Mar 31, 2013 / Community Pool

Community Pool

Community Pool

The Community Pool is for those of you looking for input, whether on post ideas, writing, blog design and layout, or anything else. If you have a post, page, or idea you want to bounce off someone, leave a comment. Your fellow bloggers can then click through and offer input either on your site, or in the comments here (feel free to indicate which you’d prefer).

Read on for the ground rules and to leave a comment . . .

  • You’ll get the best feedback if you can be as specific as possible about what you’d like people to respond to or where you’re struggling.
  • Please keep all comments civil and constructive. We’re here to help and support one another, not to beat anyone down.
  • If you haven’t looked at our Commenting Guidelines in a while, now might be a good time.
  • 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.
  • No running on the deck.

Photo by t_a_i_s.

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    1. Oh my gosh. Well first, the content of your blog is 100% spot on. You have my full support and attention; the way that you tell your stories is flawless and detailed. However, you’d like comments on your layout? I think the red background and heading is sort of bloody but it matches your message fairly well. It may turn/scare some new readers off though; I was surprised before I read the title of your blog by the images. However, I’m fairly young so it probably wouldn’t SCARE other readers away but I was definitely shocked. You might consider making a static homepage. Perhaps show a snippet of each blog post along with a picture or something, instead of full text? That encourages people to click on each post and you will get more hits that way. I think a static homepage comes with every blog format, otherwise you could change your theme. Hope this helps! Keep writing, and all the best to you. – Catherine, at Never Stationary

      neverstationary.wordpress.com

      Like

    2. Becki,
      I agree with Catherine, that I was pulled in instantly and that the shock factor is one that made me want to read more. Your story is fascinating and I found myself wanting to know more about how you personally dealt with the attack and rape on an emotional level verses the string of events. This can be a good thing, leaving your readers wanting more. What I found confusing though was the myriad of various postings that are inter-weaved inside your story – jumping from a blog entry about your children or your not feeling well back into different chapters of your story about surviving the rape was a bit overwhelming for me. I would suggest perhaps creating a category just for the murder/rape where it is all in order. I have a regular blog of all my personal stories and then I have a separate blog for my novel and this seems to be a bit less confusing for my followers who can click through from both to the other without being overwhelmed with all of the different stories/categories.

      I’m deeply moved and humbled for your courage to tell your story and I hope you continue! Thank you for sharing!
      Courtney
      http://www.itsneverinvain.com
      http://www.restitutionnovel.wordpress.com

      Like

    3. HI BEKCI
      You have a very outstanding layout in general. The first thing that striked me was the title of your Blog, I thought to myself you must be a writer and this was a short stories blog, however I did not know that was part of your life, I admire your courage and wish you blessing upon you and your family.

      if I may a few points

      I took me a while to look for your about page. and was a bit confused with seeing one on top of the page and one on the side
      maybe a preview of your post will help the blog and the reader to skim through easily

      Like

      1. Thanks for the feedback. I sent your thoughts to my editor to see if she wants to make the changes. I appreciate your kind words and taking the time to look at my blog. my life has been crazy to say the least. 🙂
        Becki

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    1. Hi! Your blog background is sort of random. Also, I think your content is good but the posts are very short; there’s not much to capture the readers attention. Hope this helps! – Catherine at Never Stationary

      neverstationary.wordress.com

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      1. Catherine, you certainly made me pause and think. I got to work harder at providing the reader a consistent theme they know they can come back for. Great point about the length of each blog post as well. I appreciate you taking the time for this!! Thanks!

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    2. I just checked out your blog. I like the info. I find it helpful. I think it gives a nice inside look at what’s going on in business. The post where it translated what your boss means by certain questions he or she asks was great, is great! I think though that the theme you chose, is more casual than your message. The flowery background is light and fun and I think you’re aiming to be straightforward and professional/businesslike. I’m not sure if that helps?

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    3. hI
      I just visited your blog. very good Contents. however a few things if I may:
      the layout looks very basic, maybe a bit more theme , not too much but not as as normal as now
      I find blogges with the tabs on top easy to navagate and look for
      all teh best

      Like

  3. Just wondered if people can tell English is not my first language, so if someone would be able to take a look at this blog post for example, then I’d be very interested in hearing where I am going wrong with how/what I write: https://willeke73.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/the-sorry-state-of-irish-neurology/

    I speak English on a daily basis as I’ve been living in Ireland for over 10 years and sometimes I feel that you can still hear my native Flemish/Dutch in my blog posts.

    Thanks in advance for taking a look and feel free to comment on my blog posts or on here. Always up for improvement!

