How To Start A Tumblr Blog

Are you wondering how to start a Tumblr blog or maybe even what Tumbler is?

What Is Tumblr?

Tumblr is a free blogging service that is good if you want something really simple and quick with minimal customizations.

It’s more like a social network because when you visit tumblr.com and you are logged in, you get a feed of posts from the blogs you follow.

Also it has special features including reblogging (reposting something from another blog) and the ability to publish posts submitted by other users.

Some bloggers keep a Tumblr blog in addition to their regular blog to get their content viewed by users of Tumblr.

How To Start A Tumblr Blog

Visit http://www.tumblr.com and create an account.

NOTE: You can have more than one blog on one account on Tumblr BUT they are not all the same.

Your primary blog is the one that is created when you start a new Tumblr account.

It has full functionality but cannot be password-protected or have multiple contributors.

Secondary blogs are any blogs you create after that and can be password-protected or have multiple contributors but you cannot like, follow or ask questions of another blog FROM your secondary accounts.

Tumblr Features

Since Tumblr is a social network as well as a blogging system, it has some social features you might want to use.

Remember you can only use these from your primary blog.

• Follow – you can follow blogs you like and see their updates on your activity feed. You can follow up to 200 blogs/day and 5000 blogs total. Use the Plus sign to follow a blog.
• Like – you can like posts from blogs by clicking the heart.
• Reply – you can reply to a post right below it unless they have replies disabled or you just recently followed them.
• Ask – You can ask a question of another user if they have the ask feature enabled by clicking the ask button on the blog’s main page.
• Submit – For blogs that allows submissions, you can submit a post for inclusion on their blog. It’s up to them whether they publish it.
• Fan Mail – A way tell the owner of a blog you like, what you really think. Send digital letters with cool stationary.

Tumblr makes it easy to share text, photos, quotes, links, audio and video and such.

Tumblr blogs tend to be more about photos and short quips of text than long posts.

Some blogs create their own content and some are all about reblogging other’s content that fits their blogs themes

Ways To Use Tumblr

I wouldn’t suggest using Tumblr exclusively as your only blog if you plan to be a professional blogger.

You can use Tumblr in addition to your existing blog in many different ways.

• Have all your blog syndicated to your Tumblr blog, possibly along with some social media content. For example Ellen Blogs has posts from her 3 blogs as well as her Instagram posts. They all are auto fed to her Tumblr.
• Create a Tumblr blog that is related in topic to your brand but is not just shared posts from your other blogs. For example if you blog about parenting, your Tumblr blog might share funny and interesting photos and quotes you find around the web on parenting. If people find your Tumblr blog interesting, they might click through to your blog from your bio.
• Keep a completely separate Tumblr blog that has nothing to do with your other blogs. Perhaps this is your chance to “blog” about a topic that you aren’t able to sustain enough for a full time, professional blog but you just want to do for fun.

There you go, the basics to get you started on Tumblr.

If you have a Tumblr blog, feel free to share it in the comments!

I highly recommend the following articles:

• Skyrocket Your Pageviews eBook
• 5 Time Saving Tips For Bloggers
• Anchor Text For SEO
• Bloggers Guide To LinkedIn
• Kids Blogging Quotes

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