Sep 12, 2016 / Community Pool

Community Pool

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

The Community Pool will be closed for maintenance next Monday, September 19. We look forward to seeing you on the pool deck the following Monday, September 26.

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 and guidelines 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, as well as for not starting numerous threads in a single Pool.
  • 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. Also note that including multiple links in your comment might automatically put it in the moderation queue, which will delay its publication.
  • 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. Just stopped by! Nice content, good post length, good use of images 🙂 As for suggestions, consider changing the color of your title and tag line (“newleaf2016” and “springstart@life”). Because they are white, and the background behind the words is white, it is a little hard to read the text 😦

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

      Liked by 3 people

    2. Just stopped by! Nice poetry 🙂 Good work, and I like the images that you pair with your poems! Suggestion: consider using more tags/categories. I noticed that you don’t have “poetry” as a tag on some of your posts! Since your blog is all poetry, it’d be good to use that so that new readers can find your poems 🙂

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

      Liked by 4 people

  3. Looking for some motivation? Inspiration? Dedication and eradication of the person you are so maybe you can grow into something better? Check out my blog and just pick a link. I write on a lot of things but everything I do is centered around one goal: To help YOU become your own K.I.N.G. Check it out and let me know what you think! Thanks a million. 🙂
    Kindness. Integrity. Nature. Greatness.
    https://creatingkings.com

    Liked by 7 people

    1. Just stopped by! 🙂 Good content! If you’re looking for suggestions, consider breaking up your posts into paragraphs — when your text is one giant paragraph, it can be a bit intimidating to readers. Breaking things up with paragraphs is a great way to make the text look more manageable without changing any of your content!

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

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Thanks for the suggestion. Some times i get going on a tangent and find it hard to break up up my paragraphs. I will keep that in mind in the future for my other posts. I will check your blog out soon!

        Liked by 1 person

    3. Compelling read on the 9/11 events.
      I do agree Natalie though on breaking up your content into smaller chunks. I see you have mentioned that you get into a tangent. Well, when you feel you are, that’s probably an indication that you can break that paragraph. Try and see how it goes.
      Feel free to check anything that interests you in my page as well. Would love some feedback too.

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Just commented! Nice content! If you’re looking for suggestions, consider using categories/tags. You can use up to 15 total, and they help new readers find your posts 🙂

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

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Just stopped by! Your writing is good 🙂 However, if you’re looking to improve it, consider strengthening your verbs. For example, your first sentence is: “The last days of my trip to the USA were spent in the capital.” Consider changing the verb to something like this: “I spent the last days of my trip to the USA in the capitol.” Altering the verb in this way makes the sentence stronger (forms of “to be” are not strong verbs). 🙂 It’s not a huge change, but it gives your prose a bit more oomph!

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

      Liked by 3 people

    1. Just commented! Good content, good use of images, good use of tags. Awesome! Suggestion: I noticed that your tagline “Short stories. Poetry. Inspiration.” is a bit hard to read on my monitor — the color is too similar to the background beneath it. Consider changing this to make it easier to read!

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

      Liked by 1 person

  8. I’ve been trying to get back to my shorter series of posts called Photo Shuffles in the last few weeks. Unlike my regular posts, the idea is I let my Ipod choose a song randomly that I then pair up with one of my own photographs. This time, I’m standing at the crossroads with the great British rocker Dave Edmunds. Any feedback appreciated!

    Photo Shuffle-The Crossroads

    Liked by 6 people

    1. Just commented! Good use of images, good post length, good use of tags. If you’re looking for suggestions, consider not using informal abbreviations such as “omg.” While they’re faster to type, they don’t look professional; since you want to have a writing blog and you want to make it big, writing out informal abbreviations such as that will probably be better for you 🙂 Just my opinion, though!

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

      Liked by 3 people

  14. Hello.

    I have written a piece that is slightly different to my other posts. It’s more around mental illness and copping, but in comical format, instead of the more classic stories of youth that I normally do.
    Take a look if you want to, much love.

    Papa WindUpToy

    Liked by 7 people

    1. Love your blog! The style of it is unique and intriguing! I also have anxiety and write about the struggles it brings on my blog. I relate deeply to your post. I love how you communicated the issues. Great work!

      Liked by 2 people

      2. Lovely photographs. Did you take them yourself. Very well written Leigh, really really nice. If you want to talk about some stuff, in a supportive way or ask questions about my personal stuff go ahead.
        Again really nice stuff, liked it a lot.
        MrWindUpToy

        Liked by 2 people

    2. Really enjoyed checking out your blog. Very interesting to say the least. You shed light on topics that many shy away from. Good Luck with your blog!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Nice post! Just commented. Good post length and good content. If you’re looking for suggestions, consider using more tags. You can use up to 15 tags/categories and they help new readers find your posts. (Consider “Ethiopia” or “travel” on that Ethiopia piece, for example). Great content, though!!

      I wrote about travelling once — I think you’ll appreciate the post 🙂 Would you check it out? https://natalieschriefer.wordpress.com/2015/12/31/travelling/

      Liked by 3 people

  16. Good afternoon, fellow swimmers 🙂 Below is a recent post on stress and how to deal with it. Is it interesting? Do you feel engaged as a reader?

    Stressin’ Out

    If you leave me a comment, I’ll be sure to return the favor. Swim on!

    [Also, quick shout-out to the mods: thanks for all your help. You rock!]

    Liked by 4 people

    1. I like the way you individualize stress relief. I agree that it’s important to start with identifying what triggers your stress, and have your own plan to combat it! I love mental health posts and this was an interesting read!

