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Express Yourself with Tumblr!

The estimated reading time for this post is 4 minutes

The Wonder of Tech is pleased to welcome guest author Arielle, who has written about one of her favorite websites, Tumblr – a social networking site for micro-blogging.

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If you love the idea of having a little space on the Internet that you can call your own, then you should check out Tumblr. Tumblr is a website where you can create your very own page and keep up-to-date with fun posts you create yourself or you find on Tumblr. Think of Tumblr as a way to express yourself through sharing text, photos, quotes, a link, a chat, audio or video. If you don’t have time for a full-blown blog like this one, Tumblr may be the best way for you to share your ideas with others easily and quickly.

Tumblr is also a great way to discover what others have shared. You can explore others’ Tumblr pages and find information, inspiration and humor. Be careful though, Tumblr can be addictive and you can spend hours on Tumblr without even realizing it.

Sample Tumblr Artist

*Way Home by Soulist-Aurora

The best part about Tumblr for me is that it always makes me feel something, but I never know what it’s going to make me feel. Some of the posts will get you laughing until you cry, others are really inspirational and others are truly beautiful and artistic. There are also people whose posts make you think, “Wait, are they watching me right now?” because their posts are so easy to relate to.

How to Get a Tumblr Page

Signing up for Tumblr is simple. Go to tumblr.com, click on the Sign up button, type in your email address, create a password and come up with a cool username! You can always change your username later if it’s not as cool as you originally thought it was.

Customizing Your Page

You can have fun customizing your Tumblr page by picking a background theme and a url (web address), which you can do by clicking on Customize My Blog.

Tumblr Topics

Many people have topics for their Tumblr blogs, such as:

Or you could have a general Tumblr blog with everything that catches your fancy. You could also run two blogs at once if you want to have a general page and a topic page.

Tumblr sampe

*List 25

A lot of people share cool pictures that they’ve taken. Many people worry that they have to be professional photographers but the great thing about Tumblr is that you get to reblog other people’s Tumblr pictures that you like and they will appreciate the fact that you like their work.

My blog is mostly pictures that I have reblogged from other Tumblr pages but some people use their page as a journal to write and express what’s on their minds or what they are feeling.

Background Theme

A key piece of making a really amazing blog is picking a cool background theme. Tumblr has a lot of really cool, free themes but if you don’t like any of their themes then there are a lot of other free websites that have awesome themes too. Check out sites such as 60 Handpicked Beautiful Tumblr Themes for inspiration.
The Phobic Man Tumblr

Custom Web Address

Also, Tumblr lets you pick your very own url (web address). You can pick a really cool and inspirational url but don’t worry, if you don’t like it you can always change your url later. For example your url could be http://theworldsbesttumblr.tumblr.com/.

Name Your Blog

You also get to be creative in picking a name for you blog. The name of your blog is the title, and can be different from your url. For example, the name (not the url) of my blog is “And life goes on…”

Apps

Tumblr App iconTumblr has a free app for iPhone and Android so you can post from anywhere and check up on what other people have been posting too. You can get the app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch at the iTunes App Store and for Android devices at Google Play.

Summary

There is so much more that can be done with Tumblr than I mentioned in this article, but in order to figure out Tumblr you’re going to have to check it out yourself to see exactly what I’m talking about. I read a post on Tumblr that once said:

Tumblr sample post
* queentobee

I could not have said it better myself. So I hope you enjoy Tumblr as much as I do! Here’s the link if you want to check out my Tumblr blog: “And life goes on…” .

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Thanks to Arielle for her wonderful post about Tumblr! Have you visited Tumblr? Do you have any favorite Tumblr blogs? Do you have a Tumblr blog? Let us know in the Comments section below!

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Comments

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Arielle, Thank you very much for letting Wonder of Tech readers know about Tumblr! I appreciate your sharing your passion about Tumblr with us.

      I hope you continue to enjoy Tumblr! 🙂

    • iRewardChart says

      Thanks for a nice article! I am a frequent reader of Carolyn’s blog, and welcome a guest writer on board.
      Tumblr is, IMO, the blog for people with less attention span 🙂 Its (usually) short, to the point, very easy to engage your readers. Instagram has a Tumblr option, so any pic you instagram, you can also post on you Tumblr.

      • Arielle says

        Yes the great thing about Tumblr is its so easy to use. Once you figure it out its hard to stop blogging. Yup I have blogged a few of my pictures through Instagram. Its a great way to easily share cool pictures you take.

      • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

        Hi iRewardChart, Thanks for giving a warm welcome to Arielle. Yes, Tumblr is great for those who don’t want to spend or don’t have a lot of time to spend on blogging. I did see quite a few Instagram photos on Tumblr. 🙂

  2. Bill Dorman says

    I thought I had signed up for Tumblr, but it ended up being Stumbler as that is how I bump around online. Maybe I will sign up and actually come up w/ a cool name or something.

    Actually, I do think I have a Tumblr account but haven’t done anything with it. Now that I know what you are supposed to do with it, maybe I’ll pay attention.

    Thanks for sharing and good to see you at Carolyn’s today.

    • Arielle says

      Hi Bill,

      Yes once you get the hang of Tumblr its so much fun. Definitely come up with a cool name and when you do let us know so we can follow you 🙂

      Thanks for stopping by!

  3. Harleena Singh says

    Informative post indeed!

    Oh yes…I think most of us might have a Tumblr account, but few only might be knowing so much about it. 🙂

    Though I do have an account but it was quite recently that I learnt how to add friends on it and visit a few of theirs as well. I guess you do need to devote time to learn more about it – reach out and connect with other fellow Tumblrs, just as it’s needed in other social networking sites. And something or the other always does take a back seat as even though we might want, we really can’t be all over – isn’t it?

    Tumblr does look quite like Pinterest, though the pictures and pages are like your own entire mini blogs in a way and there’s a lot more you can do on it. It surely can turn addictive like Pinterest because once you open a stream, it never really ends and you want to keep looking at more and more. 🙂

    Thanks for sharing and letting all of us know so much more about Tumblr. 🙂

    • Arielle says

      Yes it took me a little while to figure out what was the big buzz about Tumblr. All of my friends had one and told me I HAD to get one. So I checked it out and now that I’ve started using it I can’t stop. It is important to interact with other Tumblrs and share their pictures if you like them.

      Tumblr is a lot like Pinterest. I made a Pinterest account actually but stopped using it because I like Tumblr so much better because its more like having a mini blog.

      Thanks for checking out my article. 🙂

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Harleena, Well, perhaps I’m the only one without a Tumblr account! I’m a big fan of Pinterest, I enjoy the visual beauty of the site. Perhaps because I deal with text so much during the days I especially enjoy seeing the stunning pictures on Pinterest.

      But you’re right, Pinterest and Tumblr are addictive so it’s probably best not to be active on both! 🙂

  4. Ruth Zive says

    So two months ago I found out that my 13 year old daughter had a Tumblr account…with more than 4,000 followers! She has more online traction than her mom, who does this for a living!!!! I also found out that she was dispensing teenage advice to a hoard of boppers clamouring for her pearls of wisdom. Oprah, watch out! Last week she told me that she gave her Tumblr account to a friend. That she had become too busy to ‘maintain it’. The whole Tumblr world was shocking to me since it seems to be a platform that most of the blogosphere is overlooking. It strikes me as wordpress and pinterest rolled into one!?!? In any case, this post was helpful – now I think I get it a bit more.

    • Arielle says

      Wow! Your daughter became Tumblr famous! She was living the Tumblr dream. Yes that is another big part of Tumblr. Tumblr is often used for advice and many people have good advice and can relate to almost anything you have been through. That is a good way to put it. WordPress and Pinterest is kind of like Tumblr. I’m glad this post helped understand the world of Tumblr that your daughter was a part of.

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Ruth, Wow, your daughter went “viral” on Tumblr! That’s great, especially for a 13 year old. But I think it’s funny that she walked away from it and handed it over to a friend. I hope the friend appreciated the gift she had been given! We in the blogging world can appreciate the value of having 4,000 followers!

      I love your description of Pinterest + WordPress = Tumblr. That’s a very apt description! :-bd

  5. Praveen Rajarao says

    Sounds interesting, I had come across a few bloggers speaking about Tumblr and how they went about using it for spreading the word, but I never ventured into the tool.

    Maybe one day…today…after reading this. Thanks Arielle.

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Praveen, Yes, Arielle did a marvelous job of explaining Tumblr for us. I had looked at it a couple of times but didn’t really see the appeal until Arielle wrote about it.

      Be careful though, the site can be very addictive! 🙂

    • Arielle says

      I hope when you venture into the wonderful world of Tumblr you fall in love. 😀 but be careful it is very addictive as Carolyn said

  6. Jens P. Berget says

    Hi Arielle,

    I tried Tumblr a while ago, and I just couldn’t figure out how it was different from using a regular (wordpress) blog and Twitter/Facebook and all the other social media sites. It looked awesome, and it was fairly simple to set up, but it was more or less just another site.

