Blogging for creatives: Discover the power of Tumblr

Are you thinking of creating a personal journal? You can simply grab a notebook and work on it manually. However, as an SAE student you are probably more into digital media, and you do not enjoy crafting as much as others. In this case, maybe you should consider creating a Tumblr blog? It is easy to customize and update with a help of a smartphone app! What are the biggest advantages and disadvantages of Tumblr, a pretty famous blogging platform? Read the article and join the discussion.

Text and picture by Joanna Wróblewska

Tumblr is a tumblelog, a variation of a blog favoring short, often visual posts over longer descriptive forms of online expression. The most popular tumblelog post formats are pictures, short videos, gifs, links or quotes. It is more about sharing creations and feelings than giving long and detailed commentaries on diverse issues. Started by David Karp and owned by Yahoo! Inc., Tumblr quickly dominated the market of the third generation blogging platforms. It became a perfect choice for many photo bloggers, designers, visual artists and… some celebrities.

Free and easy
Tumblr made blogging easier, quicker and much more user-friendly. Updates are automatic, so you can focus entirely on the content without remembering about making backups. Moreover, Tumblr is free.The customization options include HTML/CSS modifications. The number of available plugins is limited, which might be a disadvantage. The other thing is that there is not much support provided for new users. It is very intuitive, but for some people it will not be so obvious. There were also some issues with copyrights and security, but in the end Tumblr accepted Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and recently can protect its users much better.

More than Facebook?
On Tumblr, you can create your individual digital space, which has a bunch of features similar to Facebook. You can reblog posts and like them, but commenting is not possible. Experienced users are often annoyed by this fact, but on the other hand you will not experience a useless criticism like it happens on Facebook. Maybe this is why it is not possible to block people on Tumblr? You can ignore them, but some users complain that this option does not work correctly. Instead of comments, sometimes you can write notes under chosen posts. Connecting with others on Tumblr is not as easy as on Facebook, but should it be? In the end, it is not a typical social media platform.

Digital journaling
From my perspective, Tumblr is a great tool for personal journaling. It helps to create a unique collection of chosen images or thoughts that can inspire you every day. It is like a notebook, so you do not have to treat it very seriously. However, you may want to use it as a portfolio. What matters for me, is a simple and attractive design combined with easy and quick way of posting. Using just a smartphone is entirely sufficient, so updating the blog takes mostly just a couple of minutes. You can also plan updates for two days in advance and let Tumblr publish the content every couple of hours.

For you or not for you?
Well, as always choices are based on the user needs. I would recommend Tumblr for photographers, all sorts of designers, artists and other visuals. The only advice would be to keep it simple. Very complicated Tumblr themes with big images load slowly. I would recommend Tumblr also for beginners. If you are an experienced blogger, you may want to add a Tumblr blog to your website or another blog.

Tumblr will not be the best choice for people who would like to post longer commentaries, get feedback or comments and socialize intensively with other users. If you plan activities mentioned above, consider using platforms like WordPress or Blogger. For more information, you can always look at the rankings of well-known blogging platforms or ask on forums. Whatever you choose, I wish you happy and creative blogging!

Learn more:
The Economist explains: What is Tumblr?
Tumblr Review & Rating
Blogging Platforms Ranking 2015