Sep 14, 2015 / Community Pool

Community Pool

Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/63057306@N04/5734415538">Beachfront Solutions</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">(CC BY-SA 2.0)</a>

Have you just published a new post and are dying for some feedback? Did you recently start your blog and could use some layout or design advice from your more seasoned peers?

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).

To help us make the Community Pool a productive space for discussion, here are some tips you might find useful:

TIP: 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.

  • 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!
  • 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.
  • Please keep all comments civil and constructive. The idea is to have fun — it’s a pool, after all!
  • 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. Hey bloggers. Welcome to OPEN SHACKLES a blog where I express what I go through in my life, what I feel about happenings around me, what emotions I experience etc through words and paints. But everything is incomplete about audience and I request you all to let me know your reviews. Waiting for your response at http://www.salorocks.wordpress.com

    Liked by 7 people

  2. Hi. So, I got bored this morning and did a Dangerous Thing. I moved things around on my geeky food blog, Skill Up Skillet! Both the right and left content bars have been completely reworked. Do stop by and let me know what you think of the updated layout! I’d really love to be able to insert the bio pic and quickie About blurb just above the Feed Your Fandom menu but I’m not sure it’s possible to do so. What do you think? What would you like to see different?

    Also I posted September’s Featured Recipe last week. For those who voted, congrats, you can now have literal diabetes on a plate a la South Park’s Powdered Donut Pancake Surprise: http://skillupskillet.com/2015/09/11/septembers-featured-recipe-powdered-donut-pancake-surprise/.

    Seriously, I put an actual disclaimer on the recipe because (hopefully) no one is going to eat a plate of 9 pancakes with half a dozen homemade deep fried donuts alone. Swing on by and let me know what you think! (No, really. For having voted on it, not many people have checked out the post. Show the Lei some love?) Will poke around other blogs as much as I can; rush season at work is a terrible, terrible thing.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I REALLY like your site, the new layout is great very easy to navigate! Your pancake recipe looks so dangerous yet so amazingly good haha. I like the theme a lot its a great combination of personality! Looks fantastic =)

      Liked by 4 people

    3. It looks great 🙂 really clear and easy to see 🙂 my only suggestion would be is to consider using the ‘read more’ tag while you’re editing, it will save visitors time scrolling and get them finding posts quicker 🙂

      Like

      1. That’s strange, I’m really confused now. Are you not seeing the Read More tags on my posts? With incredibly few exceptions (really short non-recipe articles) I have Read More tags on every post, just before the recipe.

        Like

    4. From what I can tell on the mobile app, it looks good! Rearranging always gives such a great feeling of accomplishment.
      Also, I’m doing a Nightmare Before Christmas post too! Can’t wait to see what you and CuppaGeek do! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Hi aul, good for you on getting yourself out there on smash words! Personally, I think your background is a bit too busy, but, with that said, I am not a regular visitor/reader of your blog so I am unaware of the significance of the icon and what it means.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Well thank you very much 🙂
        Ah, I understand what you’re saying. The icon that constitutes the background is my self-made logo for my book series. It’s the initials for “The Golden Lands”, all wrapped together (a cursive T, G, and L). Thanks for the feedback!

        Liked by 1 person

    4. Hi Aul, I liked the layout and the content.. I just found it hard to read as the background was a bit bright. Other than that I think its really good and interesting 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    5. Hey, Aul, I love the writing and the idea. (If I can make a visual suggestion? This could be me, because my desktop is wide– I know people mostly use their phones nowadays, but maybe make the logo-on-repeat a little faded so it’s not as distracting? Or maybe make it a flat yellow background so the logo in the header pops by contrast?) Beautiful site and works either way, and good luck in your publishing adventures. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Aww why thank you 🙂
        Yes, I’ve been told by multiple people that the background is too bright, too distracing, etc. Thank you for your feedback; changes will be made. I’m glad you stopped by, and I hope we meet again.
        Good luck to you and your writing endeavors as well!

        Liked by 2 people

    1. Did you know you have Recent Posts widgets listed twice in your footer? I think it looks great and it feels awesome to take that plunge and purchase a domain. It was a little maddening to scroll through your entire drawstring pattern post; that ran way long without having a Read More tag. Overall, great job!

      Like

    2. About pages are always a bit tricky to write. My advice would be to keep things simple, think about what you actually want to tell people about yourself, what your blog is so far and what you want it to become.
      If you want a place to post poetry and any other creative writing that pops into your mind then say that. You can set yourself goals or set out plans for projects, it really is up to you.

      Liked by 1 person

  10. Hello lovely people! I am May and I started my blog a month ago. I write a lot about my own experiences and thougths about society in general. I enjoy debates and even if people sometimes like my posts, they barely start a conversation and I would really like to share with you guys. Here is my blog: https://thoughtsarelikeclouds.wordpress.com/
    Tell me what you think and if you have the same interests, don’t hesitate to comment and/or follow! I will check your blog anyways.

