Nov 21, 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? 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. Hey Swimmers!!

    I changed the theme of my blog, from Affinity to Karuna, over the weekend and would like some feedback. I am specifically looking for feedback concerning font style and size, color scheme, and placement and choices of widgets incorporated into my blog site. Do my choices support and enhance the content of my blog?

    You can find The Inner MIRROR here: https://theinnermirror.org
    Thanks!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I think the color scheme looks great 🙂 Colorful, but not overwhelming! The font style is fine, but personally, it’s a bit large (at least on my computer). Everything looks heading-sized, and nothing is regular text size! I also think you can shrink your tagline at the top of the page — “Gazing into My Inner Mirror through: Meditation – Introspection – Random Realizations – Observation – Reflection”. This might be a good addition to your Home or About page instead! If you want a tag line, keep it short and simple.

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

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I was a bit concerned with the font size which is why I specifically mentioned it.

        Thanks for the feedback. I’ll swing over and take a look at your site and leave some comments on your posts!!

        Like

      2. Yeah, it’s okay for the headers to be big, but when all the text is big, your readers may perceive you as “yelling.” And thank you! 🙂

        Like

    2. I like the layout and colors! The pictures are quite large (the ones on top) so they appear a bit blurry on my computer. Other than that…good 🙂

      Like

    1. Nice theme! (I use the same one :P) If I click on Posts none of your posts appear, so perhaps you can check that out? For your Q&A: what is your favourite recipe? For your ingredients: ginger. 🙂

      Like

    1. Just commented. Nice content! Good use of tags 🙂 My suggestion: consider adding a second image (maybe a report card with a C or F on it to go along with your point about grades). Images break up the text and add some color into posts — blogging is a very visual medium, after all!

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

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Allow myself to introduce…myself, I am Doug and I run beer-enitynow.com (points if you get the Seinfeld reference) What i do is basically find beer locally and from around the country and attempt to write a funny, not so average, blog post about it using as many puns as I think of and then spread the good word to the world.

    Currently I have a Beers and Bond series where I find a different cheapo beer to drink while watching all the James Bond movies in succession, but I try to keep the focus on craft beer.

    Any words you have would be glowingly appreciated as I want to spread the word of beer with a different kind of dialogue you can’t find anywhere else. I thank you for your time.

    Doug
    beer-enitynow.com

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Just commented. Nice content! And nice quote 🙂 My suggestion: be careful with your categories. Looks like this most recent post is tagged as sexual abuse, but the post itself has nothing to do with that topic, which might confuse readers. Categories are for organizing posts within your blog, and tags are for helping new readers find you. Add some tags, like “Vernon Law” or “storm” or “carbon monoxide” to draw new readers in.

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

      Like

      2. You may have to go through and edit each one, and in the tool bar at the top of the post (where bold and italics are) there’s a read more thingy to click and insert.

        Like

  9. Hello there! I’m Jack, and I’ve written a series of novels. I’m posting each chapter every few days, and I’d love to know what you think!

    With kind regards,
    J W Ledbury

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Nice content! I’d never heard of Action Park before. My suggestions: make sure you capitalize proper nouns (such as Alpine Slide). Rides names, etc. are proper nouns and should be capitalized each time you write them; this may sound a bit nit-picky, but proper grammar is essential when it comes to getting a larger audience. My other suggestion: consider adding more images! I’d love to see more pictures of the rides at Action Park.

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

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Nice blog! Good use of images, good use of tags, nice content. Rock on 🙂 I like how collaborative your MilSo Monday spotlights are — that’s a cool way to create content and keep others involved!

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

      Liked by 1 person

  15. Hello everyone! I work in marketing and business development. I am new to wordpress and looking to connect with other bloggers! Please take some time to check out my page and give me some feedback!
    marinaleighbaker.wordpress.com

    If you follow my blog, I’ll follow you back 🙂 I look forward to connecting!

    Liked by 3 people

    2. Nice content! You’ve got some great posts 🙂 Good use of tags, too. My only suggestion: consider adding images to your posts to break up the text and add a splash of color. Blogging is a very visual medium, after all!

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

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Just commented. What a cute idea! Nice content, good use of tags, nice images. My only suggestion — maybe add a few more tags like “psychology” or “routine” or “child development” to draw in a few more readers.

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

      Liked by 1 person

  17. Good Afternoon All-
    I have been on WordPress about six weeks and have had an explosion of creativity and have been essays, fiction, poetry and posting music that I like. I am concerned that this is leaving my site looking a little chaotic and that I may be making it harder for readers to find what they are looking for than I intended. I would be grateful for feedback on whether I could be organizing my writing better on the site itself.

    https://braveandrecklessblog.wordpress.com/

    Also, I have pressed a few posts by other writers that really resonated with me. I am happty to promote other writers but I realize that I don’t fully understand the community etiquette on pressing or rebloggin someone else’s works. Insights appreciated.

    Thanks!
    Christine

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Christine! I really like what I’ve read of your blog! To answer your question, I might suggest converting at least the home page to more of a “list” form, so it is easier to tell what order the posts were written in. Just a thought. Thanks for writing!

      Liked by 1 person

  18. My blog is really just my thoughts… no specific topic as of now other than I love to write and it helps me survive but if someone wants to follow I would for sure return the favor. theerickamarie.wordpress.com

    Liked by 1 person

  21. Good Evening friends, my name is The 6 Million P Man and I am a photographer who writes a photography blog (unsurprisingly). Why don’t you give my photograph’s and musing’s a look? Why don’t you tell me what you think? Why don’t you really enjoy yourself looking through my work?