      Liked by 2 people

  18. Hello you lovely people.

    I’m doing my usual canvassing for opinion on my blog, been going for a while now but I always like to get the views and thoughts of fresh pairs of eyes. It’s a photography blog and features my digital and film photography, check it out and let me know what you think, here’s a couple of links to get you started;

    Some film photography from my recent trip to Italy:

    Nine Days in Italia – Parte Quattro: The Questionable Window Seat

    Some digital from my usual street photography, and long running series:

    Street Photography – Olympus OM-D EM-5; 56

    Peace out.

    Liked by 5 people

    1. Just commented. Nice content! 🙂 Good post length. My suggestion: consider using more tags/categories. You can use up to 15 total, and they help new readers find your blog. Maybe “writer’s block” or “writing” or “blogging” would be useful tags to add!

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

      Liked by 2 people

      1. I am still a new blogger. I started in December. When I took two blogging courses over the summer, I realized my blog was beginning to be successful. I never wanted to start a blog in the first place, but so glad I did.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Just commented! Nice content, good tags. Consider adding an image to break up the text a little — blogging is a very visual medium, after all! 🙂

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

        Liked by 1 person

  21. Hey everyone!
    This is my first time making it here before its at 300+ comments. I originally thought my blog would be all about travel, but it’s a reflection of various passions. It’s a mix of inner beauty, outer beauty, and nature/travel photography. Tips and feedback appreciated!

    Sunrise Timelapse

    Liked by 6 people

    1. Just commented. Nice content, good use of photos, good use of tags 🙂 Rock on! I enjoyed reading through it! You could possibly add more tags to your post, if you can think of good ones, so that new readers find your posts (like ‘nature’) but that’s totally up to you.

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

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you! I still haven’t done any of the writing or photo challenges. I really want to try it! Thank you for the advice, I think that would be a nice way to have fun with photography. I really like your Europe travel posts, and I thought it was cool you included phrases in the Serbian language!

        Liked by 2 people

      2. You changed your name as well — that’s what threw me off. I almost didn’t realize it was you until I got your site and was like… Wait a second… xD Anyway, your blog is fantastic and we definitely need to do a collaboration. I’ll contact you via your contact page 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

      3. Yes, please do! I thought that might throw people off. Wanted to move away from PsychPerspectives, although the perspectives are still psychologically fuelled.
        Just checked out your latest quote post, like it!!

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Using a name (whether it’s real or a pen name) definitely makes you look more professional, which is always good 🙂 As always, I look forward to seeing more of your work!

        And thanks! Your similar quote was quite good 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

    1. Just commented! Nice content, good use of images, good use of tags. A suggestion about images: in your always relating post, you have three big images. They are almost too big — they almost overwhelm the words you have written. Perhaps write a bit more to offset the image/text balance, or shrink the images a bit so they don’t overwhelm the words. But that’s just my opinion!

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

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Hey Natalie, thanks for letting me know about that – it doesn’t appear like that on my phone, I think I need to check it out on a laptop more often as it comes out different!
        I will take a look at yours too 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

    3. Just commented. Nice content! 🙂 My suggestion: one — consider using more tags 🙂 Something like “simple life” or “slowing down” or “self-awareness” might be good additions to your current tags. You can use up to 15 tags/categories! Two: Consider adding punctuation to your tag line — “Because no one’s life is as great as it seems, is it?” I’ve added an apostrophe (‘) and a comma (,) and I think it reads much better this way 🙂

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

      Liked by 2 people

  27. Hi everyone,
    I’ve just posted my first baking post after two years of blogging! These banana, oat and chocolate cookies tasted amazing so I definitely recommend them. I’d really appreciate some constructive feedback on this post. If I get good feedback then I may even start publishing more baking posts in general.

    https://coffeeshopdreams.wordpress.com/2016/09/12/baking-banana-oat-and-chocolate-cookies/

    Thank you and happy blogging 🙂

    Liked by 5 people

    2. Just commented! Nice content, good post length, nice image! Suggestion: I love what you’re saying with the following sentence, but it’s grammatically incorrect: “It’s beauty awe inspiring as the northern lights touch the sky above the lake as large as seas.” The beginning is confusing! Consider rewording 🙂 Other than that, a perfect post!

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

      Liked by 2 people

  29. Hi, people. I’m looking for feedback on my latest post, where I had fun writing banter between two “frenemies with benefits,” but then also answering big questions like: “How does the US justify its actions even when they result in death and destruction?”
    Feedback on my blog in general is also welcome, as I never want to stop improving.

    https://prejudicepolitics.com/2016/09/12/bridge-of-snow/
    Much appreciated 😉

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Just commented! Nice content, good use of images, good use of tags. I enjoyed the story a lot 🙂

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

      Liked by 2 people

  30. Hi there! I run a pop culture website and wrote a post talking about how much I enjoyed the recent Harry Potter book ( https://popculturalstudies.wordpress.com/2016/09/12/more-than-fanfiction-defending-harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child/ ). What kind of feedback I would appreciate is this: is this post too sassy and too aggressive? It feels like I might have been too aggressive, but that was one of my goals to begin with. Let me know how it is. Thanks! 🙂

    Liked by 4 people

    1. Hi Andrew, I loved your post and no I don’t think it was too sassy or aggressive. I think you got the tone just right and I actually found myself thinking this is exactly what I thought while reading it!

      Liked by 2 people

    2. I like it! I like reviews that try to find the positive. It’s a bit snarky, but not overly aggressive. You’re getting your opinion across without outright attacking people who disagree with you. That’s a skill in this day and age.

      Liked by 1 person

    3. I think the sass was fun. Some people can be obnoxious when they try to write with that tone, but you pulled it off well.
      (P.S. I misread your post title in the sidebar as “InterSEXuality…” and was really confused as to what Star Wars had to do with that.)

      Liked by 1 person