Sep 25, 2017 / Community Pool

Community Pool

Where WordPress bloggers support each other with 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 more information about custom domains, advanced design options, and other enhancements for your blog? Find the WordPress.com plan that’s right for you.

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.

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.

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    1. I think you have a great design, your articles seem focused on dating men… so you need an audience that wants to read that. Are you trying to build your following? If yes, I would suggest visiting other sites with your same focus, LIKE/COMMENT and leave your website with them, so they can visit you. I think your layout, font choice are great.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. It looks like this was your first post. I have friends who have adopted children, so as you mentioned in your post, there are so many different stories out there. I am sure you will find a good following. My first impression of your Blog was the choice of the dark background combined with the secrecy of using initials that made me feel like I was going into a room that was “forbidden,” instead of “welcoming.” From reading your story, it seems to me you want to “welcome people;” however, I did not get that vibe from your dark site/use of initials. I associate the background you chose with astrology/tarot reading.

      For me, right now you have started out as a “somber” greeting. No need to tell us when your daughter was adopted. I would take the year out.

      I like the title of your blog, I like the fonts you chose — all very nice. Even the blue flower is really pretty, I would just change the black background to something happier. YOU have the opportunity with your Blog to turn adoption from a taboo subject into a subject worthy of talking about — a platform if you will. You can help get rid of the fears that are associated with it. TO BUILD FOLLOWERS… try and visit other sites with similar topic, Like/Comment and leave your website for them to link back to you. Wishing you well. http://www.brilliantviewpoint.com

      Liked by 2 people

      2. I would really think through what your plan is for future articles. Is it really necessary to use initials?? It seemed to me you were going to write a little bit about your process, but also bring out other information that would be helpful to others.

        If this is the case, I would do away with the initials. And in whatever article you write you say, “My daughter,” or “the adoptive parents.” This way, we don’t have to keep looking to the left to figure out WHO is letter “b,” etc. ALSO, by doing this, the focus is not on “your family situation,” instead you can become more of a generic website for people to “share” their stories, etc.

        Take the emphasis away from “your situation.”

        REALLY THINK through this… If you are creating a platform for others then I would make your ABOUT page very simple. Take yourself out of the birth mother role (your life), pretend you are a birth mother counselor and someone comes to you asking for advice… if you THINK in these terms, I believe you will write an entirely different ABOUT message with a new focus for your Blog.

        You will write a message that says, “I am a birth mother who chose adoption, I want to share this with others, because I had no place to go or people to help me… I’d like to offer a place where people can ask their questions and we help each other find the answers or find comfort from each other as well.”

        WHICH is what you were trying to say at the end of your message! Right!

        Just my thoughts… as it is only your FIRST post, I don’t know where you are going with this. Will you focus on YOUR LIFE more as a journal OR be a Blog to help others?

        Your About page determines your direction. Of course you can change, but why not think it through BEFORE you are deep into your Blog.

        Let me know when you have made updates, I am happy to revisit it. THIS IS A GREAT TOPIC!

        Liked by 1 person

      3. I’ve made some edits to the look of the page itself — not finished yet, I still want to play with it, but let me know what you think of the new color scheme.
        I did originally write these posts using “adoptive parents” or “my adoption counselor” or whatever, but it ended up being very awkward in context and I changed it. I may change it back if the initials become a problem, but I’m choosing to leave those for now.

        Definitely feel free to check out the full blog, (there’s plenty of posts up) and let me know your thoughts…..
        thanks for the feedback!

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Wow, I like the brightness you chose. It’s beautiful. Now, you need to fine-tune it a little bit, because the flowers are so big that it is hard to read the text. Play with it, you either need to shrink the flowers just a little bit or maybe dim the brightness, so that your text in Brown can stand out. Or maybe you change font color. I love the direction you are going in. It’s very inviting.

        Take a look at the article called, “The Stuff No One Tells You (good article, by the way)”

        Look at the FIRST paragraph to the right side, it’s hard to read the text in the middle of the rose.

        I didn’t realize you had already written so many posts. You have a lot of very nice and meaningful articles! Excited to see what you continue to do with this.

        Like

  4. Hello all! My last post sprang out of a day when the physical clouds in the sky proved to be a blessing to me (I suffer from migraines, and sometimes sunlight is the last thing that I need). The blessing that those sad, gray clouds turned out to be led to some musings that formulated this piece. I’d certainly love to hear your thoughts about the post! Also, I’m considering changing my background photo on my homepage, which feels like a “really big” change! 🙂 I’d love some feedback about the photo choice. Thanks!

    Hidden in the Clouds

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Speaking personally here, I think it’s nice, but if you’re thinking about something new, I’d shoot for something that keeps the play on dark and light, simply because of the things you write about. It’s a beautiful photo either way 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

      1. hi..
        Can you please help me on how to make my blog site organize? Please give me advises. 🙂
        as a newbie here, I slightly confused on how to create a blog site in which I can express everything that is on my mind. Thank you so much..

        Like

      2. Hi! I think one of the decisions I made about my blog’s appearance that was most important was choosing my “theme”. WordPress uses the word “theme” to mean the layout pattern of your blog. It decides how many posts can show at one time on your homepage, how many photos are showing, etc. When I set up my blog, I spent a lot of time choosing a “theme” that I thought was just right for me.