    Like

    2. Dear Billie:
      For someone whose first language is not English, you are doing splendidly. Your blog background? Playful but almost too playful and expected for your theme. Perhaps you ought to change it. You also might want to consider making a static homepage; show small snippets of each post instead of full text. This will boost your views and help intrigue people. Hope this helps! – Catherine, at Never Stationary

      neverstationary.wordpress.com

      Like

      1. Thanks for the comment Catherine! I really appreciate it! I’ve been playing around with different themes and have changed it on several occasions. I actually chose this one because it was St Patrick’s Day and thought the green, flowery design cheery, since that would be my state of mind also. I’m thinking of upgrading to one of the premium themes but will do some more checking out the other ones first. And yes, the static homepage is something that has been on my mind also. I will play around with themes a bit more so! Thanks again and have a nice day!

        Like

    2. Hi
      your blog to the point, liked looking through, but can i suggest a bit of background, that I think will add to the spirit of your blog

      Like

    1. Hi! Well first off, great drawings. They are super playful and colorful and awesome. You might want to consider making a static homepage; showing just pictures of your art and encouraging more people to click around, which will boost site stats. My theme, Hatch, focuses on pictures which I think would be PERFECT for the layout of the blog. Check out my website to see if you like it! 🙂 – Catherine, at Never Stationary

      neverstationary.wordpress.com

      Like

    2. I love your art. the only issue I have is that some of the boxes are “blank” or rather they don’t show…maybe try a different theme?

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      1. Thanks for the heads up! I noticed this myself, but I was hoping it was only happening on my computer. I’ll be sure to change it asap.

        Thanks for the nice comment, too.

        All the best,
        Dean.

        Like

    3. Hi Dean
      You have a good thing going on there for you .. the first thing crossed my mind when I visited your blog is that you are new. I suggest explore the seating and themes, there are a lot you can do for your blog.
      You have interesting little stories there for the reader to read and enjoy the drawing.
      Spice it up a bit 🙂

      Like

      1. I think you will be one of the blogs that i will like to re visit, though still new but you have what it is needed to make your blog one of the good one 🙂

        Like

    2. Hi! First off, the theme of your blog is sort of bland. Clouds in the heading? A bit boring, if you ask me. Perhaps you ought to change that to an artsy picture or a pretty picture of you. 🙂 On your About Page, I think your poetic introduction is very nice but I still don’t know that much about you! You should maybe consider having a short paragraph underneath that to explain what the focus of your blog is, and who you are. I don’t even know your name! However, if you want to remain nameless, totally fine.

      Additionally, it doesn’t seem like your blog has a focus yet. I’m seeing fitness, photo challenges, and TEDtalks. I noticed that you’re 18 which is super cool because we’re both so young! (I’m 16.) If this blog is more personal and more for your own personal benefit, then keep going because I love that you write so often. Keep it up, seriously. 🙂

      If, however, this blog is also to attract an audience, then yes, I suggest finding some sort of focus for your posts. Hope this helps! You ought to check out my blog as well 🙂

      – Catherine, at Never Stationary

      neverstationary.wordpress.com

      Like

      1. Hi Catherine! Thanks for the reply! Yes, I agree and feel that my theme is sorta plain too. It’ll be temporary, I promise! This is just a rough start and I’ll get down to personalising this blog more 🙂 As for my name, I’d prefer to remain nameless on my blog 🙂

        Actually this is more of a platform for me to do random ‘creative’ writing to get my writing flow back, so there won’t be much focus on anything specific. Omgosh, is it surprising to find young people on wordpress? I have been quite out of touch from this domain! I’ll try to write more often when time permits as well 😀 (I’ve just come back from a trip, so a travel post is coming up soon;))

        Like

    1. I very much like your reviews of books and movies. The Useless Talent name would not attract me to your blog. Maybe you need a better name to describe the focus of your blog. Other than the name, I think your blog is interesting.

      Like

      1. thank you very much =)
        just to explain the title: it’s movie related….in planet terror rose mcgowan talks about many of her talents and refers to them as useless but then finds a use for all of them throughout the movie. =)

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  9. well I guess I goofed, I am sorry, will try to do better, learned if I go through the community pool, I have to weed through inumerable posts to find my answer, I can I get more readers to my web blog and on my blog it says my facebook is not configured correclty, help of anykind is greatly appreciated!

    Like

  10. Hi everyone! Happy Easter! I’d appreciate some feedback about my blog content! Anything else though, would be 100% welcome as all. 🙂

    neverstationary.wordpress.com

    – Catherine

    Like

    1. Hi Catherine!
      I think your content is great. Very good writing, great choice of accompanying photos, and compelling topics. It took me a minute to realize that the blue links at the top right are the navigation to different pages, but other than that being a little unusual I was able to find my way around. Happy blogging!

      Like

    2. OK, there it is, I found it. Not sure if your gravatar is set up to display your blog site, that’s something you could check out.

