Dec 7, 2015 / Community Pool

Community Pool

The place for feedback, advice, and friendly blogging chatter.

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?

Did you just start blogging and you’re not sure how to get going? Has your blog been dormant for a while but you’d like to give it a jolt of life? Join our free Blogging 101 course (or any of our other offerings at Blogging U.).

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.
Show Comments

707 Comments

Comments are closed.

Close Comments

Comments

    1. Great post. Coincidentally, my latest post is also on the Chennai floods.

      I’d like to make a suggestion on your blog in general. You could use the insert more tag after a paragraph in your post. That way, the entire post won’t be visible on the home page. Makes it easy for viewers to glance all the post and gives you an extra hit for reading the full post.

      Like

    3. Your letter to mother nature… I don’t really know how to describe it, but it touched me.

      Like

  2. Good afternoon guys! I hope you are well. You would make a new writer very happy indeed if you could stop by and check out my blog. I am about to release my debut psychological thriller and need as many followers as possible to support me. I would be forever grateful and more than happy to take a look at yours in return. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you. Mark
    http://www.markdraycott.com

    Liked by 3 people

      1. Hi there! Thanks for stopping by. There should be a link to ‘follow’. Maybe a follow button that is highlighted? Thank you for your support! Mark

        Like

  3. Hello Pool-goers! I’m Leisel from Skill Up Skillet, a geeky food blog. I make video game and geek culture inspired food and curse my way through the kitchen. Hey, I don’t claim to be perfect. Do you need chocolate for your Monday? Feel free to check out my Hunger Games Chocolate Cherry Custard recipe here: http://skillupskillet.com/2015/12/03/hunger-games-chocolate-cherry-custard/

    I also wanted to remind everyone that I’m still running my first blogversary giveaway. Do you like Star Wars, breakfast, and/or cool kitchen gadgets? Then I invite you to enter; giveaway ends on 12/18: http://skillupskillet.com/2015/11/17/skill-up-skillet-is-1-year-old-its-giveaway-time/.

    Finally, I feel like I’m stuck in a bit of a rut with growing my followers. I implore you: is there something I can be doing with my blog to take it ‘over the top’ and expand? My thanks for any suggestions you can offer. Cheers!

    Liked by 3 people

    2. What a great site, lots of fun to navigate around. As to gaining more followers, have you tried guest blogging or maybe some weekly wrap up posts that link out to other geek sites and bloggers? It might encourage a bit of community sharing commotion. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Hm. I guess I don’t really understand what you mean by weekly wrap up posts? I do have a directory on the blog called More Geek Eats, which features links to other geeky food bloggers. Not really sure how to go about guest blogging stuff either. =/ Any insight you could offer would be fantastic.

        Like

      2. Well, there’s lots of geek bloggers who each take their own niche and style. And if you did a monthly or weekly wrap up, like– “5 Great Hunger Game Posts”, and link to a few of them and your own in a post– it’s good for everyone. It could be a motley collection of OOTD and Food and Reviews and Book Clubs…. doesn’t matter. It’s really just to get one more consistent post in your schedule and also to connect yourself to the already existing community.

        As to guest blogging, you could make a page on your site welcoming some in– maybe once a month? And many other sites have pages that invite people in, too. In fact, many sites work mostly on guest posts, like the one I help co-run StoriesLove.com and though that one may not be the best platform for you, I’ve found that once you start contributing places, people who are seeking contributions make themselves known. 🙂 That’s my thoughts off the top of my head, but you can always email me too… rawra.avis@gmail.com. Cheers!

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Hey! Could you please give me the site for Stories Love? It sounds really interesting and I ve been searching some place to guest blog and I am searching for guest bloggers too! Thanks!

        Liked by 1 person

      4. StoriesLove.com or StoriesThatMustNotDie.WordPress.com — There, we tell the stories that are hard to tell– stories of struggle and survival. It’s a good strong community, and all submissions are welcome. ❤

        Liked by 1 person

    1. I love the changes you’ve made so far! I have the tiniest suggestion if it makes sense to you… try grouping all of your following options in the same place. Bloglovin and… email I think? are both at the bottom and it seems kinda weird to me.

      The dropdown Categories menu is fantastic.

      Like

    3. I love the logo and the theme suits your words very well. 🙂 The category list was so very organized but it was also a little long, I wasn’t sure where to start. I’d love to see your favorite posts highlighted somewhere to give me a place to start the deep reading. 😀 Everything is so beautifully thematic, though– very well done!

      Like

    6. I have not followed your blog yet, I will need some time to read everything. I loved the look and the ease of navigation it presented. The fact that I can see who wrote this right next is actually smart. Interesting effect

      Like

    1. Good post. My suggestion would be to include sidebar widgets like follow button, latest posts, top posts, category, tag cloud, etc. These help readers navigate past the given post and explore your other posts.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. I’ve just been looking on all those job finder websites and doing google searches. But there isn’t much; and by “there isn’t much” I mean “there is absolutely nothing.” I basically look everywhere and anywhere.

