Mar 27, 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, fellow bloggers! I’d love any feedback on this poem that I wrote.
    https://theunshackledthoughtsofadreamer.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/her-eyes/
    I’m experimenting with different styles of writing and I’d be grateful for any feedback you might have! I’m also interested to hear your opinions and thoughts on this poem. Please do give it a read! Thank you! (I have posts other than poetry uploaded as well, I’d appreciate if you checked a few of those out too. I really would like to improve and grow as a blogger, and any feedback you guys give me will help me do that.) Have a wonderful day, guys!

    Liked by 9 people

    1. To me, your writing has potential. I liked the message in Strange Bond. There were some places where the wording was awkward. For instance, “Usually she used to manage to get a seat to sit everyday but today there was no place even to stand in the bus.” would be smoother as, “Usually, she managed to find a seat on the bus, but today, there was barely even a place to stand.” https://gracelead.co

      Liked by 2 people

  16. I’m redesigning and I see a lot of bloggers use Pages to separate their writing topics or genres. I’d like a little advice on this.

    So far I’ve only published the Link on my Pages rather than the whole post. Say I publish a poem as a post, do I also have to publish the same poem on the “Poems” page for it to stay there? If I go ahead and publish it on the “Poems” page, will it also go into the Reader just as a post would?

    Or would a person be as far ahead to just use Categories and forget about Pages? Any advice would be appreciated.

    Liked by 8 people

    1. I’m new here, and my blog is of a different type, but here’s my thought:
      Since mine is a food blog, I have a “recipes” page. On that page, there are various headings, and under each heading I put a link to the original post. I don’t re-publish the whole post on that page, just a link. That way anything can be easily found without having to shuffle through all the rest of it. Now, to be fair, I don’t have a lot of content yet, but that’s the plan anyway. You can check mine out to see what I mean (foodallergydad.wordpress.com)

      Liked by 3 people

    2. I use pages too, as they’re a great way to highlight certain topics you often write about. On your fiction page, it might be worth adding a bit more information than just the title and ‘read more’.

      Another idea is to write a little about the category, include a picture or two, then link through at the bottom to a tag page, for example: https://christinegoodnough.com/tag/stories/

      I’ve done something similar on my gardening page towards the bottom:
      https://susanrushton.net/gardening/

      The only trouble with the format I’m using is that it’s hard to remember to update it now and again, whereas the version you’re using looks like it will update itself. I wish you lots of luck, whichever way you decide to use.

      Liked by 2 people

    3. I have found it easiest to assign each post to a category. By putting the categories in my Menu, it appears that the posts are on a page. See LEAD Categories on my site: https://gracelead.co For things that are not posts, I provide links on a page. That’s what I do with my book summary and tool downloads.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. I looked at your blog — and wish I knew how you did that! How does one put Categories into the Menu? I’m going to check this out more. My Categories ore on a drop-down menu on the side, but as I said, I’m redesigning.

        What your blog lacks is a Recent Posts widget. When I looked at your Home page, I had to scroll and scroll and scroll. A Recent Posts widget would give readers, at a glance, the titles of the last 5-10 posts.

        Liked by 2 people

    4. I have found using categories to be easier only because I have not figured out how to post on my home blog page as well as a page for a certain topic without double posting. Having two separate but same exact posts with different comment sections could get confusing.

      Liked by 3 people

  20. Hello to all my fellow bloggers! I hope you are having a great Monday thus far. I’m adding a link to my latest post on my health & wellness blog. A place where I can tackle my own personal journey to wellness (with some mommy posts as well) and hopefully help others tackle theirs as well. I wish you all the best and look forward to checking out your posts! 😘

    Eating Meaningfully

    Liked by 9 people

      1. Same here. I see your header, which is a pic of coffee beans on a burlap background. Nice, but if that’s the one you’re using, it doesn’t have anything to do with grey skies and sunflowers. Pixabay has a lot of great free images you can download and use as headers.

        Liked by 3 people

  22. Hi there, fellow bloggers and readers! I’m one of those I-wanna-write-a-book types, but also an anything-goes type blogger. I’m an introvert, in the service (beauty) industry and someone a little bit obsessed with words and art.

    Feel free to like and follow, if it’s your thing, and if we have similar interests, I’d love to return the favor.

    https://angelacassiel.wordpress.com/

    Liked by 9 people

  23. Hi all! 😊
    I write about my experiences with mental health and also offer motivation and encouragement!
    I have a weekly series for Monday Motivation called Post-itivity, where I normally share an inspirational quote and my take on it!
    This time I shared beautiful spring pictures as well as a bit of motivation:)
    I hope that you like it!
    ❤ xoxo, c.

    Post-itivity! Something a Little Different

    Liked by 8 people

  26. Love theses posts! Right now I am trying to figure out what type of posts my bloggers would prefer to read. I am very much a lifestyle blogger… AKA ALL OVER THE PLACE with posts and would be curious to see which of my posts you like better. DIY? Places to go? Recipes? Mom Stuff? Humor? Here is my post from today but feel free to lurk around and let me know what some of my better posts are in your opinion 🙂

    https://abbeycoseattle.blog/2017/03/27/monday-goals/

    Liked by 11 people

  28. Hey there! Here’s a fresh post on my blog about taking the steps necessary to achieve your goal, please check it out if you have a minute – https://yourbeautifuljourney.wordpress.com/2017/03/25/take-the-first-step/ .

    Your feedback is very much appreciated ❤ As a thank you, I'll be happy to look at your own blog and hopefully give some helpful feedback, too!

    And have an amazing rest of the week everybody, let it be full of fun and creativity 🙂

    Liked by 9 people

  29. Hello everyone!!
    I am almost about to complete an year on WordPress, and needless to mention it’s been an amazing journey so far.Thank you for all your love and support!!
    Though I’ve not been active because high school kills you enough xD anyway, I would love it if you’d all go through my posts that I’ve put up so far.
    Your suggestions and feedback will be highly appreciated as I’ll start posting more, soon.
    Here’s the link : https://shivanichoudhary.wordpress.com

    Hope you enjoy reading them!!

    Liked by 7 people

  30. Any advice on Amazon affiliate links not working? I try and attach them to specific words, but the link will never shorten! Also, looking for advice on how to make my homepage more enticing…x

    Liked by 6 people

      1. Thank you! Trying to utilize a free theme w the colors i want and logo space removed the possibility on some pictures…will have to add a gallery or connect my instagrams 🙂 thanks again!

        Liked by 2 people