Oct 3, 2016 / Community Pool

Community Pool

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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  2. Hello, once again I’m scouring for fresh faces and eyes to give a once over of my blog and let me know your thoughts.

    My name is The 6 Million P Man (well not really) and I am a photographer, hence my blog is all about my photography and the lovely cameras I use as well. I shoot both digital and film and a variety of street and landscape. Here’s a couple of links below of recently taken images, have a looksie and giv me your thoughts. Hey maybe if you like it enough you may even want to see more 🙂

    Cardiff Bay Sunset

    Nine Days in Italia – Parte Otto: Sweat Box Train Ride To Fawlty Towers

    Thanks guys

    Liked by 7 people

      1. Nice blog, what kind of camera are you using to capture the images? I’m guessing a phone camera or small compact perhaps as the ones taken in lower light look a little grainy, liek the camera has struggled a little to capture the shot. The ones in full daylight are lovely however so please don’t take that as a criticism 🙂 In fact the first one with you sat with the sun setting right next to you over the horizon looks really good.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Yes they are just from a camera! Lol… this blog started off more of a writing type blog, but now that we are getting good shots to go with the story I need to invest in a good camera! Your pictures are amazing! So beautiful!!

        Liked by 1 person

  4. Community Pool took a week off and then I went on vacation, so I’m back with not one, but two new posts. My blog finds connection between my own photography and the music I love. In the first post I talk about a dilemma of taking photos of water while others struggle with having a reliable source of clean water. Featuring the music of Tinariwen. The second is a collaboration post with one of my favorite photo bloggers, who is based in New Orleans. Have a look at both right here-

    Water Is Life

    Two Cities, Two Streets

    Liked by 7 people

    1. Fabulous work on the water post. I have no suggestions for your blog, but I did follow you on Twitter 🙂 Rock on!

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

      Liked by 4 people

      2. If you’ve got other social media accounts, let me know. I’ll definitely follow you. We writers need to support each other as much as possible! 🙂 It’s a tough world out there.

        Liked by 2 people

    1. Just commented! You’ve got good content 🙂 My suggestion: make your blog a little easier to navigate. The header image has categories up at the top, and they cut off the image a little bit and are hard to read. I would just remove those entirely, perhaps. Or, if you really like them, add them to a more traditional menu bar. You can do all of that from the Customizer option. 🙂

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

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi. I’m following your blog as I hope to learn something about marketing. My feedback is that you need to tell a story, say of a situation of a client or someone you know, to make it more readable.

      Like

    1. Just commented. Nice content, good use of images. Good post length. My suggestion: looks like you have too many tags and categories. When you use more than 15 combined, WordPress blocks your post from Reader. That makes it harder for new readers to find your posts 😦 Consider removing a few so that more people can find you!

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

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Love the concept behind your blog and the theme will work great, but you should be sure to fill in your About page as soon as you can so people can get to know you and your concept better

      Liked by 1 person

      2. You can either write a new post and make it a menu option, or use the built in About section which should be default on your page. Just experiment with all the choices

        Like

    2. I really like what you’re doing, informing people about the planet. It is where we live and we should appreciate it. However, I must say it sort of feels like an info dump. If that’s what you’re trying to do, it’s pretty good. But I’d suggest trying to make it more emotional and talking about things you relate with so that people not only understand, but also feel. Hope this helped! 🙂

      Liked by 5 people

    3. Good for you! It’s so refreshing and honest! I’d love feedback on my blog too! Adventure57.com it’s so fun to meet new readers and interact!! Looking forward to future posts!

      Liked by 3 people

    1. Just commented! Nice content, nice image, good post length. If you’ve got other images of the park, maybe include them! It may help give the reader a better picture of the place you are portraying.

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

      Liked by 1 person

  11. Hello!

    I decided to shake things up a bit with my blog and so gave it a little makeover about 2 weeks back.

    Feedback/Pointers always welcome!

    Particularly, check out the new ‘Home’ page, category names and the blog background. Read up a few new posts too while you’re at it!

    I would love to return the favour, of course.

    Happy Blogging and have a fab week 🙂

    Let’s Slip Into A Rêverie, Shall We?

    Liked by 9 people

    1. I love the new color scheme. I can’t say I specifically remember the old one, but looking at this one? I love it. Good colors, easy on the eyes, nothing is too flashy or too overwhelming. I love the humor in your new home page — it really lets your followers know you better while also fulfilling that interview fantasy 😉 So, in short, I love it!

      Would you be willing to review one of my posts? Click my name and choose whichever post appeals to you most 🙂 I know we already follow each other, but I *think* I’ve posted some new things you haven’t seen. Maybe? Ahahaha.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. LOVED this article. Awesome content. Rock on!! As for suggestions, looks like you have more than 15 tags and categories. When you use more than 15, WordPress actually blocks your post from Reader, and that makes it tougher for new readers to find your awesome posts. I recommend omitting a few of them!

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

      Like

  13. Hey everyone! I have just wrote a post on my blog about a girl who wants to escape from everything so she runs to a place that is her own and where she feels safe. It’s quite different from what I normally write so I would love to know what you think.

    One day.