    Liked by 4 people

  14. Hey guys! I hope you are all having a good day. Please stop by and catch up with my new short story ‘The Carter Chronicles’. Part 4 has just been released! As always your support is much appreciated. I am still working hard to finish my debut novel so watch this space… It won’t be long! Mark
    http://www.markdraycott.com

    Liked by 6 people

  20. Hello everyone! Lori and I started a blog dedicated to middle school and junior high age kids. We try to mix the serious with the funny and helpful. Any feedback would be awesome!

    stuck in the middle | lots of eye rolling, emotional outbursts, and running for the hills…and that’s just the grown-ups.
    http://stuckinmiddle.net/

    Liked by 6 people

    2. Love the basic idea of the blog, but a few more post about bullying, handling over protective parents , feeling left out , etc idk just an advice. I would personally love reading things like that

      Liked by 1 person

      3. Hey, Jade–Lori here! Thank you very much for your feedback. One thing Jamie and I are absolutely going to start doing is making the blog more friendly not just to parents of middle-schoolers and teens, but also those guys themselves. Love the ideas you threw out, and we will be incorporating those in to the mix very soon. Appreciate any and all future ideas you care to throw our way. 🙂

        Like

      4. Haahha hey Lori! Yup that is exactly what I meant! Because if the parents will read what you are preaching out to them…maybe it will be easier for them to talk to the kids too! Just an idea! Sure I will if I think of something I’ll totally spam ur blog xD Haha great to you meet you! 🙂

        Like

    3. Yes, middle school kids are a unique brand of human, so a blog like this is always appreciated. I really like your layout, design, and use of images. Two observations – 1) Do you see your audience as the parents, kids, or both? The first two articles were definitely directed to parents, but on the most recent one, it was hard to tell. 2) You may want to utilize the More tool in your posts, which enables you to show a greater number of articles on your home page without too much scrolling.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Thanks for this feedback! One of the things we really wanted to do was create a forum where Middles and their parents could connect over the topics we write about. We have thus far been pretty heavy on the parenting end of things, but we’d like to start adding more content for the Middles, themselves–particularly after one of our younger readers mentioned they’d like to read more about bullying, overprotective parents, and that sort of thing. I think, though, in light of your observation, we may need to find a clearer way to do this. Any ideas?

        Like

      1. I found the photos really interesting especially the abandoned train ones, thanks for sharing! One thing I would suggest is maybe making them a little smaller? Each one nearly filled the screen on my desktop. The text to photo ratio is good. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Thanks! I’ll look into making them a bit smaller – at the moment they’re a percentage of the page width but maybe I should shave a few percent off…

        Liked by 1 person

      1. Mine’s a self-hosted site but there’s a e-mail subscription box under the hamburger menu (top right). I’ll have to hack my theme a bit to make it a bit more prominent.

        Liked by 1 person

  24. HI! I’m getting back into the habit of blogging after a long hiatus, and I’d appreciate comments on the general appearance of https://kestrelhill.wordpress.com
    Also, what do you think about ‘while I was away’ posts — what was going on while I was out of the blogosphere?
    I find Facebook is sucking away a lot of my content – I’ll post pictures and a few lines and don’t then feel like expanding things to a full blog post. So lazy!
    Feedback, please?

    Naomi

    Liked by 3 people

    2. Your blog is lovely. I love your tagline! I’m not sure how it looks on a computer, but on my phone your background was a little distracting. I had a hard time focusing on your photos. Otherwise I really enjoyed it 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I love your theme and your content looks really good, visiting your post is a good visual experience. The links/suggested blogs section is a really nice touch too! 🙂

      Like

      4. Well that leaves me out; I’m happily divorced lol but may you and everyone in your group have many years of wedded happiness and your blog will help with their inevitable ups and downs, and that’s great!

        Like

      5. Lol oops 🙂 well thank you! I do appreciate your kind words! I hope that it helps them..I know reading others posts when I got married really helped me realize it was normal! Lol

        Liked by 1 person

  26. Hello Swimmers! I hope everyone is having a lovely day!

    This month, The MomHood is giving some extra focus to writing and engagement with fellow bloggers. I love my photography so much that I’ve put my writing on the back burner. Which is why I have signed myself up for Blogging Universities Writing 101 and Blogging 201 courses. I have not skipped any classes, though the Cafe across the street has some delectable danishes in the window and I could use a cup of coffee….anyhoo, here are a couple of the posts I have up.

    Checklist, To-Do List, Remember Where I Put It List

    Writing….

    Also, I have a new post with a poll. Voting ends today so get your votes or answers in by tonight!

    Help! I Need Somebody. Help…..

    And do enjoy the song while relaxing on your raft drinking an umbrella drink!
    Cheers!

    Like

  28. Hello everyone..!
    I run a blog which contains all my writings.. Be it poetry,articles or just random stuff.. Once I a while, I post about other day to day stuff too..! Would really appreciate it if you could have a look at it and give me your valuable feedback..!

    Poetry!

    This is a link to one of my posts.. It’s about poetry.. While you’re there, don’t forget to check out my other posts too! 🙂
    Cheers,
    Deek 🙂 😀

    Liked by 3 people

    1. I also would like to ask you guys about the separating the posts per page. Can anyone point in the right direction on how to do that? Or is that only possible for paid blogs? Thanks.

      Like

      1. You can determine how many posts you show on your blog’s homepage (no paid upgrade necessary!) — you’ll need to go to My Sites (at the top-left corner of the screen) > WP Admin > Settings > Reading, and there change the number of posts in the “Blog pages show at most” setting. You’ll also want to make sure your “Scroll infinitely” box is left unchecked.

        Liked by 1 person