Dec 19, 2016 / Community Pool

Community Pool

The place for blogging advice, feedback, and camaraderie.

Note: The Community Pool will be closed for the holidays next Monday, December 26, 2016.

Thank you, Pool participants, for providing incredible feedback to your fellow bloggers in 2016 — especially those of you did it so regularly and generously (looking at you, paminat0r, Natalie, and V Donovan!). See you all in 2017!

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, I really enjoyed reading your Christmas party post and glad it went without a hitch! My only point would be to maybe keep posts slightly shorter, I tend to read on the go and your stuff is what I generally go for, but if it’s too long I just don’t have time. Looking forward to reading more! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Two things bond people: mutual hatred and mutual love. Personally I hate the New York Yankees, New York Mets fans are an ally of mine because we both hate the Yankees. I’ve never seen somebody hate therapy dogs with a fiery passion, but I almost have to respect the audacity of it. I will be following your future posts, even though you’ll probably hate me for it

      Liked by 3 people

  6. A big hello from a relatively new blogger, I’m a horse person who writes about not just my adventures with my horse, but promoting the fantastic Standardbred. I also do some musing on life and the challenges of having horses and a career without totally ignoring your family. My latest post “Why I Write and Why I Ride” is my take on the writing prompt “Why I Write” and I would appreciate some feedback. I’m looking forward to being more active here and in my writing in general, thank you.

    Why I Write, and Why I Ride

    Liked by 3 people

    1. I enjoyed the few posts I read to the extent that I would like to follow you, so I suppose that’s my biggest feedback 🙂

      I like the comparison between your blog and mine, although, clearly, you have been re-training your rescued horse and writing about it for much longer than I have about my dog.

      I had a little trouble in “Why I write” with the explanation of writing and riding being tied in together. Perhaps that needs to be fleshed out a bit more to provide a better understanding of the concept for your audience?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you for your poitive feedback, making a switch from technical writing to creative writing has not always been an easy transition. Keeping things on task and makinb better connections between ideas is definitely something to work on, plus dang I miss my editor! Learning to better edit my own work is a big goal and again, thank you for helping to find better clarity in my writings.

        Like

    1. It looks great but should it link to each of the posts in the top 5? If it’s not possible to do that with the graphic, why not put links underneath so your readers can visit/revisit these posts easily.

      Liked by 1 person

  10. Hi everyone, I write poems and short stories on my blog.

    I recently wrote a poem in memory of a student in college who passed away. I did not personally know the student, but had many friends who did, and the shock of his death nevertheless filled me with sadness. It can be hard to come to terms with the fact that someone so young, full of life and potential, is no longer with us.

    So writing the poem was my way of grappling with this loss. Since it is a relatively new, baby poem, I would love some feedback on it. And of course, I am sure his family and friends would appreciate any words of kindness and support. 🙂

    https://sonderwriter.wordpress.com/2016/12/19/fallen-angel/

    Liked by 2 people

  12. I’d like to invite everyone to stop by and check out my final poem for the year. I post a new poem every Sunday, but as the next two weeks are Christmas and New Years I don’t see much point. My final poem is titled “Yellow Brick Roads in the Snow.” I wrote it several years ago, and couldn’t believe I actually found a suitable image to go with it. It’s inspired, of course, by the Wizard of Oz. If you like it, please click the “like” button on the post page, and any comments/feedback please leave on the post page as well. Thanks in advance for reading, and follow along for a new batch of poems in the coming year.
    Drew

    Yellow Brick Roads in the Snow

    Liked by 3 people

  14. Hi everyone I’m an artist/illustrator and feature my work on my blog as well as artwork and artists that inspire me; I’ve recently updated my site’s appearance and layout and would appreciate any feedback.

    I also wish to connect with others who are interested in art and storytelling, classical, historical and fantasy are my favourite areas, so please feel free to pass through and leave a comment and subscribe if you’re interested!

    http://www.jgloverart.wordpress.com

    Thanks!

    Liked by 3 people

  15. https://thestepmommablog.wordpress.com/2016/12/12/when-your-husband-finally-gets-it/comment-page-1/#comment-135

    last week’s blog is about what it’s like to have someone finally see what you’ve been going through for a long, undisclosed amount of time. Reaching out to my step mommas here- hoping to connect with more of us and build a small community and place where we can all share in the lonely, weird world we live in as step parents.

    Liked by 2 people

    2. You gave people good food for thought. I have a paid site: https://gracelead.co because a custom domain and no ads were important features for that particular site. I agree with you, that unless a person is developing a site for commerce, a self-hosted site is unlikely to be helpful and could add unnecessary complexity.

      Liked by 1 person

  18. Hey everyone! I recently updated my theme and would love some feedback on how this looks or whether people have any issues loading on phones etc? General content feedback always appreciated too. Ta! 🙂

    Liked by 5 people

  20. Morning sunshines!

    First and foremost, I am posting from my phone, how on earth do you create a hyperlink?

    Please have a squiz at the post below, do you feel a stronger connection with the photography or poetry? And is it obvious that all my photos are mine own?

    Odyssea | Go where no Sophia has gone before

    Odyssea

    Liked by 3 people

    2. I feel more connected with the poetry but I am a predominantly words person.

      You should make it clearer the photos are your own! I’m so envious that you don’t have to go through the struggles of finding artwork online to pair with your poems, I had a little look through and your photos are lovely.

      Would appreciate if you checked out my blog too xo

      Like

  28. Hey everyone!

    I just updated my blog to make everything more fluid. Would anyone mind giving me their honest feedback on my site, pages, and posts? My most recent post was asking if there were any WordPress tips & tricks that you can give me, so if your interested in commenting, I’d appreciate it. Thanks!

    https://tizzymatic.wordpress.com

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Hi there.
      I think overall you’ve got a good start. It would be nice to have a title, tagline, or quick “about” blurb in the sidebar to help readers better understand what kind of blog you are. Or rather, what kind of content they’ll find on your blog. It might also help to incorporate Read Mores into your posts so viewers can more easily scroll through your content to find something that’ll catch their eyes.

      And finally–this is just personal opinion–I’m not super crazy about that font. It looks a little too artsy and that can sometimes read as less professional. I think a simpler font would do wonders (if your theme allows).

      Liked by 2 people

      1. How do I add my About Me page to the sidebar? I’ve been trying to figure out how to add Read Mores but haven’t yet.
        As for the font, I don’t like to stick to normal professional trends, so I made it more of my style. Thanks for the help!

        Like

      2. You do it the same way you add any other widget. Create a new “Text” widget and drag it to the top of the widgets list (so it’s near the top of your sidebar). Usually people summarize their blog in 1-2 sentences for these kinds of things.

        Read Mores: https://wordpress.com/support/more-tag/

        You don’t even need to worry about the HTML. Just click the button (as shown in the tutorial) and you’ll be good to go.

        Hope that helps!

        Liked by 1 person

      1. It’s the quote on building pockets of stillness. I deliberately left out the no.7, because it looks odd in the blockquote. 😀

        Like