May 8, 2017 / Community Pool

Community Pool

The place where bloggers give each other 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 free, self-guided courses to help you get started with your blog (or revive a dormant one)? Check out our current offerings at Blogging U.

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.

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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    3. Those were some useful tips right there! I’ll surely keep them in mind. Come say hello to my little place if you get time! 😊 🌹

      Liked by 6 people

    4. Those tips are the real deal! It has helped me also, the only one I haven’t explored is Facebook blogging group but the rest are at my finger tip. Thanks kaylee for posting it, you will help lot of people get more traffic. Keep the good work on! Xoxo

      Liked by 8 people

      6. I am totally a newbie to it.. open mine not long ago, I am referring to the fact that I know about the rest of the list except FB group. I bare have any pins, getting around it. When I am free, I could read more on that..

        Liked by 3 people

    7. Good ideas Kaylee. I love your title. Simple, direct and engaging. I wish I had that ability! 🙂 I wanted to like your article but didn’t see that option. Is that somewhere on your page? In any case. Great job!

      Liked by 5 people

    15. Hey . Thanks for the tips . Really helpful . Just a question . Considering someone (I mean myself) who’s not an user in any social media website what are the alternatives of promoting your blog within a substantial audience and what are the odds that you’ll be able to get through and be recognized enough for your work ?

      Liked by 2 people

      2. We all are learning and will be learning throughout our life !! 🙂 🙂
        You shared your learning that’s what helps us a lot.. 🙂
        Thank You !!

        Liked by 2 people

    23. I checked this site out. Your doing so much better than me. Of course I’m only on LinkedIn and no other social media. Any suggestions to get more views, likes, follows shares and reblogs. I haven’t had one reblog yet and don’t know why. I would appreciate any help you can give.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I would say if you’re not up for creating social media accounts to help out, interact with other bloggers as much as possible. Search for posts similar to yours or just posts about things you like and leave a like or comment on theirs, many people will return the favor. It took me about 3 months to get to the views I’m getting now, when I first started I was lucky to get 5 views. I have not had any reblogs either so I don’t have any advice on how to get those.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Appreciate the advice. Question: Having troubles getting my one blog to get going. No ones following. Why? I’m following and commenting on other blogs to try to get followers but their going to main site not my other site. What should I do?

        Liked by 1 person

      1. I don’t have LinkedIn so I’m not familiar with it, I would say just share both site links in the Community Pool. Link whichever website you would prefer to get more views on to your WordPress account. Right now it goes to the daisymae2017 website.

        Liked by 1 person

  2. Hello everybody, Simon from To Cut a Short Story Short here with my latest post. It’s entitled New Forest Frolics. A bit longer than my usual stories at 1750 words. It’s a tongue-in-cheek horror story. I hope you enjoy it!

    https://simonjwood.wordpress.com/2017/05/04/new-forest-frolics/

    I also recently revamped my menu and now have a dropdown system that makes access to all stories on my blog (over 140) quick and simple. Why not check it out?

    BTW, I run a fortnightly 300 word writing group, please let me know via the contact page on my blog if you are interested. New members always welcome!

    Liked by 13 people

    1. I like the new menu a lot! It makes it really easy to browse your blog and almost makes it feel like a library (in that you can see all the different story titles and choose what to read). Well done! Looking forward to reading more from you 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Hi Sherina, thanks for checking it out! It was a bit fiddly setting it up (the manual way as it’s wordpress.com) but it does make it very easy to quickly get an overview of the whole site. So I’m pleased I got round to doing it! Thanks again for the feedback!

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Hi Hira, funnily enough I just finished cooking a chicken and vegetable curry before looking at CP! Your mutton curry sounds really tasty and I’ve never used mutton before. I will definitely give it a try!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Hello Simon!
        Great!👍I just love chicken and vegetable curry!
        Oh! Then, you should definitely try this mutton curry! 🙂

        Like

      2. Hi Hira, yes, it turned out pretty well I’m pleased to say, really spicy and flavoursome!

        Mutton isn’t a common meat in British supermarkets, although lamb is always available but quite expensive. However, where I live there are lots of small independent butchers so I will ask there, once the current one is finished (I made quite a lot!). I’ll report back on your blog when I’ve made some. Thanks again for the inspiration!

        Liked by 2 people

      3. Hi Simon! Great! I am glad that you tried! Yes, it is really spicy! 🙂
        Sure, please do and you’re welcome! 😀

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Sherina, I only watched one series and from the British P.O.V. was amazed by the reception given by their respective townspeople to the runners up! I also thought it was great that they could sing and play with their heroes. I liked Randy and Paula but have always found Simon Cowell an unpleasant an, at times, extremely rude person. Granted he does know what he’s talking about though!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Interesting! I can see what you mean about Simon. I’ve been watching him on America’s Got Talent, though, and it seems like he’s gotten a bit nicer over the years!

        Like

      2. Hi Sherina, I haven’t seen him for years so I’m pleased to hear that! In the old days he was often extremely disrespectful to contestants (and their parents on one occasion I saw), sometimes reducing them to tears.

        I do remember one American Idol show where Randy and Paula (and the audience) were raving about someone though. When it came to Simon’s turn he said, “actually I didn’t think that was very good!” He was roundly booed by a big studio audience so that must have taken some guts to give his true opinion!

