feel free to read other posts. Some are very personal and I admit, feel more for me than for others. Others I am proud of and feel could really reach out. I will be adding more, like recipes, reviews, everything that has to do with my pursuit for a better more driven life. Some insight on what I could add to make the blog more appealing would be great.
    And I would highly, HIGHLY appreciate any insight on how to grow my audience. My family and friends do not know about this blog so I cannot rely on my social circle, but I would love to see my writing reach a wider audience. How do I gain some exposure for my fledgling blog as I write committedly and honestly?

    Liked by 4 people

    2. Congrats on the milestone 🙂 Perhaps make the screenshot a bit bigger? On my monitor it comes up as a bit tiny and hard to read (might just be my settings, though).

      Would you be willing to check out one of my posts? Click my name and choose whichever post appeals to you most 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Interesting blog – look forward to finding out more. You might want to include the link next time as not everyone will be able to get to your blog just from your name 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Nice images! You take some lovely photographs 🙂 If you’re looking for suggestions, have you thought about writing a little bit about your shots? For example, you wrote that the hair ones were taken for a salon — but what about the other posts, like Dirt Roads IV? Is there a story behind it? As a reader, I’m curious!

      Would you be willing to check out one of my posts? Click my name and choose whichever post appeals to you most 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

      1. First, thank you for the compliment. Secondly, I appreciate your suggestion and it is one I hear every so often. To answer your question I would say that while I do sometimes add verbiage to my posts it is only when I feel it will add to what you see visually. Otherwise, I want my photos to be the main focus to tell the story with enough room for the reader to create their own story through the images. I understand that it is a blog, which is generally used for putting your own thoughts out to the world, but I am not also doing that, just in a different context? :).

        I will gladly check out yours as well!

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Nice post. Good post length, nice content. Consider adding another image to add more color and break up the text a bit more — blogging is a very visual medium, after all 🙂 Otherwise, awesome!

      Would you be willing to check out one of my posts? Click my name and choose whichever post appeals to you most 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Dear Serendipitousbloom.

      I loved your post!! I think it is wonderful that you have a dream, that you clearly articulate your dream, and that you are confident in achieving it. I also love that you are celebrating the smaller accomplishments along the way- these pieces will make up the whole!

      I think your writing is honest and real. Keep writing 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    3. i like the layout and the content was good. Some of these themes don’;t have a ‘like’ button though? I like to ‘like’ posts if i have enjoyed them even if i can’t think of something valid to say in a comment.

      Be great if you could swing by my blog too

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Thanks so much! I have noticed there is no like button. It may be time for me to switch to a new theme. Thanks for the feedback ill check your blog out!

        Liked by 1 person

    4. I love the look of your blog and your content is great. I loved your use of quotes and how they broke up that chunk of text. (Please feel free to check out something of mine as well, I would really appreciate the feedback)

      Liked by 1 person