        Like

      3. That’s what I was doing. I was thinking of approaching specific publications, and basically posting them a “Hire Me” package! I’ve also been submitting to some big blogs… But you don’t get money or a job for a while I think

        Like

      4. Yeah, I sent in my resume to a local publishing company. I’ve also been sending links to my site to some other websites. Apparently, though, my experience does not meet anyone’s qualifications :/

        Like

      6. I graduated college this June with a degree in writing, I was an editor for a publication for a year, I’ve had a piece published, and I’m coming up on a year with my blog.

        Like

    2. I still love your blog, that’s not going to change unless it takes a sharp turn into some sort of science report/lab experiment blog. (Please don’t do that, I don’t science….) You have the perfect tone- you take serious topics and apply the perfect amount of levity!

      Like

      1. Thank you! Getting the dream job is tricky, but I’m determined to work my bum off to get it – so finger’s crossed!
        Thank you for the nice comments!

        Like

    3. My thoughts are similar to the others. To draw attention to older posts, I tweet ‘post you might have missed’ with a link to an old post and some appropriate hashtags. I also make sure that my older posts are categorised correctly and have the most appropriate key words. It’s also good to refer back to old posts if you write something new that is on a similar theme or topic.

      Liked by 2 people

    4. Roundup posts are fun, but I like to link throughout current posts. So if you write a new post about apples and you mention how they ripen in hot summers– and if three years ago, you wrote about summertime, then I’d link “hot summers” to the old summertime post. A surprising number of readers back click, and it keeps me conscious of all my old posts, too. I guess I figure… If I don’t remember them, after all, I shouldn’t expect anyone to want to go back and read them. 😀 Your site looks great by the way. Good luck and happy blogging!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hello,
      I really enjoyed going through your blog. I love meeting new photographers here on wordpress so I’m glad I stumbled upon you 🙂 I love the layout you chose and the header image. It gives such an artsy vibe. I love the photos as well. The composition and angles are all great! Keep up the great work! As a fellow photographer, I’m going to give you a follow 🙂 It’d be super awesome if you could also check out my blog and give me some feedback on my pictures. Thanks a bunch!

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Hello John,
        Thank you very much for your kind feedback ! It would be my pleasure to check out a fellow photographer’s site and provide any feedback I can 🙂
        Have a great day!

        Liked by 1 person

  15. Hi friends,
    This week, I have a couple posts and I would love to hear what you think.
    For any music fans out there, I have posted a review of the Hawksley Workman performance I saw about a month ago. Please let me know what you think in terms of content. Too lengthily? Descriptive enough? Does it hold your interest?

    Hawskley Workman: An Old Cheetah with new tricks.

    The second, is a post I wrote about my family, specifically my father. It’s a shorter one for anyone who wants a quick read!

    Newfoundland fits in our living room

    Any and all feedback is appreciated! Thanks!

    Liked by 2 people

      1. I think the length of your posts was just about right, plus adding the setlist is always great for people who are fans who may stumble across your blog since they can vary from night to night. Kind of cements the performance you saw in place. I also loved the post about your father. I loved how you related the music into that post as well! I’m really glad that Danielle pointed you towards me, so I can now read and enjoy your blog. Keep going!

        Liked by 1 person

  19. Hi there! I just started a blog, chose a theme and published some posts. Well it feels like my sidebar is a bit empty. Any idea what I should add, … or do you think it’s okay?

    All the best, have fun!

    #Sam 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    3. You should add a widget about recent posts or top posts, so people can easily get to more posts without scrolling through, but other than that, your sidebar is totally fine!
      Also I’d suggest making an About page so people can learn more about you and your blog!

      Like

      1. Hi, thanks for your reply. I added the “Recent posts widget” and will add an about me page asap.

        Thanks for your help. 🙂

        Like

  20. Hey everyone, I’m doing blogmas on my blog at the moment, today’s post is here: Blogmas #7 – Favourite Christmas Songs
    It’s Christmas time, there’s no need to be afraid, unless you hate it when people tell you what their favourite Christmas songs are.
    festive, blogmas, blogmas2015, christmas songs, music, xmas, christmas
    https://emmasguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com/2015/12/07/blogmas-7-favourite-christmas-songs/ …also there’s loads of other stuff on there, check it out and let me know what you think!

    Liked by 1 person

  22. I’m totally in the habit of checking in here on Mondays. 🙂 My blog’s about 2 months old now… Love the constructive feedback. And love finding others’ blogs and chatting with new people. Today I wrote about my recent trip to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and how my experience seemed different given what I’ve been through personally in the last several months. My husband took some nice photos I included in my post too. Feel free to check it out! Feedback always welcome.

    https://chickydoodles.wordpress.com/2015/12/07/the-grief-room/

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Very powerful piece! I really enjoy your style of writing and how you separate the different sections. I really liked how it started with a conversation which foreshadows your visit to the memorial. These topics are never easy to write about, but you did an excellent job!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I thought there was but I just went through the settings and couldn’t find anything…
      I’ve fallen into the habit of opening things by right clicking and manually opening it in a new tab anyways, even if it does it automatically, so hopefully your readers have too.

