Tumblr provides a simple and highly effective platform to share ideas, inspire concepts and showcase great work to a thriving design community. But how can you make sure your blog stands out from the crowd when the number of Tumblr blogs (opens in new tab) approaches the 100 million mark?
It might seem like an overwhelming task , but there are things you must do that you can do. For example, Tumblr features interesting blogs in its prestigious Spotlight categories (opens in new tab) and your blog posts can be highlighted by “Tag Editors” to appear in popular feeds like “Design” or “Illustration”.
Reading: How to create a good tumblr blog
Likes and Reblogs
Two years ago today I started a Tumblr blog called Type Worship (opens in new tab). I was looking for a quick and easy way to gather lettering and typography work that inspired me and post some random thoughts and my own work. I started posting enthusiastically and quite naively, and was amazed when my first few posts received likes and reblogs (similar to retweets).
After a few months, Type Worship moved to the Typography Spotlight section of Tumblr picked up, after that it grew so fast I had to turn off email notifications for likes and followers. Today the blog has reached almost 100,000 followers, and in addition I help curate great content in Tumblr’s typography feed.
Here are some principles I’ve learned through my own experimentation and that I’m sticking to can customize your own tumblr blogs…
01. Focus like a laser
Most blogs are very general and discuss the owner’s views to anything and everything. The blogs that really stand out have a specific niche and serve a purpose. They focus on one thing and they do it well.
What is your angle, your passion? The aim is to create something unique. Whatever you decide, stay focused and try to stay on topic—or at least try to reconnect unrelated posts to your topic. Keep the funny cat pictures for your facebook friends.
02. Choose the right name and theme
As with any design work, first impressions count. Luckily, it’s easy to customize your blog’s layout, design, and functionality without being an HTML expert. Tumblr offers about 200 themes, many of which are free, but if you’re serious, pay a few bucks for a more polished “premium” theme.
Consider choosing a blog name , which describes what it is about. Using your own name or web handle can make it difficult to see what your blog is about at a glance. Once you’ve committed, it pays to set yourself up with a custom URL like “www.yourblog.com” instead of the default “yourblog.tumblr.com” to add that professional touch.
03. Keep Your Pace
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Publishing original content is essential. To start, you may have a list of things you want to cover. You might be tempted to post tons of material early on, either to get attention or just because your enthusiasm gets you into a blogging frenzy. Pace yourself. Find a regular rhythm that you can stick to in the long term.
No spamming: If you want to post 20 pictures an hour, you may be annoying and there are other, more suitable platforms such as Pinterest . Think of your blog like a book; Ask yourself if the content you want to share develops your overall story.
04. Craft Posts Carefully
One of the things that can determine how often you post is the time it takes to create an engaging post. Spend time choosing great images – Tumblr has a very visual audience – so make sure the images look good by cropping and adjusting them as needed.
You should give your readers some insight give into what you are. re-posting about. This can be just a few lines, but those few words should be specific and provide a little background. When I post about any typeface or lettering work, I always make sure to credit the original source (which can sometimes take a bit of research due to lazy online habits), as well as information about the creative process, the rationale, and what I think of it .
05. Make it personal
It’s important to add personal context to why you’re posting. What are you thinking and how does it feel to you? Why is it important to you or worth posting about? Good or bad, give your opinion otherwise no one can understand your unique perspective.
06. Get noticed by editors
Tumblr Promotes great content by applying ‘Featured Tags’ to excellent posts relevant to key categories.Search “design,” “movie,” or “illustration” on the Tumblr dashboard, and the resulting list has been carefully curated by “tag editors” — volunteer bloggers invited by Tumblr.
Me help maintain the typography feed, along with a few others. Since this is searched for by thousands of users every day, selected posts can gain a lot of attention, which inevitably leads to more followers for the blogger.
Tumblr publishes guidelines for tag editors (opens in new tab). Follow this guide and make sure you carefully tag your posts with related keywords for the best chance of being discovered.
07. Learn What Works For Your Audience
As you gain followers and attract visitors, you’ll discover which content resonates with people the most. This will inevitably vary from blog to blog, but there are a number of common behaviors that I’ve learned from my audience that I’m now optimizing for. Some of these factors are probably pretty universal for Tumblr:
- Long articles don’t draw as much attention as shorter, faster posts.
- Bold, eye-catching images are essential. Multiple images tell a story better than one image.
- My followers are more active during the work week. Weekend posts tend to draw less traffic.
- A large percentage of my audience lives in the US, so I’m more likely to post in the afternoon when they wake up.
- Maybe because Tumblr followers scan their dashboards so fast that videos and audio posts rarely garner as many likes and reblogs as images.
- Animated GIFs draw a lot of attention.
08. Interact and spread the word.
There are a number of nifty tools to help your blog engage with the Tumblr community and reach a wider audience online to reach. Tumblr has features that allow people to ask you questions that, if interested, can be answered privately or through your blog. Many blog themes also offer Disqus integration so users can comment on your posts.
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Connecting your Twitter and Facebook accounts for automatic posting becomes easy. However, don’t forget to manually edit these tweets before posting to ensure they’re concise.
09. Get Featured in Tumblr Spotlights
How to get featured in Tumblr Spotlights is a hot topic. The most common advice is to “be popular,” but there are many other factors.
Three months after I signed up for Tumblr and with no more than a few hundred followers, I submitted the blog to editors @tumblr a. com being considered for inclusion in their recent Typography Spotlight (opens in new tab). A week later I received a ‘We <3 your blog!' Response from Tumblr and was offered a seat. Type Worship is now also in the Design category (opens in new tab), which may be due to the number of featured tags it received in that category.
Popularity isn’t just a game with numbers, but is measured by the quality of your posts: Tumblr says it looks for “unique, original, and creative content.” By releasing this type of material you will inevitably attract an amazing audience anyway. And there’s no harm in asking!
10. Keep track of your progress
Tumblr will notify you when people like and reblog your content within its network, but don’t overlook your audience outside of the Tumblr community. By simply adding a Google Analytics tag through your topic settings, you can see how your content is being consumed and adjust your tactics accordingly.
Don’t get too attached to the numbers, though. You should do it for fun, and because you’re itching to post your ideas, the audience will follow.
11. Give Back
It’s free, there’s little or no advertising, and Tumblr doesn’t mind if you generate your own revenue from ads, sponsorships, or sales. So pay back by being a good web citizen and generating good karma. Example:
- Press and hold the Join Tumblr button in the corner of your blog. Some topics allow you to disable this feature, but a large number of new members join using this button.
- Always link to the original source of any third-party content you post to give credit to the owner.
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Words: Jamie Clarke (opens in new tab)
Jamie Clarke is a designer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of the digital agency Thin Martian (opens in new tab) and was previously Head of Design at Microsoft. He has developed a number of successful start-ups and runs the blog Type Worship (opens in new tab), now the official blog for typography magazine 8 Faces (opens in new tab).
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Have a Tumblr blog you want to feature? Tell us about it in the comments…
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