    On the other hand, I really enjoyed how simple it was to set up and publish the content 🙂

    And I know that I missed something when I did set up my test. I did everything in a matter of minutes.

    Great post.

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Jens, Interesting point. I wonder how many people start out on Tumblr and then go on to publish a blog on WordPress. Is Tumblr a launch pad for bloggers or will it remain a site that is important in its own right?

      I agree, Arielle did a great job on this post! :-bd

    • Arielle says

      Yup Jens. Once you figure out what is so great about Tumblr and why people are always talking about it, its hard to stay off! I think it is quite different than WordPress and Twitter and Facebook because you can post as much as you like and people won’t get annoyed. Thanks for your kind words. Hopefully this post helped you understand Tumblr a little better.

  7. Hajra says

    I like Tumblr. I do have a blog there but I ain’t very regular with it. What I love about tumblr is the fact that things are very easy there; doesn’t require too much loopholes which I need to jump over and it makes posting so much more easier!

    I just don’t like it that one can’t comment… obviously we need a disqus !

    • Arielle says

      The great thing about Tumblr is you can be as regular as you want. You can post 100 times one day and none at all another day and your followers won’t get annoyed with you because they do the same thing! Yes there isn’t really much of a commenting feature which I think would be great too! Hopefully there will be one in the future though!

    • Thomas says

      Hi Hajra
      What is your Tumblr name in there? I would love to follow you there too (stalker). I do miss comments on Tumblr too.

    • Arielle says

      Hi Gramps!

      Gracias para leyendo mi articulo 😀 Disfruté escribiendolo.

      And for those who don’t speak Spanish here’s a translation. (I post a bit of Spanish on my blog because I also speak Spanish) 🙂

      Gramps said:
      Do we need to write more words? What’s up? I don’t understand.

      And I replied:
      Thanks for reading my article. I enjoyed writing it.

  11. Adrienne says

    Hi Arielle,

    Nice post and I always threatened to sign up with Tumblr but just never got around to it. Having my main blog on WordPress I know that using it as another platform to build links was what I was thinking to do with it.

    I remember reading some time back all the cool things you could do with Tumblr and I was thinking to myself where the heck have I been. Sounds like a really cool platform now so thanks for the introduction of what all we can do with it.

    By the way, love that photo with the lights coming on. Now that’s just too cool.

    Great guest post Carolyn, ya done good girl.

    ~Adrienne

    • Arielle says

      Hi Adrienne,
      Yes it would be hard to run two blogs at once. One of my favorite parts about Tumblr is looking at the cool pictures. I used to not have a blog on Tumblr. I would just go on to my favorite blogs and looked at their pictures but then I realized I wanted their pictures on my own blog so I could look at them whenever I wanted. I know many people who use Tumblr just to look at pictures and not actually run a blog. Thank you for your kind words and I’m glad you like the gif 🙂

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Adrienne, Thanks, I agree, Arielle did a great job!

      I would love to see your Tumblr account, if you even start one. I can’t imagine having the time to start one either, but I probably would have said that about Pinterest too and I find myself on that site nearly every day. :”>

  12. Cathy Taughinbaugh | Treatment Talk says

    Hi Arielle and Carolyn,

    Interesting article about Tumblr. I haven’ts spent any time there, so after writing this comment, will go and check out your blog. Sounds fun! Thanks for sharing.

    • Arielle says

      Hi Cathy,
      I hope you’ll enjoy Tumblr and see just what I’m talking about after spending a little bit of time on it. It really is a lot of fun. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂

  13. Ann says

    ok, so, I looked at Arielle’s Tumblr and all the comments here, and I find myself wanted to know just a little more technical info. Given the way Arielle seems to be using Tumblr, it seems Pinterest would work the same way for her. Just exactly what are the differences in items that can be posted? At first glance, maybe Pinterest is only still images(JPG), whereas Tumblr allows movies(MP3?) and text? (cool image of rain, BTW). I’ve heard a lot about Tumblr, and I’m an avid user of pinterest, but I’m not sure I get it. Thanks for the article, but I find I want to know more….

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Ann, Arielle is the Tumblr expert, but as far as I can tell, Tumblr seems to be more about ideas and Pinterest seems to be more about images. Yes, you can post text on Pinterest and images on Tumblr, but for the most part, that’s the feel for both places as I see it. You can post video on Pinterest, but it’s very rare. Arielle is a Tumblr fan, I’m a Pinterest fan, but I can see the appeal of both.