      Liked by 2 people

    2. The blogger has the option when they write a post and link something to something they have the option to let it open in a new tab. Not in our hands xD

      Like

    3. There’s no universal setting to do this — one of the reasons, I suspect, is that navigating your site would become very clunky for everyone. If every link opens in a new tab, that would include items on your primary menu, internal links in your widgets, and so on. One would end up with quite a few tabs…

      (That said, I do see where you’re coming from.)

      Like

    3. Hey! I think your blog looks beaitiful! It has amazing Pinkish purple and black colour while loading idk I like that alot haha Anyways I couldn’t find an about page which I think you missed out on…oh well! Good going there tho!

      Liked by 1 person

      3. Really liked a few posts. Really well written and clearly a lot of thought put into them. All i can say is proof read before posting. Nothing major thou. But i did enjoy your posts. 😊

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Hi Michelle!

      Your post is great. Its not too long. I think any length that expresses yourself fully is good.

      I have one suggestion for the images. If you’re using two or three pictures in the same line, maybe you could Photoshop and merge them as one for better formatting.

      I would also have liked to see bigger pictures, but that’s a personal preference.

      Liked by 1 person

    4. Hey Michelle,
      I really loved your blog. The theme you chose is perfect because it makes your blog look very clean and elegant. I had no trouble navigating around.
      As for the contents of your blog, it’s great! I loved all the pictures and enjoyed how you write. I felt engaged and captivated reading all the way through. I especially liked the Napa Valley and San Francisco post. You have a beautiful family 🙂 As a fellow traveler, I’m going to give a you a follow! I look forward to seeing more and I wish you the best of luck!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Could you make a new post yourself, and entirely include the content from the other blog? That way you get to promote your contribution on your own, but it fully recognizes the contributor. Maybe it is more complex than that for you though?

      Liked by 1 person

      2. You might just do something like having a link to the original blogger’s post so they get some likes and views as well if possible? I know its a tricky thing!

        Like

  28. Hello people!
    I’ve just uploaded the third in a three-part series of posts on my (mainly film) photography blog, consisting of some shots I took on film of my recent stay at the English seaside.
    you can find the post here:
    https://anotherlifeinlondon.wordpress.com/2015/12/07/by-the-sea-pt-3/
    or my blog here:
    https://anotherlifeinlondon.wordpress.com

    I would really appreciate it if you would take a look and give me any feedback you might have! Also, let me know if you have a photography/film photography blog you think I might be interested in as I would really like to widen my network of fellow film enthusiasts. Thanks!

    Annie

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Wow! You have a lovely blog Annie. I’m following it from now.

      Might I suggest that instead of having a bulk of text at first and adding all the photos at the end, you could try alternating text and photo to give an even look? Or perhaps add a caption for the photos?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you Anusha, and thanks for taking the time to have a look! Yeah I have thought of doing that (and tried it a couple of times) but didn’t really like the way captions look (as in the actual formatting/appearance of them, not the idea) so maybe I’ll try your other suggestion, even if I just had two/three pieces of text spaced through the piece. Thanks

        Like

    4. I have to say, your blog is great. Your photos look amazing, and the posts themselves are engaging. There isn’t much else to say…it’s a fabulous blog. Also, I’m not sure how you get everything balanced out with a film camera, but as a digital photography student who know nothing about film: very impressive.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I’m so touched by your comment! What a wonderful thing to say, I’m so grateful for your kind words. Its good to know you found the posts engaging, that was one of the things I was unsure about. Thank you again, do you post your digital photography on your blog?

        Like

      2. I don’t currently have a photo blog; my blog (http:/acolorofherown.wordpress.com) is just writing. I’m probably going to start one soon, but I haven’t gotten around to it.

        Like

  29. Hey friends! I’m mckelodeon of Nerd•ily, the nerd lifestyle blog I run. I have just put up my latest installment of my ongoing Beginner’s Guide to Comicbooking. This post focuses on how to actually get started reading comics, since it is rather daunting. If there are other comic book addicts out there who have suggestions on what I could cover next, I would love to hear some! If you want to check it out regardless, then please do! http://nerdilyblog.com/2015/12/07/the-beginners-guide-to-comicbooking-where-do-i-start/

    I’m also hosting my first ever giveaway on my site. It’s a photo contest of sorts. All you have to do is follow one of my social media pages, post a photo of something that’s geeky and related to the holidays (decorations, ornament, menorah, whatever!), and tag me in it using #nerdilygiveaway. If you don’t have anything like that, you can always find a link or a picture online and post that. It just has to be festive to the season and geeky! If you’re interested, all the details, along with links to my social media pages, are in the post: http://nerdilyblog.com/2015/11/30/nerd•ilys-first-ever-giveaway-extravaganza/
    The deadline is December 18. The prizes are Star Wars themed!

    Thanks friends! 🙂

    Liked by 4 people

      1. Yay! I would love to see some pictures! And, if you’re interested, you can send in a picture to enter in the giveaway. If not, I’d still like to see them :3

        Like