Mar 27, 2017 / Community Pool

Community Pool

Where bloggers come for friendly 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).

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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!
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  • If you haven’t looked at our Commenting Guidelines in a while, now might be a good time.
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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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    2. Exactly the post I need ;). I’m really dependent on tools like Hemingwayapp.com that give you suggestions on how to trim down your text. Suggesting adjectives to remove is one of the things it does… and I find it extremely hard because I love adjectives. ;( Well, be sure to check out my blog post and let me know if you have any concrete suggestions for me!

      Liked by 6 people

    3. I’ll also say thank you for this post. There are times when I know I’m being succinct with my writing, but there are others when I know it could be better. I bookmarked this post to reference it and the others in this series.

      Liked by 5 people

    5. Your post was really helpful!! I think that is important advice for all of us. I do tend to overuse modifiers, so I’ll make sure to try not to! Thank you 😊 c.

      Liked by 5 people

    6. Ooooh, I’m bad about this! Great points in this post, and I appreciate that you gave tips on fixing it. Too many things I see tell me how bad certain things are with writing but don’t tell me what I should do instead. Thanks!

      Liked by 4 people

    7. Your post was so helpful in understanding the dynamics of putting together a great sentence. I love the breakdown and thoroughness of your entire post! Awesome job! I learned a lot about modifiers. I think I use them a lot now that I’ve read this! Haha.

      Liked by 4 people

    1. I found this post immensely interesting! I have always wondered about Fiverr, but I’ve never actually thought about using it for blogging purposes. I can definitely see it being difficult to find a good service (one in 10 may be good, as you mention).

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Glad to hear it was useful! Yeah, unfortunately if you want to build brand presence Fiverr is not that useful… but I’ll see to point out services I did find useful to people in comments if they are searching for something concrete.

        Liked by 3 people

    1. Hah, I like Mondays because they are new beginnings ;). And I love your post on that CNN interview – interesting choices for who else could crash that interview. I’ll post comment on the article with more detail – you also be sure to check my blog and give me feedback. Thanks!

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Hello community poolers!

    I hope you all had a good weekend. Happy Monday!

    My name is Mark and I am a keen writer and author looking for all the support I can get. I am currently half way through writing the first in a new crime series featuring my main character DCI Morgan. If you are a keen reader, writer or lover of anything fictional, step this way! It would be great to hear from you.

    Thank you in advance for your support.

    Mark

    http://www.markdraycott.com

    Liked by 10 people

    1. Well, first of all happy anniversary – first year as published author! 😉 One suggestion I have is to maybe leave a chapter on your blog so that it’s easier to get into your story / book… and then at the end of the chapter you go to Amazon / elsewhere where you can purchase book. Good luck!

      Liked by 4 people

    2. Just went to your site. I know you want people to leave reviews of your book, but when I go to yours or someone’s Blog were they are “begging” for reviews, it doesn’t entice me to want to read your story. So, for me, I would suggest changing the tone of your request for a review.

      Liked by 5 people

    3. Hey Mark, fellow writer here. I wish you success in your endeavors. I’ll have to start checking out what you do. We have to stick together, right?

      I had a thought, perhaps if you had a menu bar underneath your photo rather than the icon in the corner. It took me awhile to find it. You can check out my blog to get an idea of the organization I was thinking about:
      https://hauntingachingwonder.wordpress.com/

      Also, the photo seems cropped in strange places on my screen. I think the edges are cut out, so I can’t really read what it says. This could be something wrong in the translation from the Internet to my screen. I’ll have to check that out.

      Just Laugh,
      CJ

      Liked by 5 people

      1. Hi CJ! Thank you for stopping by and for the feedback. Your site looks great! I like the idea of the menu bar underneath the image. The picture is something I’ve tried playing around with as when I look at yours, I have to scroll across the screen to view the image on a mobile device. It’s not easy to get right on both platforms. I’ll keep plugging away at it! 🙂 your support means a great deal so thanks again and do keep in touch. Good luck to you too! Mark.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Thanks, Mark. I had about four or five iterations until I finally found something I liked that also got a thumbs up from friends who had built websites as well. Everything is a work in progress.

        Liked by 3 people

    1. I love your short stories… it always gets me how much you manage to write and post ;).

      Suggestion: do you have any post that talks about the way you write / post? I would definitely be interested in reading about your work process to improve my own.

      I see you have that fortnightly 300 word story group – and that’s great idea for improving writing output. But since I don’t write fiction is there anything else you would recommend I can do to write more? Thanks!

      Liked by 2 people

      1. That’s kind of you, much appreciated! I haven’t done any posts on my system of writing – there haven’t been any requests before! – but it’s kind of been on my mind, as I’ve evolved a way of working that I haven’t seen described anywhere else, and others might find helpful.

        I don’t have a particular schedule but I am aiming for a post every five days on the blog, two 300 word stories every two weeks and a 500-800 word competition once a month. So I have those on a list right in front of me and they spur me to ‘get on with it’, especially as I allow at least a few days for editing! I’ve often read the advice to write every day and I’m working towards that, even if it’s just ten to fifteen minutes. At the end of the day writing can be a lot of fun!

        In the meantime you could check out Sol Stein’s Solutions for Writers and Marcy Kennedy’s Busy Writer’s Guide series (I’ve got them all). I’ve found those pretty helpful.