    • Arielle says

      Tumblr is a lot more personal than Pinterest I think. Although my blog isn’t as personal as some other peoples it still has quotes and pictures that I just wouldn’t pin on Pinterest because I don’t want all of my Facebook friends to see it. As Carolyn said Pinterest is more sharing images that you like or think that are pretty which I do a lot of on Tumblr but on Tumblr there are also videos text and gifs which you don’t really see on Pinterest. Thanks for checking out my blog. I love the rain pictures too 🙂

  15. dadblunders says

    Carolyn and Arielle,

    Tumblr is how I got started blogging. I love tumblr with a passion! I still have my tumblr blog and you will find much more about my son on it then you will on my personal URL. I started blogging as a gift to my son for when he got older on tumblr. As I continued to write on the blog more and more people started following me and then I started getting recommended to follow on top of that (I have discovered dad bloggers are a rarity)

    I had several people comment telling me I should write more and offer advice since i have a background in it. I thought about it and decided to get my own URL. I have considered more than once to link my accounts (you can do that on tumblr) but I have thus far opted against it. I like to continue to blog lots of photos and short one sentence statements about my son. I know if I linked them my viewership would go up dramatically but that wasn’t my point in starting in it. So now I start over and try to make my way in both worlds…the tumblr world and the wordpress personal URL blog world.

    Aaron

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Aaron, I didn’t know that you had a Tumblr. What a great idea to create a Tumblr account for your son to see when he gets older. It will be his virtual scrapbook!

      I can see why you don’t want to link your accounts, but if you are any indication, Tumblr must be a very effective training tool for blogging! 🙂

      • dadblunders says

        Carolyn,

        It can be a very effective tool to learn blogging. It is simple to learn and they first day I got an account I had three posts (with pictures) up and running! Anyone that has an inclination to learn can do all sorts of creative things in tumblr but it has its limitations. WordPress becomes a much better choice.

        The main difference is that WordPress is a lot more difficult to learn. I am still discovering almost every day something I didn’t know that I should have. On the flip side I am learning more HTML coding. I go back to my tumblr blog and I automatically use some of it in my posts forgetting that there are certain things it can’t or won’t do based on themes and dashboards and such….

        Aaron

        P.S. As a side note you are one of my favorite blogs to visit! Thank you for staying on top of new trends for us!

        • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

          Yes, Aaron, it sounds as if Tumblr could be a great starting place for people who want to learn to blog. You’re right, Tumblr is very simple to get up and running quickly. WordPress.com is easier than self-hosted WordPress but neither is as intuitive as Tumblr. Even WordPress experts seem to still be learning about the platform. It’s very powerful with thousands of themes and plugins, which gives it flexibility but with that comes complexity.

          Thank you so very much for your kind words, Aaron! They truly mean a lot to me. I try my best to bring Wonder of Tech readers the best tech I can find! 🙂

        • Dadblunders says

          Carolyn,

          I would be happy to share it with you. In fact I just posted the new tattoo I got earlier today for my 700th post (yes I am a modern dad that believes you don’t have to be stuffy…I just make sure they are hidden)

          (note you know me as dadblunders and they know me as stay-at-homedadblunders …. it was hard for me to give up the name) Please make sure you let me know when you follow me! Iwould love to have to see you there!

          Aaron

    • Arielle says

      Wow that’s such a great idea! Your son is going to think you are the world’s coolest dad because as you mentioned you really don’t see “dad” blogs on Tumblr. It sounds like you became Tumblr famous. Its good to know that even dads like to use Tumblr. 🙂

      • Dadblunders says

        Arielle,

        In the parenting circles, I have my moments of tumblr fame for sure i! I am really easy to get along with and try to find value in everything which seems to make me well liked. The gift for my son is the main reason I don’t merge the two thus far…..(although there are days I would love to have as many people post on my URL as does on my tumblr at times….lol)

        Aaron

  16. Helene Poulakou says

    Something like Pinterest, but with pages instead of pinning boards?
    Looks interesting. I wonder though, about the time-sucking effect of promoting oneself on various online places.
    Nice catching up, Carolyn. 🙂

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Helene, How wonderful to see you here again at The Wonder of Tech! I don’t have a Tumblr account, but I can say that this blog does take up a wee bit of time. I believe that Tumblr takes a lot less time to express yourself than a full-fledged blog though.