      I like your choice of theme and how it’s set up, with it’s slight gray scale and blue-green highlights. Also like your about page. Your ‘Mommy-isms’ page is a good idea, but it’s blank right now, you probably already know that though and just haven’t put anything in it yet.

      I could be wrong but it looks like you’re self hosting ? The thing I didn’t like about self hosting was the lack of a “Like” button. A fellow self hoster told me about a plug-in that you can add which gives you a WordPress Like button. It’s title is “Gravatar Like”, the developer is Reza Mooalemi. You should be able to just search for “Gravatar Like” in the WordPress Plugin search.

      The only other minor thing I’d suggest is not displaying the “Meta” info on the site. Seems like no one really has those options on display on their site, and they can be accessed through your dashboard anyway.

      Good luck!

      Like

      1. Ok since I’m new to this I don’t know how to remove the meta thingy. I’ll look into changing it from self -hosting… Thank you so much for your feedback.

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      2. I wish I could figure out how to change those 2 things. I knew they were there but didn’t know I had an option. I don’t find this to be the most user friendly. But I don’t have experience with any other site other than social sites

        Like

      3. You might be able to do it like this:
        If you can access the ‘Dashboard through your WordPress account’, go to the ‘Appearance’ section. From there, go to the ‘Widgets’ page. On the Widgets page, there will be a ‘Meta” widget. You should be able to inactivate it from there.

        Like

  12. Does the things I post archive automatically or do I have to do something? Tomorrow starts a new month, so will all of March posts move to archive? Any help will be greatly appreciated 🙂

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    1. Hi there Ann!
      Your posts will automatically show up in your archive without you having to do anything but they will also still be on your blogroll/homepage. If you’d like older posts to fall off your homepage, you could set the page to show a maximum number of posts. Otherwise the scrolling will just continue to grow the more you write.
      Happy Blogging!

      Like

  13. I’ve only been blogging on wordpress for 3months and feel I’m running out of interesting things to talk about as my blog is mainly my diary but online. Can someone take a look and let me know what you think? I’m getting good views just not many responses from my readers etc. thanks!

    Like

    1. The layout is fine, if a little on the PINK side for my taste. It does read like a diary and so in a way that might explain views but not comments.When you write in a ‘this is what I did today’ style it’s informative but does not make me want to comment. Perhaps you could try opening up dialogue by prompting questions about your topics? For example when you show the Egg Hunt shots perhaps ask your readers to tell you about theirs?

      Like

      2. Keep trying. Also visit and comment on other blogs like yours. Build a network. It’ll happen.

        Like

    2. It is quite pink, but it’s a great start. Why not talk about some of the trials you face as a young mom as well? Wether to be a stay at home mom, or go back to work etc. etc. And yes, the more your participate in the community, the more feedback you will get! Check out the other mommy blogs…

      Like

    1. Can anyone see the post above? The only reason I ask is that after two days it still has a message above it saying “Your comment is awaiting moderation?”

      Like

  16. Hi All,

    Blog stats really get me going… please tell me what you think about the ‘likes’ you get… are they counted as views or not?

    Why do I ask? Some days I seem quite a few likes early in the morning… say 10 by morning tea but then often there’ll be about half the amount of visitors registered up until that point of the day…

    Thanks for your input! 😉

    Like

    2. Just a guess, but I think this happens when someone “likes” from their reader without actually going to your blog. If it works like a regular website, too, there might be a time limit on it. For example, if someone is only on your page for a second, instead of 3, it might not count. That probably accounts for most of the discrepancy! 🙂

      Like

      1. I don’t see a like as a view for the reasons Rarasaur mentions too but even a like makes me smile a little.

        Like

    1. The CSS upgrades always look great, but you might consider just switching your theme. There’s a few that have widgets on the sidebar, and a top toolbar. 🙂 I like the organization! 😀

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      1. There are more than a few I would say…every theme I have tried has a top header and side bars for widgets. Bear in mind though that you will lose that lovely expansive feel you have right now with a wide page. I like it as it is.

        Like

  18. Hi, I have been blogging for a year now at https://mynascence.wordpress.com/ . Its been a wonderful journey and I am just opening up to be a part of the blogging community. Would love to have some feedback on the content, layout. Would be grateful for any tips that would enhance my writing. Bouquets or brickbats are absolutely welcome

    Like

    1. Congratulations on one year of writing! Your blog is interesting. You may want to leave some comments on the blogs of other writers to build a writers community for yourself.

      Like

    1. I don’t think there’s really one ‘correct’ way to do it.

      Large photos are usually attention getting and make me want to know more. Some photos can be used as just small accents to illustrate part of the story you’re telling too.