        There’s not a lot of non-fiction on my blog. The last was about the Madeleine McCann case and my most popular post (it’s had over 2000 views to date).

        https://simonjwood.wordpress.com/2017/02/28/the-downfall-of-british-journalism/

        The 300 word group is MAINLY fiction it’s true, although essays/poetry/articles are welcome as well as stories. But you could look online for a regular non-fiction group to contribute to, I think WordPress’s own prompts sound good, but I haven’t investigated them yet myself. Also why not set a regular publishing schedule on your blog? Having an (hopefully!) expectant audience is a pretty good incentive to write!

        Liked by 3 people

    2. Yeah, I can definitely see why you had “to post or not to post”. I’m glad that you shared it with world… it is great post and it may help others to cope with similar situation in their own life.

      Liked by 2 people

  9. Welcome to a new week everyone! The sun is shining here so all is good in the world, right? On my music blog I’ve being doing a lot of work on the associated YouTube channel which is mainly going to focus on ‘video playlists’ – everyone loves a playlist, don’t they? I would really love it if you could let me know what you think…oh and if you want to subscribe to the channel too – that would be AAAAAWEEESOME!! Thanks for looking and here’s the details https://talkaboutpopmusic.com/2017/03/25/subscribe-to-talk-about-pop-music-on-youtube/

    Liked by 11 people

      1. Thanks! I actually didn’t write this one, Tom did, but that doesn’t diminish the quality of the piece, haha. And I agree that it shows a lot of latent sexism. The concept that women shouldnt register for the draft because they’re just too frail or weak to serve their nation in any and every capacity is ridiculous.

        -John

        Liked by 3 people

      1. Thanks! That’s actually really good to know. I’ve been assuming that most of our readers are on desktop, but I try to be at least semi-conscious of how formatting decisions impact the mobile readability.

        -John

        Liked by 3 people

    3. Just popped by your site. Seeing that you’ve recently started, I hope you have a good stay on here x) Your posts are great and I loved he fact that you started off with the fifty facts about me just to give an insight of yourself. That was clever and nice way of opening. X) Good luck

      Liked by 3 people

    1. I just checked out your blog and I found it interesting so gave you a follow. Waiting for more such posts! Keep up the good work! 😊

      Liked by 5 people

      1. Are you thinking of visiting? They are some of the most amazing mountains I have ever seen!! 😀

        Plus the Germanic-Italian food is amazing…

        Liked by 3 people

      1. Awww thank you!

        I only just started a blog, but this holiday was from 2014, so I was a bit nostalgic while I wrote it up. I just saw your site and it all fits in nicely. Kudos to you. Writing about amazing memories is a brilliant idea.

        Liked by 3 people

    3. It’s amazing how far good friends can go to help with doing what you’ve always dreamed about. I’ve never heard of this but I have heard of one other person whose name I can’t remember. This was beautiful xD

      Liked by 3 people

  22. Say, hey, hey, all of you bloggers and blog followers out there! Wow, the month of March just flies by real fast, doesn’t it? Well, nonetheless, I have just published a brand-new post that’s in response to the Weekly Photo Challenge which concerns looking for things that are green, and I have snapped some pretty good photos of green things here in Felton, DE, and I very much invite you all to take a look, as well as the other posts that I have published in the past few weeks over at my blog, KALEIDOSCOPE, here at http://www.j2w7.wordpress.com! Hope you all have a fantastic day, with love-JW

    Liked by 12 people

  24. Hey Everyone!

    This past week has been an interesting one. I’m currently recovering from surgery and my most recent blogs reflect what has been going on while I am doing just that! I may be forced to rest- but that doesn’t mean I can’t get into some new trouble….

    This post is a story about my boxer dog and how he really proved himself to be a compassionate goof this week: https://theyoncecalledherpumpkin.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/for-the-love-of-otis/

    And I have taken up a new hobby! Watercolor painting- Here is one of my posts showing my first attempts as I teach myself how to paint using watercolors! I would love feedback! https://theyoncecalledherpumpkin.wordpress.com/2017/03/27/a-whole-new-world/

    If you are looking for something different and aren’t familiar with my blog- I literally blog about ‘This, that and the other thing’ – Topics include: Depression, Writing/Poetry/Stories, Parenting, Rants…among other things….
    Feel free to take a browse!

    I look forward to chatting, connecting and checking your blogs out!

    🙂 Happy Monday!

    Liked by 12 people

  25. Hey all! Hope you had a great weekend!
    I blog about how to become better bloggers and authors, and about my own endeavors from time to time.

    Welcome!

    I just wrote a post about why people might Like your posts, but they aren’t commenting. Let me know what you think!

    If I can return the favor, let me know!
    Cheers!
    Dom

    Liked by 15 people

    1. Your blog was a surprise for just when I was expecting a series of better blogger help posts ( which were relatable) I came across a post on Inheritance series and books that refuse to disappear when the last page is turned . Tried commenting on the blog but was unable to do so posting here . Great work!

      Liked by 3 people

    2. As someone who probably does Like more than I comment, I think it’s because I have nothing to say but still want to let the blogger know that I read and enjoyed their post.

      Liked by 3 people

  28. We’re back in the Pool again – because some boffins decided to make circuitry out of soybean oil!? Don’t be so quick to despise your bowl of edamame (but if you do, send it my way – it’s good with a bit of salt), because here comes your science: https://scicasual.wordpress.com/2017/03/27/grow-your-own-circuitry/

    (why not stay a while? you might run into some other research you could use, maybe if only for talking points…?)

    Liked by 13 people