Jun 5, 2017 / Community Pool

Community Pool

Where bloggers come together to 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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    5. So aside from making my mouth water because it looks so delicious, I learned what chaat was. Never heard of that until today. And now I have to convince my wife that we should make it 🙂 I am sure my toddler would love it. Thanks for such a wonderful recipe.

      Liked by 10 people

    9. This looks amazing! I am on a 14-day juice fast, and I was looking for ways to spice up my fruit and veggies after the fast. I can’t wait to try it! Would you mind if I shared the link for your recipe on my blog? I would love to share so other people could check out your blog and the great recipe

      Liked by 7 people

    10. Hi Kaylee, I read your post on doubling blog views – I thought the post was very interesting and contained some useful tips. I have read a few posts on increasing blogs views and joining facebook groups for feedback was a new one for me. Thanks for the tips!

      Liked by 6 people

    17. Hi Kaylee! I am a very new blogger I just started yesterday. I am definitely still learning and trying to figure my way through this process. Your post had very helpful information. Thank you so much for sharing!

      Liked by 2 people

    19. Great post. I found it really helpful especially because I’m brand new to blogging but haven’t had many people see my blog.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Hey everyone! Read my Manhood Monday post#4 Chase your lion and be inspired!
    http://wp.me/p876wZ-v8
    Excerpt: “Here’s the way things normally go:
    Lion gets hungry. Lion chases man. Man runs and lion enjoys a “manwhich”.
    Benaiah was about to change everything.”

    Liked by 18 people

      1. Great point! The main idea though is that once you feel his hot breath or his fangs ripping into your skin, what will you do about it? Lie there and die or find a way to conquer? 🙂

        Liked by 5 people

    3. Left a reply there, I just had some trouble liking the post from the WordPress app reader, might want to check that out not sure why I couldn’t. Ok great thnx for the amazing read!

      Liked by 4 people

    1. My mom used to read these when I was growing up and I was never allowed to coz I was too young. I used to sneak into the garden and read them. You just brought back a load of memories for me 🙂

      Liked by 6 people

    2. That is a great idea to writing for Harlequin. I never thought about that I want to be a writer too. Dieing to get something out. I think I could write a cheese romantic book. I have been obsessed with romantic comedies or chick flicks lately.

      Liked by 5 people

      1. Well, I glad I gave you the idea! ^_^ Good luck if you choose to do so!

        For my part, I did write one romance book, but it wouldn’t fit in Harlequin’s guidelines, and… I get the feeling anything I’d try to write would end up not quite fitting. One of their main guidelines is to really focus on the main characters and the romance, and that’s precisely what I don’t like about most romance novels. ^^; But I’m still sort of trying to find a way to plot a novel that would both meet the Harlequin guidelines *and* suit my taste, just because I like the challenge.

        Liked by 3 people

    4. I read some Harlequin long ago in my younger days. My mom read them so I thought I should too. I’m not a mushy romance reader either. You described it just as I remember. Nice review.

      Liked by 4 people

  5. Hello everybody, Simon from To Cut a Short Story Short here. I’m very pleased to announce that the ‘best of my blog’ is now available on Amazon as a paperback/Kindle eBook, entitled To Cut a Short Story Short: 111 Little Stories!

    https://simonjwood.wordpress.com/2017/06/03/to-cut-a-short-story-short-the-book/

    Also, I posted an article last week, Flash Fiction Matters, about the creative and editing processes of writing the stories. I’ve had good feedback to the article and it’s applicable to both fiction and non-fiction. It’s under Recent Stories in the sidebar of my blog and under Blog in the menu. You might be interested to check it out and I hope you find it useful.

    Liked by 20 people

      1. I like flash fiction, it’s not like having to write for weeks, months or years. I find I can knock out a 500 word story in about half an hour (plus editing time) that’s complete in itself. And it’s nice to be able to read a story in a few minutes too. If you’re into writing it I hope you find some useful info. in the article, Flash Fiction Matters, mentioned above. If you’re into reading it, you might like to check out my blog/book 🙂

        Like

    1. Hi Riya, I found this brief treatise on the word ‘trust’ to be intriguing. It’s not something I’ve ever given much thought to. When we’re children we trust implicitly but as we grow we find it doesn’t pay to be too trusting. But where would life be without trust?

