Tumblr is a free, simple, and highly customizable blogging platform.
Why should you consider tumblr?
If you are looking to start your first blog or create a niche blog Tumblr might be the place to start.
The Pros:
- Very easy content posting
- Great design options
- Active social community
The Cons:
- Doesn’t provide a way to export your content if you ever decide to migrate your blog
- Doesn’t have the plugin development of platforms like WordPress
For a more in depth comparison see How to Start a Blog.
How to get started
- Sign up for your free account at Tumblr.com
- Choose your tumblr blog name (optionally here’s how to use a custom domain name)
- Choose your theme from the tumblr theme garden
- Start posting
Posting content
The purpose of your tumblr blog will be a deciding factor in how you choose to share content. Tumblr offers a ton of options
- To share content from the web try the bookmarklet
- Creating a mobile blog? Use the iPhone App
- To share original content use the web interface
- Misc: tumblr supports email & IM posting as well as Call in Audio
Find links to all these methods on the tumblr goodies page
The Social Aspect
Tumblr goes beyond simple. It is also social.
- Following: Most tumblr blogs have a follow button in the top right corner, just click it to add this blog to your tumblr feed. Then when you login to tumblr you can simple scroll through the posts from sites you’re following.
- Like: Click the heart in the corner and let the author know you liked this post.
- Reblogging: A simple way to repost content to your own blog. It gives credit to the blog you found it and it how you can help make a post viral.
More ideas…
Tumblr is great for individuals but lately some brands have discovered its power. It can be a great way to add a quirky side to your corporate image.
Check out the Newsweek tumblr blog and the Huffington post recently created a comedy blog on Tumblr.
You can find more great tumblr blogs in the directory and here are a few of my favorites to get you started.
- the adfeed – Social Media and Advertising feed curated by @BryanJones, Even if we weren’t good friends I’d tell you this is THE feed you should be watching for the best social media info around.
- Love All This – Awesome examples of design from products to print
- ExtraAwesome – Self explanatory. Awesome stuff found by @BryanJones
- I Hate My Parents – Great pics explaining why therapy is so popular
- Unhappy Hipsters – wry, ironic, hilarious, brilliant
- Robert A Blake – @RobertBlake might be the reincarnation of Steve McQueen if Steve was a web guru. He shares great stuff and he’s a tumblr expert.
And of course I’ve got to pimp my own
- Network Evangelist – the best of social media from around the web
- Flash Traffic – Random, Interesting stuff that I dig.
If you decide to start your own tumblr blog make sure and leave a comment or send me a tweet so I can check it out. All the cool kids are doing it.
And yes I’m aware that I broke some sort of rule regarding the number of bullet points in a blog post.
