Jan 9, 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. Thank you, happy you liked it! I’m doing a whole series for newbies, and I upload a new video every Monday. 🙂

        Like

      3. I’ll post it here for sure. If you haven’t already, you can also subscribe to my channel so the video ends up in your subscription feed. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  12. My latest post http://wp.me/p55T5h-1O8 shares three recommended links – one for people who love wildlife, one for those who enjoy nature photography and a motivational writer. You might find something you enjoy here.

    My questions are – do you think this kind of post is useful? Have you tried anything similar on your blog? I have gathered plenty of likes, but looking at my stats, only 25% or less of people have actually clicked on the links. Is this something you have experienced yourself?

    Liked by 2 people

    1. For the type of post you have with imbedded links, it doesn’t surprise me that not many click on them. I’m one that rarely clicks on links. I view them as a convience in case I want to explore a topic further, but I don’t feel obligated to click them. One thing you did do well is give the reader enough information to decide if the link would be of interest to them. https://gracelead.co

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I don’t click on links too much either, but if it’s a recommendation post I’m more likely to click. The studio portraits of wild animals were so wonderful, I felt sure that some of my followers would like it.

        I almost always add pictures to my posts so it may be that people are liking the picture rather than the recommendations.

        Like

  14. Thank you for this very timely reminder. I’ve decided a few days ago to revamp my blog with more regular posts and a new design. I’ll definitely be using those daily prompts when I lack inspiration, starting today!

    Liked by 3 people

    1. This sounds promising. It would be even better if it had a wireless connection to the computer. Though it should be a substantial cost savings, the skeptic in me thinks those selling it will over price it. Please let us know if Hans Christian Andersen does stop by your office. Include a selfie with him too. 🙂 https://gracelead.co

      Liked by 1 person

    2. I love the idea of letting our loved ones know how important they are to us, even in little ways. We should all do that more!
      Consider adding some images in your posts to break up the text,

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Great blog! Definitely topics I am interested in, you’ve got my follow! I didnt read a full article yet but will be sure to do so soon! My blog is tailored to personal finance. If you wouldnt mind giving mine a look I’d greatly appreciate it!

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Cool blog! Great layout! I like how your posts feature the monochrome photos. I’ll be honest, I didnt know what a monochrome photo was.. you’re a good writer! And nice pictures! If you wouldn’t mind scoping my blog out too, I’d appreciate it!

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Your post is well-written. You expressed yourself clearly. To increase visibility to your site, visit the WordPress Reader. Set up some tags there to find posts in your interest area. Read them and put likes or comments on them. Also, if you want your posts to show up in the WordPress Reader for others to find, you’ll need to limit your Tags + Categories to no more than 15 per post. https://gracelead.co

      Liked by 1 person

    5. Community Pool is one of the best ways on WordPress to get new people to view your stuff. I like your blog name, it kind of just flows off the tongue or whatever that phrase is. Commenting on blogs that you have interest in helps too!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I just went through your post and i found myself comfortable with the length.
      I think it’s more about the presentation than it is about the length. Just my view…need not be true though!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Could you elaborate on ‘presentation?’ Do you mean to say that if properly presented length is almost irrelevant? I’d love if I could find statistics on the ratio of likes to length for a massive set of blog posts. Medium.com recomends a 7 minute read so maybe they’ve already done research on this.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Oh I meant that the way you write and the content is more important and you should not concern yourself too much with the length. That’s my personal view by the way. I am not sure how correct I am.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. For me, the length of your post works. I agree with “Deepti Nair” that formatting is important. For instance, if your post had been one long paragraph with no visuals, I would have been less inclined to read it. At the same time, overall length is important to me. If a post is long enough to require me to scroll several times, I will hesitate to read it. Unless a long post is one of my areas of interest and formatted with subheading and short paragraphs, I won’t read it. Another thing that will cause me to not finish reading a long post is poor grammar and awkward sentence structure. (BTW, your grammar and sentence structure are fine 🙂 ) https://gracelead.co

      Liked by 1 person

  25. I am a disabled person suffering multiple injuries, chronic pain and Traumatic Brain Injuries. Raising my son and learning how to live again and my struggles in trying. I would like to get an idea if my work is getting better and some thoughts if possible. Thank you very much.

    Liked by 2 people

      1. Thanks for your input! 🙂 I will have to put that recipe away and bring it out another day. (Rhyme only slightly on purpose!)

        Like

  28. I’d like to invite everyone to stop by and check out a poetry piece from a few months ago, “Street Light Shoppin’.” This poem is a personal favorite, and I’m pleased with how it turned out. The image is a perfect match. If you like the poem, 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

    Street Light Shoppin’

    Like