    Thank you 🙂

    Liked by 9 people

    1. Just commented. Nice piece. It leaves me wanting more — wondering what exactly she’s escaping from. I don’t feel like I know the main character very well, and I think if you elaborate on who she is and what she’s escaping from, your story will be stronger. For example, I will see her very differently if she’s escaping from a bad day or a bad job versus if she’s escaping from abuse or a friend or relative’s death. Make sense?

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

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Thank you very much. I purposely left the reader wondering. I didn’t want her to be seen as someone running away from a certain problem, I wanted her to relate to everyone. Everyone can be in her place when they read it and they can fill in the pieces that are missing from her story.
        Thank you for reading and I will check out your blog 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      1. Awesome content!! You use images and tags/categories well, too. Rock on 🙂 Thought: at the end of your posts, below the like/sharing buttons, your bio is kind of long. I thought I couldn’t comment at first because I had to scroll so far! Consider shortening your bio there, and leaving a longer bio on your about page, so that it doesn’t potentially dissuade people from commenting! Other than that, your blog rocks. I’ll be following you back for sure!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Thank you so much for the detailed comment!! That suggestion is great and I am going to go look into that right now! Sure glad I found you and I’m looking forward to being blogging friends! 😊

        Liked by 1 person

      1. Yeah bumbling along seems to be working fine for the moment, I’ll visit more blogs and probably get jealous a tad for their knack of fonts and visual aesthetically pleasing themes, where I just happen to work with a boring bland standard one. But it fits my bumbling theme I guess 🙂 Thanks.

        Like

    2. I think you are going on very well!! My only comment would be the fonts you choose. Maybe something a little more …dynamic?? It would be more in accordance with the whole ”atmosphere” of the way you think and write. So uplifting!! Congrats!

      Liked by 3 people

      1. It really makes my day when people get a positive boost out of my writing, or recognition in their personal lives. I’ll look into fonts a bit more, but I am kinda bad at picking them to be honest. Anything but comic sans though. Thanks again for stopping by.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Hey fonts are not a major issue lol!! It’s no big deal!! We do liver in an age in which looks matters though… Maybe you can have someone you trust pick them for you? Just a thought.. Maybe I’m going too far sorry..Like I said.. It’s not such a big deal..

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Oh I know, still I think the more visually appealing I can make it the better. It’ll help getting the words out better too I suppose, but I really like your feedback, especially seeing your follower count is… well astronomical compared to mine.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Hey I was thinking the same thing when I started 2 years ago. For a time I was doing even better than this. One day I reached over 2000 views!! Now I have a hard time getting 100 each day. If I could give you some good tips, I would say:
        -Just make sure that every time you post, it means something to you.
        -Be patient and keep going, no matter how much people like or dislike what you write. Do it because you like it and because it matters to you. What people think is out of your control. Just do your best.
        One day you will realise that you have reached the place where I am now but never take it for granted! Remember how you feel now each time you get a ”like” or a comment and try to keep it that way. People say built a network and stuff. Of course it’s true. It matters a lot!! I just don’t see how I could keep up with 1 650 followers without hiring some help lol!! Plus I really like to know that people like my stuff because they really think it’s good, not because they are my friends or because they wanna make sure I do the same. Maybe that is a bad thing to tell you that… It’s just me… I’m not a very good example… I understand you think 1600 followers is a huge thing but keep it simple, one foot in front of the other and you will get there too!!! Probably a lot faster than I did! You are on the right track!! Just keep going!! You will be surprised at the results yourself!

        Liked by 1 person

      1. I often find the poetry becoming a bit too often and too centre stage to be honest. It does, however, convey my feelings very well though. So I will be keeping them going. I really appreciate you having a look and I’ll make my bumbling a theme 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  25. Looks like another week is here at KALEIDOSCOPE; I have just published brand-new posts in the past week, so I would very much like to suggest that you check them out-And while you’re at it, you can also check out other posts in which I have published in the past few weeks; They are all right here on KALEIDOSCOPE: http://www.j2w7.wordpress.com! Hope that everybody has a fantastic week! With ♡-JW 🔰

    Liked by 7 people

      2. YVW!!!! Sorry I’m just not into the lutheran thing… ‘Ive posted a couple of pages about spirituality like the Lalibela Church and the new ”Little Buddha” in Tibet and the monks setting themselves on fire like back in the 70’s … But I guess this isn’t your cup of tea neither so…. If by any chance it’s of any interest to you you can use the search by keywords thingy on my page..But don’t feel any obligation plz!

        Liked by 1 person

    1. I think your blog is doing very good!!! God don’t complain!! LOL!! I have a hard time to get 10 likes when I used to get over 20 at times..It seems it’s going downhill now and I don,t know how to stop it! Good luck!! Just keep going!! You are on the right path in my view!

      Like

    3. You have a chic, modern looking blog. I enjoyed the pictures you posted of the waterfall you visited. I got to see my first waterfall this past summer and it was absolutely breathtaking.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Love this!! It’s so refreshing and honest! I’d love feedback on my blog too! Adventure57.com it’s so fun to meet new readers and interact!! Looking forward to future posts!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Your posts look really good! They’re a little bit hard to find because they’re buried under default pages and widgets. Try deleting the widgets you’re not using and maybe writing a short bio under your “About” page–it’s the first thing I click when I’m checking out a blog.
      Keep up the good work!

      Liked by 4 people