        If you don’t like the “theme” that you have right now, you can change it. I must admit that I have never done that, but I know it can be done. You can always look that up online, or post a question about it in the “Community Pool” or the “First Friday” posts that the blogger called “The Daily Post” does.

        You may want to make more pages for your blog. You can do this by hitting the “my site” button, finding the button that says “site pages”, and then adding a page.

        I think that the most important decision I made in my blogging was having a decided idea of what I wanted to write about. I spent a while thinking on this. I felt that suicide and related topics go extremely unaddressed, oftentimes. I think it’s even less common for someone to speak about them from first-hand experience. I knew I wanted to do this from a platform where I could share my Christian beliefs freely. Those ideas decided quite clearly what my blog would be about.

        Perhaps you would find it helpful to spend some time writing a few sentences to describe what you want your blog to be about. That could help center your posts as you continue to write.

        I hope all this is helpful!

        Like

  6. Hey, y’all. I haven’t been blogging long at all, nearly a month, and would love some feedback on my site, if you please. I’m curious as to how people feel about the topics I write on and my layout as well, and pretty much everything in between. 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

    1. I just went to your post. Were you writing a story in “Was it Worth Losing Your Life Over? I wasn’t sure if it was a true story or you created it. However, I could not get past the 5th sentence, because one very huge paragraph is “hard to read.” I think it would be good if you went back and broke the big paragraph down to three smaller paragraphs making your text easier to read.

      I enjoyed reading your poem, “Parentheses.”

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Thank you for the reply, firstly 🙂 For “Was It Worth Losing Your Life Over” I was writing a somewhat fictionalized account of a true event, which I definitely should have clarified. I did mention that it was about Chris McCandless, a real person, but I now realize my intent wasn’t clear enough. I certainly will go back and break it down.
        I’m glad you enjoyed my poem 🙂 Thank you again for the feedback!

        Liked by 2 people

      7. Well, now I see that you REALLY do have to change the beginning of your story, because I did not get that from the start. THIS is an interesting story… thanks for telling me to look him up. NOW, let me know when you have revised your article, I’ll go take a look.

        Liked by 2 people

      8. Agreed. I broke down the block of text as much as I feel comfortable with, and I brought up a part at the end where I mention who it’s about. Right now I am going to go in and put, at the beginning, a brief blurb of where the bulk of the post is in terms of McCandless’ story.

        Liked by 2 people

      10. You did an excellent job on the revisions. The first paragraph is great and then you see with all of your smaller paragraphs the story can be read easily and quickly. WONDERFUL! WHAT a story! I had not heard about that guy. Thanks for sharing.

        Liked by 2 people

    1. The answer to that question depends on who your intended audience is. With millions of prospective viewers, there is no way to appeal to them all. On the other hand, if you don’t write about something that interests you, blogging willl become a chore. That’s no fun. The sweet spot is the intersection of your interests and the interests of your intended audience. Once you’ve found that, you can consider how to write well, what images to use, and how to make your site easy to use. https://gracelead.co

      Liked by 2 people

  14. Traveling. Abandoned places, My cat with Aids. what could go wrong there?
    Check out my blog which I am still redesigning and I was absent from posting for almost a year and didn’t even really get started but come this October a post everyday (at least that is what I am trying to build up to).

    Liked by 4 people

      1. thank you so much blessthecrown 🙂 I am glad u viewed my blog 🙂 & yess i checked your writings as well ! Ur writings are beautiful 🙂 I would like to read more of your writings 🙂

        Like

    1. Liked it. Enjoyed the staccato style, which is difficult to do well. If that is your voice, develop it. It’s hard work to write good prose – practice, practice, practice.

      Liked by 3 people

  17. Hi kids. I was thinking the other day about what a friend of mine once said. She was a poet, and a good one. She told me that paring down her work to only the essentials was the hardest part of her work.
    I host an On-Line Writer’s Guild and this week we are playing with American Sentences. Kind of like Haiku, only different.
    This was my response to this week’s challenge – check it out, if you’d like. Have a go yourself and let me know about it – I’d like that.

    OLWG #17 – American Sentences

    Liked by 4 people

  18. Hello blogging addicts,

    Slavery and racism have always existed in a certain fashion even in modern ages. Checkout my latest post tackling this issue from the Islamic perspective. Amidst the Qur’anic constitution and the prophetic traditions there is a complete code of conduct described that if people have actually listened to 1400 years ago when it was primarily stated, lots of things would have been different today.

    Islam, Slavery Advocator, or Slavery Destroyer!

    Your feedback is always appreciated,

    Best regards,

    Ehab Shawky.

    Liked by 4 people

  21. Hello my dear friends! So this week, I was a little heavy on emotion and what better way to convey that than through a poem? Here’s me writing about your internal drive and motivation.
    Mine gets extinguished every now and then and maybe you could relate?

    Embers

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Hi Anchal
      I really like the title of the Blog “Beauty is an expression. Not a measuring scale.”
      Actually in today’s world beauty is considered to a measuring scale which is not correct. I really appreciate your thoughts.
      Keep Writing and have great time ahead

      Liked by 3 people

  29. I love meaningful abstracts and also create some(not necessarily meaningful). This virtual space is going to be filled with articles on random topics (mostly unrelatable or out of any living person’s concern) and in case I am feeling a bit too artistic, then you may be able to witness some poetry too(not necessarily bounded by the rhymes). Anyways don’t bind yourself with any expectations.
    Here is a link to my latest post:

    The kind hands of death

    Liked by 4 people