Mar 6, 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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  3. Hi everyone! I wrote a post about the death of my brother. I’ve found writing to be really helpful as a coping mechanism, so the piece focuses on the relationship between death and the writing process itself.

    Home

    Also, all of my posts to date are ‘portfolio pages’ and as such their tags don’t appear in the reader. If anyone knows anything about this and could help I would really appreciate it! Thanks!

    Liked by 5 people

    1. Hey I just read your post. It’s really well written, I couldn’t get through it all because it was so powerful though.
      On the tags thing, can’t you just change the format of all previous posts to ‘standard’ instead of ‘portfolio’ which I assume is something that your theme did automatically… just a thought though, I could be wrong.

      Liked by 2 people

  5. I know it works better to ask specifics, but I’m someone who has had a blog for a few years now, but just recently started blogging regularly. I rarely get read by anyone besides a few random Faceook friends. So, I would appreciate it is you could take a look at https://theycallmetater.com/ and give me any feedback on the look, the posts, anything that can help me make a better blog.

    Liked by 5 people

    1. Hi! I checked out your blog and had a couple of thoughts. I would play around with the layout of your blog. I’m a firm believer in simple, but your site is just a little too simple. 🙂 If you go to themes, you can customize the overall look of your site. Adding some widgets to the side might be a nice touch while still keeping it simple. A second thing would be to alter your color scheme. 🙂
      My site is pretty simple if you want to check it out for an idea.
      https://placetorememberblog.wordpress.com/

      Liked by 3 people

    2. I like the look of it. I read the latest two posts. They are interesting and easy to read. On the photo challenge, it would be nice to make the photo larger. Do you use the WordPress Reader to find posts similar to yours? If you put likes or comments on some of them, it can help people find your blog. https://gracelead.co

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Hi everyone. I publish new fiction and old pictures four times a week. I would appreciate any feedback in general, but I’m specifically wondering if the theme I’m working is the best for my content, or if there is a better way to present my work. Any advice (or just a curiosity-satisfying visit) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
    https://dbayarblog.wordpress.com

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Your theme seems workable. One suggestion is to put your categories in your Menu rather than under your About page. I read your For the Birds post and enjoyed it. It flowed well, was easy to read, and had a good mix of photos. Also, I found it entertaining 🙂 https://gracelead.co

      Liked by 1 person

    2. I love your cover photo, I’m can’t find the right word to describe why at the moment, but I think it works well with your layout. I would suggest adding some widgets to the sidebar, right now you just have a lot of white space at the side of your page. Maybe add an archives section or recent posts so visitors can more easily explore your latest work.

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Hello! I am actually completely fascinated by your subject matter. I will add though that maybe people are not getting past the homepage is due to the layout having to go click on the blog tab? Maybe having a bit more of a descriptive message to really draw people in and highlighting your blog entries using widgets along the sides will help you gain more traffic. Your pinned post has me intrigued- I will be reading it shortly.

      Liked by 2 people

    2. I fully agree with Irene’s comment. The menu at the top of the page threw me off a little bit. Maybe along with some widgets in the sidebar add some links into the description on the Home page to help direct your visitors to specific posts or pages. I really like the color scheme you have though, it’s nice and calming so it goes well with your subject matter I think.

      Liked by 3 people

    3. Hi, agree with both comments above, if you were able to pin excerpts or teasers to recent posts to the landing page, I think you would get more views on the individual posts.
      Personally I don’t stay on a blog very long if I find it hard to navigate between posts.

