Dec 5, 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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      1. It literally looked like a black sheet of paper with text before, and I added some badges and navigation tools. I also fleshed out the sidebar and played around with the pages. 🙂 I changed it because it felt too plain for me, but now I feel like it’s kinda too cluttered? Or is it just me adjusting?

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  5. Hi all. I’ve blogging for a while now, but would appreciate a fresh perspective on my blog; particularly the layout, and if it’s accessible for non-native English speakers.
    It’s all about my daily(ish) thoughts about the English language, and posts can vary in style.
    Here’s my latest post:

    Drink

    Thanks in advance!

    Liked by 5 people

      1. I don’t think there is really. I’ve always been interested in languages, and naturally English more than others. Since becoming a teacher I’ve enjoyed getting to see the machinery of the language at work, and telling people how much I enjoy it!

        Liked by 1 person

    4. Looked over and enjoyed your blog posts. Some of us just do get a kick out of the oddities of English — and there are so many to explore. Especially those of us who’ve taught ESL students and had to explain all our idioms.

      Liked by 2 people

  8. Hey guys! I’m a new blogger or I still consider myself one. I started back at September. I’m really in need of constructive criticisms on what I post about. I need to know if it’s something useful or i could do more because i’ve got lots of stuff i could do but i need to know if people would embrace it. My blog is. http://www.vickieshubb.wordpress.com.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I love your twinkly background!!! Unfortunately, no one can tell you want to post about. You seem to already have a niche in mind, which is great, so just keep writing and make sure you’re getting your posts read (perhaps by using more tags)!

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Hi Vickie. My suggestion would be to make sure comments are turned on for all your posts. This gives people a way to offer your feedback on everything you do, so you can more easily gauge what works and what doesn’t 🙂

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      2. You can use more photos, they are visually appealing. I could be my personal taste, but I suggest allowing likes and comments for your About page. When people nominate you for awards and all, it’s easier to refer to that page or when people want to get to know you and want to comment how much they like your blog. Overall I like your blog!

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      2. We do the same thing at our blog 🙂 The further and further you get into this blogging thing, the more it seems you want to develop it further. There always seems to be room for improvement. It’s great to learn so much from such supportive communities like these. If you think of anything that we could make better on ours, we’d love to know, too!

        Liked by 2 people

    1. Your layout looks good but I would suggest adding categories for menus on the top of your blog; Beauty, Ramblings, whatever you want. Also the sidebar is just empty space where you may want to add a widget to Follow your blog, Twitter, social media, it appears like there should be something within there. As far as your post, I’m probably the last person to talk or comment about make-up haha, keep crushing it!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you so much for the feedback!! I’ve already gone back over and added all of the widgets and whatnot – it hadn’t saved from when I initially did it! Rookie mistake! Thank you again, means a lot! Xxx

        Liked by 1 person

  19. Hi everyone!

    I would love to have your feedback on a recent post – a letter which is close to my heart – or any other post which takes your fancy. I blog about travels, films and musings on life. Please feel free to include your site details so I can return the favour. Many thanks and hope to share the WP journey with you. 😊

    http://www.somuchtotellu.wordpress.com

    Liked by 6 people

    1. Incredible poem! It so accurately described new crush feelings. The colours of your blog are beautiful too, I followed you 😊

      Liked by 1 person

  22. oh here, I love your wee blog so I do.
    Makes my monday over a cup of wet tea and fruit scone.
    Have a wee read of mine won’t ye.
    I’ve only arrived down from thon cloud and I’m here for good.

    Liked by 2 people

  24. This is my latest blog post. It focuses on the lack of support for paid maternity and paternity leave in America. I provide my own story with some useful resources and information on paid and unpaid maternity leave and would love your feedback! This is a topic that I am very passionate about and I hope this comes through in my writing.

    https://aladyhoodjourney.wordpress.com/2016/12/05/maternity-leave-in-america-the-story-of-the-struggling-mother/

    Liked by 4 people

      1. Thanks, I loved Coraline and only recently watched it. I never really heard of it until I saw it on TV one day and now I can’t stop talking about it. Very creepy yes, but unique.

        Liked by 2 people

  29. Hi folks…been doing this for about 4 months, faithfully. As a newer blogger, I would love some feedback on a few things:

    – what do you think of the content?
    – is the theme pleasing? Should I change it? How often?
    – how often do you update your “About” page with new info and/or pics?
    – do any of you post to Instgram instantly…I’d like too (I do to Twitter and Facebook)?
    – should I use more tags, less tags?
    – specifically for Ben…how do you get to 20M+ follows…yikes!!!

    https://singledadsarecool.com/

    Thanks in advance…I look forward to hearing your feedback.

    Rob

    Liked by 5 people

    1. I read you Don’t Let Go post and enjoyed it. I like the way you unfolded the story and that there was a lesson embedded in the story. I didn’t see tags on the post. Perhaps you have them and they are simply not displayed. Regarding my About page, I rarely change it. https://gracelead.co

      Liked by 2 people

    2. – I like your content and perspective on things being a single dad. It’s a new perspective to me only knowing one person in my life who is a single dad.
      – I like your theme and I haven’t changed mine yet, I like the way it looks, but thought about it, I guess it’s up to each individual blogger to decide.
      – My Twitter is more of an interaction with readers and sites I follow, than strictly blog posts. I usually pin my recent blog post though.
      – I heard from one of the moderators here that if you use too many (15 maybe) tags then your post will be marked as spam and not show up in Discover, Reader, etc.

      Liked by 2 people

    3. It’s only a little thing, but the layout is kind of busy. All those images were quite bright and they came up looking almost like a catalog…less immediately visible would tone down the busyness. I’d change the theme only once though. Keep a consistent experience…Not to plug myself but I use the Dyad theme and it is simple and clean to my eye. Content and writing is good, though I only read a couple of posts. I love concise simple language and you are well on the way there. Keep at it you have a lovely blog and a good style

      Liked by 2 people

    1. I like your writing style. It’s got personality, and you know how to pace a story to keep the reader engaged throughout.

      Like