Feb 20, 2017 / Community Pool

Community Pool

Where bloggers come for friendly feedback and advice.

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. Hi! I’m very new to blogging – started about three days ago.
    My blog is psychology based, focusing on my experiences and the resources I’m using to become a clinical psychologist. I was wondering a few things – first what is a good standard size for a post? Right now I’m keeping it under 1000 as best as I can.
    Also, I know images can make posts pop out but how does one go about finding the right image? Are their any specific resources we can use?
    I’d appreciate any feedback and if anyone happens to look at my blog I’d love any thoughts regarding the layout: is it okay or is it cluttered? Does it look put together?

    Liked by 4 people

    1. Welcome! I’m by no means an expert and have only been blogging just over 3 weeks myself; however, I found this page to be a great resource of info
      http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-find-royalty-free-images-for-your-wordpress-blog-posts/
      I like the layout and design of your page, as well as the color scheme. I think it all works nicely together and I enjoyed the piece about the Freud Museum. Next time I’m in London I will make a point to visit it, having been a Mental Health Specialist in the Army, I think I would enjoy and appreciate the experience.

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Thank you so much for your response! This is very helpful and comforting. And yes do visit. It was very lovely and I learnt so much. And regarding your profession I think it’ll be right up your alley.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Thanks for that link. I’ve been using the “creative commons” filter on bing image searches. I’m not sure what creative commons means, but I thought it was safe to use.

        Liked by 2 people

  3. Hi, everybody, I decided to add a “Self-care Sunday” series to my blog here’s my second post https://livandphea.co.uk/ss-2/ I would love some feedback on it. If it’s a bit blah, I usually write about parenting a child with disabilites and Mental health. I wanted to add this as my blog is my journey through Motherhood and this is part of that. Thanks

    Liked by 4 people

    2. Ammm I was hoping for some better detail on the Watch Dogs 2 review, like what are side missions about? Is the main story worth? What’s the difference between watch dogs 1 and 2? Your review is kind of what the back of the game box has written on it.

      Liked by 2 people

  9. I’d like to invite everyone to stop by and check out my tribute poem to Kurt Cobain, “Nevermind.” Today is his birthday. If you like the piece, 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

    Nevermind

    Liked by 3 people

      4. Ok I’ve hooked up WP to Twitter via the Publicizer plugin using the WP-admin dashboard on my computer (ie not my phone). When I create and publish a new post it should auto-tweet the post. I created a test post on my phone which is how I commonly publish but there was no tweet related aspect to it and while it published ok to my blog, no twitter action resulted. Does this hook up just not work for the android app?

        Liked by 1 person

      5. Actually I’m a dumbass, it turns out. Although there was no mention of Twitter or what I might want to tweet about the post, in fact a tweet was posted on twitter. I’ll have a play with it but at least I now have a connection established, thanks for your help!

        Liked by 1 person

    2. As long as you connect your twitter account to wordpress through the social tab in the admin it will automatically update. Check out my twitter page this is what it looks like when it autoposts it: https://twitter.com/GoldIsFrmAliens

      Once it’s connected you don’t have to do anything else and the auto posts actually look really good. Good luck!

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Thanks. What about hashtags? I wasn’t given the opportunity to craft the tweet a little, so it posted with the blog post title as the tweet. Is there a way to add a hash tag without including it in the blog post title?

        Liked by 3 people

      3. You can certainly do it via WP on a computer, ie customise the tweet text and add a hash tag but not using the WP android app, at least not that I can tell. I will try the WP help chat. Thanks again and good luck with the petulant 12 year old you all seem to have accidentally elected president… twilight zone Dougie howser!

        Liked by 2 people

    3. Hello,
      I checked with the team that works on the Android app, and they confirm that for now you don’t have the option to customize your Twitter message through the Publicize feature on the WordPress for Android app. On the other hand, there is a way to share with a custom message: use the “Share” button on the post notification after publishing (it’s the built-in sharing feature on Android). I hope this helps!