      Liked by 2 people

    1. I liked the poem written by you and commented there.
      I was little confused as I landed on your website as what to click but somehow I managed.
      Any way good start n keep writing.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Thanks a lot for your honest feedback. I am still trying to make it better. As a blogger you can understand your feedback can make a positive difference. So thanks a lot!! I hope to hear from you again. 😊

        Liked by 3 people

    1. Hi James! I checked out your blog and gave it a follow as well- I love sports (I play college soccer in the US) and I’m excited to keep up with the articles you publish!
      As far as accessibility goes- I’m looking at it via desktop computer and didn’t have a problem navigating your site.
      I do have a suggestion, more on the marketing side of your site. First off, the image that is your profile picture is blank. It shows up next to your name. Mine is a picture of an orange-leaved tree. It’s a turn off for a lot of readers to see a post or comment from a person without this avatar. You can change this by going to your personal settings.
      The second thing, your site doesn’t really give off the typical sports-journal vibe in terms of visuals. Your target market is going to be those who enjoy sports, often times males, who would be turned off by the color-scheme and font-style that you have chosen for your blog.
      BUT, I’m a female and loved it, so you have that going for you as well. 🙂

      I have a couple of posts about soccer if you want to check them out some time. Here’s one of them: https://placetorememberblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/12/eternal-perspective/

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Hi

        Thanks for replying. In terms of background, I wanted something basic and different to normal sport blogs so that it stood out more.

        I have tried creating an avatar in the past but encountered problems every time but there are people at my university who know about avatars on WordPress. I am waiting till right moment before seeking advice from them.

        Liked by 3 people

  19. Hello all and please HELP if you can!
    It’s been a while since I published and was looking forward to share this https://therealqueenofstuff.wordpress.com/2017/03/06/ferrari-of-houston-showroom/ with you but while trying to I discovered that the post does not feature on my blog’s homepage as it should, nor has it appeared on the Reader. I can only access it through the Editing page.

    I have no idea why this is happening – any thoughts on how to resolve this will be greatly appreciated 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  20. Hey everyone!!
    I have recently posted my favourite books for world book day and it would be great if you could have a look. I’m always open to any feedback you have on my blog whether that’s content or layout or anything else. I’m also looking for some new blogs to read and follow so please comment if you think I should look at your blog!
    Thank you!
    Girl Surviving the World 🙂

    Liked by 6 people

    1. I checked out your blog and read a couple of your posts! I write my blog anonymously as well. I’m in college now, but when I was in high school I wish I would have known about the world of blogging so I could have expressed all of my thoughts. Your posts are good- keep thinking and keep writing, girl!
      Feel free to check my blog out if you want.:)

      A Place to Remember

      Liked by 3 people

    1. Hello,

      We’ve recently made some changes to our Daily Post schedule, moving the Photo Challenge to Wednesday and discontinuing the Discover Challenge. We know quite a few bloggers have missed them, and hope that between the Daily Prompt, Photo Challenges, and other blogging events around WordPress.com, you can still find other venues in which to share your work.

      Thanks for being part of our blogging community!

      Ben

      Like

  22. I published a short post narrative yesterday and I would love your feedback. I don’t typically write narratives so I would love to know your thoughts on it.
    If you like or comment my post I promise I will like and/or comment on one of your posts as well!

    A Place to Remember

    Liked by 4 people

  23. I’d like to invite everyone to stop by and check out my poem of the week, “You’ll See Me.” It’s a poem for the beautifully depressed, and deals with depression in a Floydian scope. 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

    You’ll See Me

    Liked by 4 people

  25. Hello Community Pool!
    I’m an author looking to expand my readership. I’m currently working on a novel along with some short stories. I had a post update about this yesterday where you can learn more about my writings. Find that here: http://www.sibillerose.com/2017/03/writing-states-3-5-17/

    If anyone has advice on how to gain more readers, please share!

    I also write book reviews, my most recent one is for the Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman which you can read here: http://www.sibillerose.com/2017/03/amber-spyglass-review/

    Thanks in advance,
    Sibille

    Liked by 7 people

    1. His Dark Materials were my favourite books for many years, and actually might still be, so I’m afraid to click on your link in case you hated it! Did you hate it?

      Liked by 3 people

      3. I did, I’m so excited for it! I actually mention that in my brief review (this review is a little shorter than my normal ones since I didn’t want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t read the series yet).

        Liked by 3 people

  27. Hi guys! I’m a new blogger who is still trying to figure this site out, but I’m really enjoying all the comments that I have seen so far. I started the blog in order to receive constructive criticism and suggestions on how I can better my writing style and content.Thank you for the help!

    Brody

    Liked by 3 people