May 22, 2017 / Community Pool

Community Pool

Where bloggers come together to give each other 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. So I’ve been trying to make my site look cleaner and more professional but I’m having trouble with the static first post. You can see what I mean when you take a look at my blog it’s the first thing you see.

    Can’t wait to see what other amazing blogs are here and have a wonderful day!!

    Way of the Wise – Bringing Peace Through Understanding

    We Moved

    Liked by 7 people

    1. There should be a way to delete that static first post so you don’t have to worry about it anymore! Go into your WordPress dashboard and poke around — it might be under “Blog Posts”, or maybe in the theme customizer.

      Good luck!

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Hello! It seems like you may have inadvertently set that post to be a “sticky” post — that means it stays at the top of your page above all the newer posts. You don’t need to delete your post to make it go away from the top of the page — just find that post by going here:
      https://wordpress.com/posts

      Then, go inside your post editor, click on the “Statis” item and switch the “Sticky” toggle off. That’s it!

      You can read more about sticky posts here:
      https://wordpress.com/support/post-visibility/#sticky-posts

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Hi everyone! I have a Spoonie lifestyle blog and I just started a fashion series. Here’s the latest post http://wp.me/p6XiSx-Bh
    I’ve been blogging for over a year and I still don’t have a whole lot of traffic. My current readers are amazing, but is there something I can do blog wise to help gain some traffic? Any specific tags, am I using too many tags? Any advice would be helpful! You can comment on posts directly or reply to my comment.

    Liked by 6 people

      3. I think I’m going to have to try it. I have a whole book shelf of HP stuff. Most of it I bought at Platform 9 3/4 when I was in London, but some of it I made for Comic Con last year! 🙂

        Like

    2. Hello, Kat. I liked your blog a lot! Do you engage with other bloggers? Are you a part of any facebook or pinterest groups? I believe doing these might help. Good luck ^^

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thanks! I’ve just recently joined facebook groups! I’m looking into some Pinterest ones. And I interact with some bloggers in my genre as much as I can. What Pinterest groups do you recommend? I only learned about them recently.

        Like

  6. Hey guys. Someone suggested to me not too long ago that if I want my blog to be successful I should try to find a niche. At the moment I do like to write movie reviews but I also like to write about whatever’s in my head. See here:

    https://themumblr.wordpress.com/

    So what do you think? Try to find a specific audience or just write about whatever you feel like?

    Liked by 7 people

    1. I don’t necessarily have “successful” blog, but from what I’ve seen, having a niche is what attracts people, and you then have an audience to target. That being said, perhaps you could categorize your blog, billing it as “movie reviews and other musings” or something, making the reviews easy to find and read but giving you an opportunity to write about other things as well

      Liked by 2 people

    2. I just went to your site, looks great, but it doesn’t look like you are reviewing movies regularly… or did I not look at your site properly. If you are going to focus on movie reviews then I would suggest you do this monthly or quarterly if you want a following. Also, we are all trying to read a lot of different Blogs, so I would recommend keeping your word count to 300-400 words. I read this is what Bloggers strive for if they write for a living. Great post! Keep writing.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Hey, thanks for the feedback. You’re right, before the last couple weeks, I wasn’t reviewing movies regularly. But I thought if I was ever to streamline the blog, that’s the direction I’d go in.

        300-400 words?! I dunno, sometimes as soon as I start writing I get carried away and reach 500 words in no time 🙂 I’ll see if I can write some shorter ones in the future.

        Like

      2. YOU can DO IT! Take a look at my site. I practiced and got good at cutting words out. You WANT people to visit and not think… oh no, I have to keep reading. That’s how I felt. In life we have to read a lot for school, for work, and then books we enjoy, so add on a Blog and unless it is short, I pass on it after the second paragraph. That’s just me, maybe other people have more reading time. FOR SURE, you can do 300 and I think you’ll enjoy seeing how “razor sharp” your text becomes. :). Let me know when you’ve posted your next 300-400 word Blog. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

    3. There’s no right or wrong when it comes to having niches or not. Personally, I don’t have a niche because I wanted the freedom to write about whatever I want. Do I sometimes regret not having a niche? Yeah. At the end of the day, it’s what will make YOU happy though. You never want to feel like you’re obligated to write.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. My blog is all about how an anonymous and inconspicuous girl in India leads her life. It has her thoughts, musings, rants, hurts, and everything that affects her. It’s entirely personal. You can check out my recent blog post. Below is the link:

    Anxiety.