      Liked by 1 person

  15. Hi Ben,
    Like Nadine Mirza, I too am new to blogging. I havent even posted my 1st blog as yet. I was actually searching for tips on how to create and modify blogs when I came up on your post. As far as I am concerned this blog was posted just for me. Thank you and please prepare for some pertinent questions from me.

    Liked by 3 people

    3. Great topic. IMO perfect length. I left a comment that will give you more insight into where I’m coming from, but essentially as a professor of similar info… these slightly-larger-than-bite-sized pieces are perfect. Your intent isn’t to get into short stories.. it’s to inform and sometimes amuse. Great job! -Marie http://www.goldisfromaliens.com

      Liked by 2 people

  19. Hi everyone!
    How did you start to feel really confident in your blog and comfortable advertising it?
    I’m thinking about using Crowdfire to get more followers on Twitter in hopes of stirring up some blog traffic. I just don’t feel ready to take that plunge.
    Thanks!

    Liked by 3 people

  22. I’d love to have some feedback and critiques on my blog https://storybehindthecloth.wordpress.com!
    It’s a fashion blog…but the point is less about fashion itself and more about using fashion to speak about who we are and what we care about.
    I started back in 2015, but life got busy and i got discouraged. So i feel more like i am starting right now.

    Besides critiques, i would also love, love, LOVE to find more people who are interested in this sort of idea to possibly be future contributors…Or at least some relative posts i can reblog! I want to capture various styles, personalities, and stories…Trying to do that all on my own wouldn’t be nearly as powerful.
    Thank you<3

    Liked by 4 people

  23. Hello Bloggers! I would really appreciate anyone taking the time to check out my blog (I write about Christianity and movie reviews) and providing constructive feedback. The most common feedback I’ve received regards the length of my articles since they are on average 1,250 words (some more or less than that; for example, my most recent article is over 2,000 words). To clarify, I do consider my articles “articles”, and not so much “blog posts”. With that in mind, I am trying to reach a larger crowd and have had a hard time tracking higher views. This is where I would appreciate the most constructive feedback so that I can work on reaching more people. Thank you bloggers! God bless!! 🙂
    https://lance-price.com

    Liked by 2 people

  24. Hi, I just posted something kind of different to my blog/site and would love some feedback.
    https://geeksanonymous.tech.blog/2017/02/21/are-you-selling-shit-online/

    I would also love it if people would do the same for my other post. I am also looking for more people who would like to cross post their articles or be normal contributors to my blog. My blog is about Techy or Geeky things and if you would like to send me any feedback personally or just to leave a comment that would be appreciated.

    Liked by 2 people

  28. Hi everyone, I just posted about a new knitting project I’m working on, you can find it here: https://diaryofthenextadventure.wordpress.com/2017/02/20/knitting-socks-backstage/

    I’ve also started a new series on my writing blog called Writing States where I give updates about my ongoing writing projects. Check that post out here: http://www.sibillerose.com/writing-states-2-19-17/

    I’m happy for any feedback on these posts and I’ll be happy to return the favor as I am able. Thanks in advance everyone 🙂

    -Sibille

    Liked by 3 people

  30. Hi, I am trying to customise my theme or choose a new theme. My current theme is superhero. I like the way that it has large header pictures for each post but I don’t like the restriction for creating new menus. Does anyone know if/how I can create new category menus with this theme? Or, any suggestions for similar themes that offer this option? I don’t like the way there’s a big red ‘menu’ button on the android version either. Thanks in advance for any help!

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Hi kaleighth,

      The Superhero theme comes with one custom menu location in the site’s header — that menu can certainly contain multiple links to category pages (if that’s what you’re after?). Alternatively, you can add a Categories Widget to your sidebar, which would give you a different way to highlight the different topics you publish on: https://wordpress.com/support/widgets/categories-widget/

      I hope that answers your initial question; that said, if large featured images are the main reason you’re staying with Superhero, you can always browse our many other themes that offer featured images — many of them giving even more emphasis to these visual touches: https://wordpress.com/themes/filter/blog+featured-images/

      Liked by 1 person