Jan 2, 2017 / Community Pool

Community Pool

The place for feedback, advice, and conversations about blogging.

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. I like the idea of your blog and I enjoyed reading the post about photography ideas 🙂 I would love to read a post in which you share some thoughts and photos of nature and art! Everyone enjoys those two things haha 🙂 good luck with your blog!

      Liked by 2 people

    2. That effect you get from snow falling in the featured image to the bottom is amazing. For your NY Resolution post look to deepen your meaningful resolutions by providing deeper context whenever as to why those resolutions are specifically important to you. This introduces greater stakes.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Im not sure whether you talked about my blog but the idea of putting more meaning in my blogpost is indeed something I feel like I should do more. Thank you for the reminder it is truly helpful!

        Like

    3. It takes a long time to build a blog and get views. Make sure to use tags effectively, and “swimming in the community pool” is a good start. Come here and share every Monday. Just be patient, and post a few times a week on somewhat of a schedule. It takes time. Good luck and happy blogging.

      Liked by 4 people

  6. Happy 2017 everybody! I hope this year will be an amazing year for you all 🙂 This year I have so much planned for my blog already and I am so excited to continue writing and blogging. I would love to hear feedback on my most recent post welcoming in the new year, or if you fancy having a scroll through and picking a post which suits you then that would be more than great too. Thank you all 🙂
    https://50shad3s0fjay.wordpress.com

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Hello everyone! Happy new year! I am pretty new and not very experienced when it comes to this blogging journey. But I do love to write and I could use some feedback on my pieces of writing and style. Therefore, if you could spare some of your free time and check out my blog, I’d really appreciate it 🙂 here is the link! Thank you a lot, have a great day!
    https://oceauxnic.wordpress.com

    Liked by 3 people

      1. It’s alright haha. Thanks for checking it out. 🙂 I liked your list of post. My favourite one was definitely the one in which you compare love and cake! So creative and… well, true! Nice work!

        Liked by 1 person

  8. Hey everyone! Hope you all had happy holidays! If it perks your interest, I run a pop culture website, and recently I’ve been writing about my favorite films. Given that Christmas was recently, I wrote about It’s A Wonderful Life, which I think is the greatest Christmas movie put to film. I’d appreciate some feedback on that post:

    Personal Favorites: It’s a Wonderful Life

    Thanks! Happy blogging! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I honestly don’t know if there’s much else you can do with your blog to make it more visually appealing. My eyes are tired (typical scientist) and I could read it on a laptop screen just fine. You also use tags, but have you ever found other blogs/posts that use similar tags? Finding other like-minded bloggers could help grow your audience, you know?

      https://scicasual.wordpress.com

      Liked by 1 person

      2. Oh, it’s not so much about interesting content (you’ve got enough, it appears), it’s more about doing some legwork to find your audience. Not everyone knows how to do a tag search.

        Seriously, I didn’t know how many science blogs there were on here until I learned how to do that…

        Liked by 1 person

      4. So you *do* tag-search. Welp, yeah, then there really is not much else you need to do than continue doing what you’re doing. There’s maybe search engine optimization techniques, but *man* is that way beyond me…

        Liked by 1 person

  12. I’d like to invite everyone to stop by and check out a photography piece from a few months ago, “Farewell to Fall 2016.” The photograph was taken during a hike on Thanksgiving Sunday and shows the death of one season and the birth of the next. If you like the photograph, please click the “like” button on the post page. Comments and feedback are always welcome, and please leave them in the comments section of the post page as well. If you like what you see, feel free to browse around, and follow along so you don’t miss anything as I post several times a week. Thanks in advance.
    Drew

    Farewell to Fall 2016

    Like

    1. Welcome and great start! I also write anonymously and find it so great for working through stuff and also getting other perspectives – be great if you could pop by. Looking forward to reading more posts – good luck

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Welcome to the WordPress community. We’ve got cookies…well, recipes for them. You’ll have to do the work yourself, sorry.

      Anyway, now that you’ve got your blog set up, let out your blogging voice for the first time (feels good, doesn’t it?), now it’s time to spend an hour or two faffing about in the Customizer so you can get an idea of how your blog works, making sure your social media links go somewhere, perhaps a bit more on your “Ask” page (Would this be your “Contact” page instead?), maybe even play with colors? You’ll see when you just let yourself play.

      https://scicasual.wordpress.com

      Liked by 2 people

    3. Welcome! You use the same theme as me and it looks good. Just get writing. I like honest real life blogs I also like relationship and love blogs. Pop by mine if you like and I wish you luck on your blogging adventure 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  17. Hi everyone!