        Like

    6. Loving your blog! Makes me feel like I’m on the journey with out, especially with the addition of photos! You have a really great set up, I especially love the photo with the open journal with blank pages and your quote attached to it.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Thanks jane! Welcome here, I appreciate you checking out my piece, hope you are doing good?
        I am so glad you love it and it made you feel like you ‘re in the Journey with muah.. lot of love! ❤

        Liked by 2 people

      1. Addition of both you could say but like every other exhausting job, I will find a way of managing it appropriately so I can have more excitement. Thanks for getting my blow out dear!xoxo

        Liked by 2 people

  6. Hey all! Hope you had a great weekend.

    My blog is all about empowering my fellow bloggers and authors through pep-talk posts and offering tips and advice to rising bloggers. And yes, I post about my own endeavors from time to time 🙂
    If you’re interested, you can check out my blog here: https://thegoldenlands.wordpress.com/

    If there’s anything I can do to return the favor, please let me know!
    Cheers!
    -Dom

    Liked by 16 people

  7. Hello, good to see everyone again!

    I just started an autobiography series about a trip to Japan, though there’s only one post so far lolol.

    I’m looking for feedback on interest! Is this something people would want to read? Perhaps I should turn it into more of a travel thing. Let me know!

    http://wp.me/p8eD4m-f9

    Liked by 10 people

      1. Haha, Thanks! I’m really trying to be immersive in my writing but with a low word count. Glad it’s working out!!

        Liked by 1 person

    4. You’ve started with the first blog so have to continue now ! Don’t worry too much at this stage as to whether people will like it, you’ll soon find out. Good luck !

      Liked by 2 people

  12. Happy Monday everyone!!

    This is my first take on poetry in my blog, I ardently hope you guys love it. Please take a moment and read it, it’d make me very happy to know your thoughts on it. This is the link to my poetry⤵️

    The giving tree

    Thank you😊

    Liked by 11 people

  13. Hey everyone! One of my blogging traditions is writing a letter to friends on their birthdays, as part of my “This Kid I Know” series. Recently I posted one for my friend Kathy’s birthday. On a tangentially related note, these posts have caused a bit of controversy in the past with me forgetting to write them for some friends or forgetting to write an updated article the second year around. I write these intending to give my friends a shoutout, but I’m not looking to alienate people. Thoughts on ways I can improve this category, or if I should just stop doing these altogether? Thanks! Catherine https://catherinezhang.me/2017/05/01/this-kid-i-know-kathy/

    Liked by 11 people

    2. I like the idea of it. The challenge is exactly what you noted. If you do this for one person, you’ll need to remember to do it for all. Another way to approach it would be to build a birthday calendar. On each person’s birthday, open up a post encouraging everyone to write one thing they appreciate about the person. You could even create these in advance for the whole year and put them in your scheduler. That way, you won’t forget. https://gracelead.co

      Liked by 1 person

  14. Happy Monday Y’all, who else is super exhausted?! Ha! Last week was insanely busy for me, so much so that I didn’t get to write any new posts. This is the last post I wrote the week before, check it out! If you don’t mind going through my site and taking a look at the layout and setup and giving me some feedback, that’d be great! Thanks guys!!

    https://beautifulsouthernheart.com/2017/04/27/7-years-and-counting-sobriety-wins/

    Liked by 13 people

    2. Great post! I am glad to hear that everything us working out! Keep going! It is so easy to tell lies to yourself and blame the world for everything. I am more responsible now, but I don’t think that I am really honest with my self – work in progress.
      Your site looks great and well organized. Including pictures really helps reader to “understand” you. I’ll try it some day in one of my posts.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. I liked your pictures! Sorry your last night didn’t go so well. I hope to go to England one day! Also, when you were making the post, how did you arrange those photos in a grid like in the post?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I selected the number of pics I wanted to include together and WP arranges them automatically. You just have to have more than one selected at a time.

        Liked by 1 person

  26. A good, happy Monday to all of you bloggers and blog followers out there! Wow, it has been a week since I have given my blog a makeover, and already people are loving it! Meanwhile, I have just published brand-new posts that are in response to WordPress’ Daily Post Prompts (YARN & LIFESTYLE), as well as other posts that you might want to like! Check them all out right here at http://www.j2w7.wordpress.com, right now!-JW

    Liked by 8 people

  27. I hope everyone is having a fantastic Monday. I just read & reviewed ‘Write Naked’-by Jennifer Probst- for all those budding authors out there- Its a guide geared toward Romance writers but I think it can apply to everyone who writes- my post is here: https://theyoncecalledherpumpkin.wordpress.com/2017/05/08/write-naked-by-jennifer-probst/

    I would also love feedback on two of my shorter pieces that went up this past week. This is my latest: https://theyoncecalledherpumpkin.wordpress.com/2017/05/07/the-curse-a-short-story/

    and if you visit my blog look for one titled ‘The Mark’- it is a short poem- quick read.

    I appreciate all feedback! I am now off to check everyone else out! 🙂 Happy Swimming!

    Liked by 9 people

  29. Hey everyone, I would love it if you could check out my site and tell me what you think! I’m a medical lab scientist in-training but I write all about fashion, beauty, life and everything in-between on The Unabridged Sass! I always try to keep my content interesting and fresh! Thank you so much!
    https://unabridgedsass.com

    Chrissey

    Liked by 10 people

  30. Hello fellow bloggers..!!
    I really need your feedback this time.
    We all face dillemas in our lives and questions arise out of it. But unfortunately we often don’t find answers to them.. So I also ask so many questions to myself but I need answers from you all because I don’t have them. I need answers to the questions I ask myself. Every feedback is welcomed.
    Here is the link..

    I need ANSWERS – To the QUESTIONS I ask myself.

    Thank you.

    Liked by 8 people

    3. Rather than correct them, you could ask questions to get them to think through things. For example: (What were you hoping to achieve by doing ___? How do you think your behavior affects other people? What choices did you consider before doing this?) They are more likely to change if they decide to do so for themselves. https://gracelead.co

      Liked by 2 people