      You’re right, it’s easy to get caught up in social media. Pinterest, Facebook Tumblr, Twitter, WordPress all take time we didn’t know we had! 🙂

    • Arielle says

      Yup, Tumblr is a lot like Pinterest except its laid out differently because you have your own page instead of pinning boards. Many people spend a lot of time trying to promote themselves on Tumblr. My recommendation to gain more followers is just to follow a lot of people. They appreciate the follow and often times will follow you back. It can be very time-sucking though trying to gain followers that’s why I don’t focus on followers. I really use my blog to express myself and if other people want to follow me than they are welcome to. 🙂

  17. Aditya says

    Hi Carolyn and a warm welcome to Arielle, 🙂

    I have read about tumbler all through the blogs and found out it a great service.I have addicted to it before having an account there(Yes that’s true).
    I have tried to make an account with it but my network sometimes lets me down.
    And as time passed i forget to make an account(sorry for that,just can’t find some time) but thanks to this post.I am going to make things work with tumbler for sure.

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Aditya, That’s great that you already have a Tumblr account. I imagine there are quite a few people who visited the site before starting their own page. If you get it up and running again, feel free to leave a link here.

      I appreciate your warm welcome to Arielle. We are very honored to have her as a guest author here at The Wonder of Tech! (*)

      • Aditya says

        You are very fast Carolyn,
        I guess you are sticked to the wonder of tech when asleep also 🙂 i just got your reply soon after i posted the comment.That’s what i like about you.You always come up with wonders everyday. Hats off to you 🙂

    • Arielle says

      Hi Aditya,
      Thank you for the warm welcome. 🙂 I am glad you are rediscovering Tumblr after reading this post. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Also feel free to share your url with us so we can all follow you!

      • Aditya says

        For sure Arielle,After all tumbler is all about sharing.Will be there soon with my shares. 🙂

  18. Thomas says

    Hi Arielle
    I like Tumblr too. I use it to share all the small things I find funny online that does not fit on my niche blog, but also to promote my mail blog.

    How about you Carolyn, do you have a blog on Tumblr?

    • Arielle says

      Hi Thomas,
      Thats why I like Tumblr because you can share photos that would’t fit anywhere else. Thanks for the follow Thomas. I like your blog 🙂

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Thomas, No, I don’t have a Tumblr, which is why is greatly appreciate Arielle writing about the site. I jumped into WordPress without trying my wings on Tumblr first. I really like Tumblr, but I will be using it as a spectator, not as a participant.

      Do you have a link to your Tumblr account that you would like to share, Thomas? 🙂

  19. Thomas says

    I would love to share my Tumblr link here on your blog Carolyn. It is: http://techworkdk.tumblr.com/ I think you should think twice about creating an account on Tumblr. I use it to promote my blog and others stuff. It is great for link building and I never use more than 5 minutes on a post on Tumblr 🙂

  20. Ashvini says

    I think I have a tumblr account but frankly I have never written a word over there. I know it is a great service but never had time to check it out. Thanks for talking about the features of tumblr. It is indeed a platform that has a fresh new appeal.

    I am though stuck with wordpress on my site and have my hands full with it :). I hope to check out Tumblr soon :).

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Mukul, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! That’s one of the great things about Tumblr, you can make your page whatever you want it to be! If you want to leave a link for your Tumblr blog, feel free to do so! 🙂

  23. Sam says

    Tumblr does look quite like Pinterest, though the pictures and pages are like your own entire mini blogs in a way and there’s a lot more you can do on it. It surely can turn addictive like Pinterest because once you open a stream, it never really ends and you want to keep looking at more and more. Good post, thanks for sharing.

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Sam, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you like this article and Tumblr. You’re right, there are endless Tumblr pages to visit so it’s easy to get addicted.

      Thanks for stopping by to share your thoughts with us!

  24. Sue Neal says

    Hi there – thanks so much for this great post. I’ve been hesitant about trying Tumblr, but you make it sound simple and fun so I reckon I’ll have to give it a go.

    I appreciate your warning about its addictive tendencies – I’ll take care to ration myself……

    Sue

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Sue, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, Arielle did a great job with this post.

      You’re right, the appeal of Tumblr is that it’s simple and fun, so you should give it a try and see how you like it. If you start a Tumblr page, be sure to come back and leave a link so we can follow you! 🙂

  25. Melanie Legaspi says

    Hi Carolyn,

    A Tumblr page sounds interesting to have. I’m thinking of getting one at a later time. I need to concentrate on building my blog first before I start on a second one. Thanks for sharing this post, at least I now know a little bit more info about this.

    Melanie

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Melanie, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, I can understand you want to build your blog first before jumping into Tumblr, but Thomas was fairly persuasive in his comment that Tumblr may be able to help you build your blog. Maybe it’s worth taking a peek at Tumblr. 🙂