    My blog is justnormaljosh.wordpress.com, and I’ve been experimenting with different lengths of posts lately with my last two posts.

    Also, please leave me some feedback on those featured posts on my blog! I’m trying to figure if I should do more posts like those.

    Also, how is my image selection? I’m trying to create a ordinary neighborhood aesthetic (like in Kelly clarkson’s breakaway video lol).

    Thanks and happy new year!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Josh! I really like the layout of your blog. I read a couple of your posts and thought the length was good. One idea as far as photos would be to add a featured image to your posts.

      Charlotte

      Like

    1. 80’s music is the best! The look and feel of the site is great and really matches up with your content. We like the 80’s (and all the other decades, too) and music of all kinds over at the Nostalgia Diaries, so consider us a fan!

      Liked by 1 person

  20. Hello there! I write about my random thoughts, post poetry and paintings trying to associate the two as best as I can. If you enjoy poetry and art, I think you might like the blog! Feel free to check it out at : https://sachanievsky.wordpress.com and tell me what you think. I would be delighted to visit you as well ^^

    I wish you all a very happy new year!

    Liked by 1 person

  24. I have just started my blog few days back. Would love to hear from my fellow bloggers their thoughts about it.Please be gentle as I’am still a new born baby in this big wonderful world of blogging.Thanks in advance.

    Like

  25. Hey, everybody, I just started today! Would really appreciate feedback! Send whatever feedback you want, I’m 21 years old! I’m a big boy, that loves writing poems and things like that lol. Help me out!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Your point is excellent. My favorite part was, “It may not have marble grounds, but definitely has moral grounds. It may not be pretty to the eye, but upon contemplation, you may find that it may be what God wants to see.” My only suggestion is to consider the length of your posts. It seemed a bit longer than necessary. https://gracelead.co

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi, thanks for sharing! I read your post, and I would say I agree. I can see how it may be somewhat controversial, but I agree that waiting on motivation to strike is a recipe for not achieving goals.

      Liked by 2 people

    2. Agreed. Motivation alone ain’t gonna cut the mustard. The Will Smith quote does it for me. Also, to coin an aged cliché, actions speak louder than words!

      Liked by 2 people

    2. If the photo is a picture of your planner, it’s lovely! You have an easy and relatable post to offer a quick organizational tip in the new year.
      Happy 2017!
      -Author S

      Liked by 2 people

  28. Hey everyone! It’s a new year and a new challenge for this month. Come visit the Ink Owl for fantasy flash fiction and illustrations. Come read tantalizing tidbits and get hooked on unique stories never written anywhere else! It’s happening all month long right here: http://wp.me/p7OhSP-10l
    Happy reading!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You have a lovely image for this story! The concept of the Dragon Moon is interesting, and your descriptions are detailed. I would keep an eye on dialogue tags and small grammar errors to fix, but otherwise, it’s an interesting start.
      Feel free to stop by and take a look at my works.
      -Author S

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I’d have to see what your old theme looked like, but I like this one! You have many passions but as long as it’s organized well, it should connect with many different interests in others! You’re a bit different with the gaming element. 🙂 I’m a runner too (although on sabbatical after baby, lol. A looooong sabbatical.) so I’ll have to check that part out.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Hi, thank you so much for stopping by and letting me know your thoughts! I appreciate the feedback. I think that organizing the variety of topics is the hardest part lol.

        Thanks again!

        Like

      1. Hi Allie! Thank you so much for checking out my blog and for the feedback. I greatly appreciate it! I agree about photos. I am a very visual person, so I think photos go a long way to help tell stories.

        I just checked your blog and followed. Happy new year!

        Charlotte

        Like

    3. I love the home page with all the tiled images! Also, the categories make it easy to find your way around. You may want to try some color schemes, but other than that, the blog looks great!
      Feel free to stop by mine if you’d like!
      -Author S

      Liked by 2 people

      2. Of course! I’m glad I could help! If you’d like to stop by and leave some feedback as well, it’d be lovely.
        Happy revamping!
        -Author S

        Liked by 1 person

    5. Hey Charlotte,

      I love the look of your blog – you use the same theme as me, so you are preaching to the converted really!

      One thing I chose to do was to have my widgets in the tertiary area – when you do that they appear without the coloured border around. I think that looks better, in a minimal uncluttered way.

      Just a thought – all in all, good job!

      Liked by 2 people