      For me, if I have a particularly nice photo, I try to make it as large as I can on the post, and make it the focus of the post. Or if it’s just a photo that I’d like to use to accent a part of a post, then maybe I just display it on the side, or as small as possible. I think you’ll just figure out what you’re comfortable with as you continue blogging.

      Like

  21. My fellow WordPressians,

    My question to you is: “Do you use the ‘blogs I follow’ widget? You can see mine on the right side tool bar area. I like the idea of promoting blogs I enjoy, I’m just not sure if it really helps.

    Thanks.

    SPA

    Like

    2. I don’t personally use the widget, but I often refer to it on other blogs. If someone only has 25 or so blogs that they follow, and mine is on the list… or if someone I read is on the list… I’m usually curious about the other 20 some. If it’s more than that, I rarely click through all of them, but I’ll on occasion click one or two with catchy names. Hope that helps! 🙂

      Like

    3. It’s a great idea to share or in your words promote those work you like. Though I don’t do it but I appreciate your work. By the way nice blog. Keep it up!

      Like

  22. Hi There :). I have long felt that my blog is missing something. I’m not sure if it needs a background or a more personal feel or if it’s pictures that are missing? I’m not the keenest on managing and understanding widgets but, if there is something I can do to give it a more robust feel, I’m all ears. Thank you!!

    Like

    1. I could be wrong, but I didn’t notice if you include photos with any of your posts ?
      I think it can help especially if you have a humorous post. If you don’t like including photos of yourself on your blog, you can still include photos of anything else and still have an interesting post.

      Also, I like the progression of time in your ‘About’ page!

      Like

      1. You seem to be doing quite well on your blog! The layout is good, and the writing is interesting. What kind of goals do you want to accomplish by writing your blog?

        Like

      2. Thanks for the feedback. I am trying to build a more consistent reader base. When I post a blog, my stats are high, but it’s not converting into more followers. Any thoughts?

        Like

      3. I would stop worrying about getting followers and focus on saying what you want to. They will come in time. Make sure you outline what you want to discuss.

        Like

  25. Hi everyone,
    I am new to community pool, so I am not completely sure how this works, but here goes..
    My blog has been picking up traffic recently and I have been putting more effort into it.
    But I still feel like it is a bit, blank.
    Do you think it is my layout?
    http://onewaytickets1.wordpress.com

    Another thing is I have always had trouble with the “About Me” Page, so here is mine, I would love feedback. Thanks!
    http://onewaytickets1.wordpress.com/about/

    Like

    1. I like your blog – the about page could perhaps be broken up into easier to read paragraphs – but apart from that it’s different and interesting 🙂

      Like

  26. Just wrote Blog #50 last week. Generally how does it look (Layout) and give feedback on my content. Would you return, why and why not.

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    1. I like the card style for each post on your homepage, but a slightly darker background color might make it easier to see each post when you scan through. There’s also very low contrast on your “keep reading” buttons on hover (white on grey) which makes them hard to see when clicking around. Once I found your “Meet the Author” page I got a better idea of your overall theme and I think that could bring people back if it was a littler easier to find. Maybe add that page into the navigation. Hope this helps, and happy blogging!

      Like

  28. Hi, I don’t know whether anyone can help but I am struggling for ideas on my blog at the moment, my web page is called ‘my life through the eyes of the web’ so you would assume I guess, it’s simple. Just write about your life, as I’m sure some of you know- It’s not that simple. I’m still really new to blogging and I don’t know what sorts of topics are interesting to my target audience or potential viewers etc. I would really appreciate some help if anyone has any pointers on what topics are good for a blog and please accept I do this in my spare time and I don’t have any previous experience so it isn’t up to some of the the standards set by others.

    Many thanks,
    mydogblog09
    http://mylifethroughtheeyesoftheweb.wordpress.com/

    Like

  29. Hello everybody, I have been writing for years but decided on blogging just this March and would appreciate it if you make the time to visit sheilacioustreehouse.wordpress.com and give me some feedback. I do have few people visiting but most don’t leave comments. Any advice?

    Like

    1. I read one of your posts and it sounded good! I think you make it sound very down to earth and chatty as far as posts go, which is good as it engages your reader. (I read your ‘wait a minute, you don’t know me’ post) I was wondering if you would do the same for me? I’ve only just started blogging and. Would really appreciate some pointers?
      Many thanks
      -mydogblog09

      Like

      1. I went to your blog right after I read your comment. guess what the first striking thing about your blog was your quote ”We’re just trying to find some colour in this black and white world”. I love it and your style of writing. Its like sharing a piece of you with us. nice!

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  30. Hi there, and thanks for providing this space to give constructive feedback. I write a print humor column, and my blog is to provide an online presence to showcase my work. Would appreciate any suggestions on how to increase readership and esp. to build discussion.

    Like