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Hi Rita, nice thoughts on trust, I know it’s difficult to maintain trust throughout the life. We come in touch many people whom we trust completely but they don’t deserve it. It’s a hard fact and we have to move on. There are many good people in the world who knows the value of trust.

      Anyways , keep it up!!

      Liked by 2 people

    3. That was so well written and really thought provoking! My personal philosophy is to give my trust immediately, you can have it because I have no logical reason not to give it but once it is broken it’s extremely (if not impossible to repair). I’m admittedly a little naive, maybe too trusting but I wear my heart on my sleeve and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

      Liked by 4 people

    8. Trusting someone can be an exercise in courage especially when the people we put our trust in can be so flawed. Thank you for your post! It made me think about the nature of trust and how difficult it can be at times.

      Liked by 4 people

  8. Hey everyone! My name is Chrissey and I write all about fashion, beauty, life, medicine and everything in-between on The Unabridged Sass! Here is my newest post, about accomplishments and celebrating the accomplishments of those around us!

    http://unabridgedsass.com/2017/06/01/dont-forget-these-accomplishments

    I’d love to hear your thoughts and I’m always open to feedback! Also, I’m looking for some new blogs to discover and read so please share yours!!!

    Chrissey

    Liked by 17 people

    2. My name is Chrissy and I also love Mindy Kaling. So I could not find anything wrong with your blog. Maybe you could go deeper into the reason why. But liked it either way.

      Liked by 2 people

    3. For me, the post worked. I enjoyed the variety of settings and different angles. You could do a post on “Where’s Hobbes?” as a take-off on “Where’s Waldo?” To work well, it would need to be a scene with lots of stripes so he can attempt to hide from us. I’d like to see Hobbes having a meal with you. You might be able to get the waiter/waitress to pretend to hand a menu to Hobbes. I think the key will be variety. https://gracelead.co

      Liked by 1 person

      3. Actually i am regularly going through your blog for the updates on the story series “Sundarban”. I loved the other posts like “Our meet cute” and “Lunchbox”. But the problem is that I’m facing a technical glitch from a very long time which doesn’t let me comment on most of the bloggers posts. My comment disappears instantly. I’ve tried many times to comment on your posts but in vain. Not sorted out everln after asking for help.

        Liked by 2 people

    4. I loved the beginning and end. The monologue felt to literal. Also, just a little thing the word formed regarding the red mark. I read it as the marked formed as he was looking at his wrist not that he woke up with it. I don’t know which one you meant?

      Liked by 1 person

    2. I loved your excerpt, and I loved the way you brought your characters alive, especially the character of miranke and all the other aspects of story. Best wishes for your debut novel.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. It was my pleasure, I have recently started a series named Sundarban, I’ve posted 2 parts of the series, I’d really appreciate it if you could let me know your thoughts on it. Any suggestion or critic would be helpful. 😊

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Cool story flow.. For some reason, I always enjoy stories from India. Plus I’m doing research about
        Kenyan-Indians for my second novel. (I hope you’re from India or I’ve just totally bafooned myself.)

        So:

        1. Watch out for punctuations.
        2. I’d love for you to be more descriptive of your characters, like Maa.

        Otherwise, good read and nice suspense. Is there a part III? Can’t wait..

        Liked by 2 people

      4. Yes, there is a part III, I’m so glad you liked it. Thank you for taking the time to read my story. And yes I’m from India. 😊

        Like

    1. I love how simple and short your posts are, yet they convey such sincere tone and raw emotion. I can relate to your experience growing up, and I commend you for writing about it. For your blog in general, one thing to consider is adding a page of resources for those struggling with addiction or with family members who are.

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Thank you so much, what a brilliant idea; I will take that on board. I really appreciate that you can relate to my experience as well. All the best!

        Liked by 2 people

    2. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your piece, I left a comment on there as well. Keep writing 😊 and congratulations on your breaking the cycle.