    I would love some support and I promise that I try my best to return that. 🙂
    Thank you so much.

    Liked by 11 people

    3. Just checked out your blog. Looks good. Read your Anxiety post. Keep your head up! Rant, muse and everything else as much as you want. That’s what WordPress is here for 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

      2. I checked out your blog. I read the post about adrift. The music is beautiful BTW. There wasn’t a comment bar though. You should check that. Your writing is awesome

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Curious. I see a Leave a Reply button on all the posts. Maybe check a different post?
        Thanks! I’m glad you enjoy it! I will check out your site! 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      7. Curious. I followed you back so maybe that will fix it or at least enable you to comment through the reader haha

        Like

    1. I enjoyed your post a lot! Completely agree with almost all of it, except maybe for one thing – that emotions are useless. I know they don’t last and they sometimes affect our actions in less-than-perfect ways, but hey, good emotions are part of the reason we enjoy living 😉

      In general, good writing! Just be mindful of spelling (Word can check it automatically, if needed) – other than that, keep creating, your words are beautiful! 🙂

      Like

      1. Thanks alot, I really appreciate that. In the third part of fable, I have wrote about positive thoughts and feelings which are good for our mind. Anything productive and constructive pours energy. Some emotions drain energy and take us on emotional roller coaster. We should be careful about that. 🙂🙂🙂

        Liked by 2 people

    1. That is totally up to you. I’m not a self hosted blog, but I have blogging friends who are and they don’t have an extensive amount of traffic either. One friend in particular gained more followers after she bought her domain. If you decide to, it should only help your blog in the long run. Just keep interacting with your readers and post as often as you can!

      Liked by 3 people

  13. Hello, everyone!

    I have been running a business writing blog for 2 months now, and my main aim is to attract more writers who would write business/economics articles for my website. So far, I was able to target only a few, however. What would you advise for attracting more writers/bloggers?

    studentnessblog.wordpress.com

    Thanks in advance!

    Liked by 4 people

  14. Hi! Great to see everyone here again 🙂 Feel free to check out my new posts – about faith https://yourbeautifuljourney.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/lets-talk-faith/ and about how we can stop being afraid of sucking at something (excuse my foul language) so that we open up to trying new things https://yourbeautifuljourney.wordpress.com/2017/05/20/its-okay-to-suck/.

    Your feedback (yes, yours specifically! 🙂 ) is very helpful – so, don’t hesitate to speak up!

    Liked by 6 people

    1. One more thing – if you’d like me to take a look at your blog and give some feedback, too, just drop me a line under this comment and I will be happy to visit! Let’s all support each other here 🙂

      Liked by 3 people

      2. Wanted to leave a comment on yours, too, but it gave an error. I just wanted to say that the idea of your blog is awesome! Best of luck to you and your family!

        Like

    1. Oh my goodness I love your theme. It’s so…mystical! You’ve got a great writing style. Just keep writing and read everything you can! You learn as you read and as you write. Never stop.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. Well, all blogs post the most recent post first then go backwards from there. I’ve found that titling the piece in accordance to where it falls in the story helps. Or you could make different pages for each project and number the chapters. That’s what I do for my creative pieces.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi! I like the cover photo for your posts. It definitely sets the tone for a hipster and fun vibe. I’d be cool if different types of articles (like beauty, food, travel, etc) had different photos to distinguish between them. And don’t forget to sp Pinterest 🙂 Otherwise keep up the good work!

      Like

  23. Hey everyone! I hope y’all had a fun filled weekend. So my new post is about how with age we start complicating stuff and get entangled in a complete web of problems. Do check it out, and drop in a review!

    Liked by 2 people

  30. Hey everyone. I’ve been on a blogging break recently and hopefully will return soon. I’ve been making some changes to the blog and would love to know what you think and any feedback and suggestions for the future for https://stevemcsteveface.com/ – thanks for looking and have an awesome week! Steve x

    Liked by 4 people