    Here’s a couple of links to get your teeth into, I shoot a lot of film as well as digital so there’s a nice variety to look at.

    First up is some medium format film photography: https://the6millionpman.wordpress.com/2016/11/21/medium-format-sixty-six/

    And then also a 52 week project that I’ve been doing this year:

    Project 52: Week 47; Landscape – Abandoned

    Hope you enjoy the read.

    Liked by 1 person

  22. Hey fellow bloggers. Thank God it’s Monday! I get to meet all you guys in this crazy pool.

    Have been away a little while but I managed to write something short and emotional.

    Please go ahead and give the post a read. Here’s the link

    Results!

    Criticism and improvements are welcome with open arms.

    Liked by 4 people

    1. Nice poem! I have two suggestions for you 🙂 1. Consider moving the image to the end of the poem. I thought the poem was over when I first scrolled down to the picture! 2. Do you use tags? If not, you should! They help new readers find you. Consider tags like “poetry” or “fight” or “sadness” as a starting place. You can use up to 15 tags and categories combined.

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

      Liked by 2 people

    2. Very emotive and powerful imagery throughout your piece. Keep writing- you are very talented! Please pop over to my blog and let me know what you think!
      I have a variety of posts, so choose any one that looks interesting to you.

      I’ll be happy to comment/like and give you feedback in return🙂
      https://alovelysomethingblog.wordpress.com/

      Like

  23. hey friends

    i blogged about a deep dive race conversation dinner we hosted on Friday which was incredible and although this is South African contexted, i imagine the same thing would work in most countries in the world so check it out and let me know if you think that would be helpful where you are [and when you’re going to host your first!!!]

    Deep Dive Conversation at St Johns

    Strength and love
    brett fish

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Nice content. Just commented! I really liked “Unspoken.” My suggestion: are you using tags? Tags help new readers find you and categories organize posts within your blog. You can use 15 total, and I recommend that you use tags if you aren’t! Things like “love” or “courage” or “unrequited love” may be a good starting point for this post 🙂

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

      Liked by 1 person

  25. Well, it seems to me that we have a really short week on our hands because it’s Thanksgiving, but not only that, National Blog Posting Month will soon be coming to a close for another year(and unfortunately for myself, NatBloPoMo will not ever come again until another year); I have so very much in my life to be thankful for, and I am so very thankful for you bloggers and blog followers who visit KALEIDOSCOPE each and every day, or each and every week if you had enough free time on your hands, and for such an audience as these, I am so very grateful. I would like to also mention that November 12th was my blog’s 4th anniversary, and it seems to me that most of you might have forgotten it, or have missed it altogether; But anyway, I am so very glad that my blog has made it through another year, while I am also looking forward to making plans for KALEIDOSCOPE’s 5th anniversary next year, so it is with hope that it should be so very exciting…In other things, when I had just begun to publish my one-time-only, multi-part story, “A Girl Named Cinderella”, the views have risen to 40, but now, viewership for my blog has dropped to a mere 9, and that is not good; So, if you really want your favorite blog to go past its 5th anniversary next year, I very well suggest that you tell all of your families and friends about KALEIDOSCOPE: That’s http://www.j2w7.wordpress.com; It would surely help to make my blog’s viewership grow again. Now, since it is Thanksgiving week, I have just been publishing a slew of posts that are related to the holiday, so I very well suggest that you check them out as well as the other posts that I have published this past weekend-and stay tuned, ’cause we’ve got a whole lotta Christmas stuff comin’ your way right here at KALEIDOSCOPE: The address once more is http://www.j2w7.wordpress.com! KALEIDOSCOPE:It’s a Great, Big, COLORFUL World!-JW 😉 ♡

    Liked by 1 person

  26. Hello, I’m a student who set up my blog for my social media subject in college! would love some feedback and would love to hear opinions! thank you 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Yay! A well-written review blog! This is fantastic-a great resource for anyone looking for content worth reading/viewing.

      Please pop over to my blog and let me know what you think!
      I have a variety of posts, so choose any one that looks interesting to you.

      I’ll be happy to comment/like and give you feedback in return🙂
      https://alovelysomethingblog.wordpress.com/

      Liked by 1 person

      2. I like the layout of your blog and the content is fantastic. Maybe have an about me page, then people like myself get to know who you are and what you like etc. Also get a contacts page, incase someone wants to email you on an idea that you could blog about or even have a private discussion on your posts?Do you have a Facebook page? It helps getting noticed(If you wish to get noticed etc). I will def follow your blog. I enjoy what you write 🙂 Keep up the good work

        Like

  29. Hello,

    I really would like to find some blog graphics for my posts. I would like one that lets me be free with my ideas that I have, but still is helpful in helping me make my blog graphics.

    If you know of any good one that you use, I would love to try them out and see if they are for me.

    I am, on my blog, really trying to make it a consistent habit to have pictures in each post, but I never really find time to get the pictures. It’s a bit of a problem for me, but I am really trying to straighten it out a bit.

    Thank you.

    Liked by 3 people

  30. Oh, and I had forgotten this little P.S.: Even though I’d probably won’t be mentioning it on my blog, this coming Sunday, November 27th, is my 42nd birthday! I am so very grateful to celebrate another year of life, and I am twice as grateful that I get to share it with all of you bloggers and blog followers out there! Thank you all so very much, from KALEIDOSCOPE:www.j2w7.wordpress.com!-JW

    Liked by 2 people