      Like

    3. Really beautifully written, your emotions convey so well throughout, I literally couldn’t tear my eyes away. You’re a beautiful writer, keep on doing you, you’re doing great x

      Liked by 1 person

    4. I like your blog too. One thing is it is hard to tell the difference between the blogs. It took me a minute to see comment section too. Your writing is great though. Keep it up.

      Like

    6. Thank you for your post. I love your restrained and simple style. Yet it manages to convey such heartbreak. Sometimes all you can do is love from a distance. I wish you all the best.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. I really liked this! Gets the points across without being too wordy or complicated. I see that you are going to write a post about natural products to exfoliate, what I would also love to see is maybe a post on home-made recipes for natural exfoliants, like salt, oil, a cheeky aromatherapy oil in there too…? Just an idea, but I think it would work really well alongside that post 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

      1. I decided how often I wanted to post a week, first off, and then I knew I get more views on Monday than any other day due to this thread. And I wanted my content to be spread out, so Thursday was the best other day. That gives me more time to write posts if I don’t have them scheduled and people still pay some attention to blogs before they get busy over the weekend 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  16. Happy Monday, friends! Hope you had a great weekend.

    My Everyday Nostalgia post this week is all about sunshine and why it’s so important in our lives. It seemed only appropriate since summer is finally here! Would love for you to check it out: https://nostalgiadiaries.com/2017/06/04/week-22-the-power-of-sunshine-everyday-nostalgia/

    And speaking of summer, we put up a fun playlist today for Music Monday, which has 132 songs from 8 generations of music that’s perfect for a summer BBQ: https://nostalgiadiaries.com/2017/06/05/a-nostalgic-summer-bbq-playlist/

    Would love feedback on either! Thanks 🙂

    Liked by 9 people

    2. Oh I loved this! I painted my bedroom yellow (at twenty years old, yes I’m the cool) because it reminds me of the sun, yellow is a happy colour, right? And the sun definitely makes people happy and more positive. I live in Scotland so the sun is as much an exciting aspect as it is a surprise x

      Liked by 1 person

    3. I love the first graphic and how easy would that to be your own graphic work. I would love to see more pictures of the different marches. More than that I would love to seen you circle back to how homosexuality was re-criminalized; such as how it changed the parades or magazines or maybe how progress moves forward.

      Liked by 2 people

      4. Hello designerworld, I like what you have going on in your blog. Thanks for the tip and the article is really rich. I hope to see more of your posts and helpful tips to be creative. much love ❤

        Liked by 2 people

  21. Hope. Joy.. Feelings cloaked as words.

    Home

    Hope my comment is strong enough to capture your coruscating visions.
    Hope you could drop by and leave me constructive feedback, good or bad, nonetheless.
    Hope.

    Liked by 9 people

  22. I just wrote a post explaining not the clinical descriptions of bipolar disorder but how those clinical descriptions actually play out in the afflicted (including me) I’m really looking to see how non-bipolar people understand what I wrote and whether it gives you and additional understanding into the disease. Thanks so much for your input!

    So what IS Bipolar anyway?

    Liked by 11 people

    1. Coming from a non-bipolar person, this is very helpful to understand the everyday life of someone with bipolar disorder. It definitely helps me understand. I also appreciate the suicide hotline number at the end.

      Liked by 3 people

    4. Hi Leslie, I really appreciated your openness about mental health and found your writing style easy to follow. I am new to blogging but I also write about my mental health battles if you’d care to take a look 🙂 xxxxxxxx

      Liked by 2 people

    2. I find a sense of hunor in your posts. And i love it. It made me laugh 😀 Looking forward to more of these !
      P.s. i so wasnt laughin at your plight , just the way youve described your situation 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Nice post Sydney ! I like how honest your posts are. Keeping setting goals for yourself and keep blogging ! Looking forward to more of this 😁

      Liked by 1 person

  30. Check out the first part of my new story series – The First Last Journey. It is a story series about a boy who experiences his first last journey when someone close to him die .

    The First Last Journey – 1 – http://wp.me/p8Ajzz-eJ

    Liked by 7 people