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How To Import RSS Into Tumblr Using TumblRSS

Angela Alcorn — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:01:57 +0000

There are an increasing number of people who love to use Tumblr as a blogging platform. As blogs go, Tumblr is flexible, stylish and easy to use. Many people use it simply as a light-hearted way to repost their favourite images, while others have taken to using Tumblr as more of a lifestream. Those people in the latter group may have noticed something annoying Tumblr did last year – they stopped letting you import RSS feeds to Tumblr.

In an attempt to ensure they could provide Tumblr’s core services to the massive number of users they have, Tumblr made a decision to cut RSS imports to new Tumblr blogs. Older blogs with RSS imports have mostly had the imports kept functional, but no new RSS imports can be added. That is, not without outside help – help in the form of TumblRSS.

Why On Earth Would I Import RSS Anyway?

Okay, so maybe you’re wondering why people would want to import RSS feeds to Tumblr in the first place. The lifestream example is the best one: some people just want a blog to share with friends and family which collects all the best things they do online into the one place.

For instance, collecting a few of their best photos from Flickr, book reviews from Goodreads, movie reviews from Flixter and blog posts from their WordPress blog. A Tumblr like this would be ideal to show relatives and friends who just want to see the equivalent of an online snapshot. But to do this, the user requires RSS feeds to be imported to Tumblr. They need TumblRSS.

Get Started With TumblRSS

Logging into TumblRSS is simple as you merely authenticate with your Tumblr account and allow TumblRSS to access your Tumblr blog. Don’t worry about it showing you just your primary Tumblr blog, since later you will be given the option to choose which blog to import RSS into.

When you first click on “Get Started” it will ask you to provide an email address so that you can be uniquely identified in the system. To avoid problems, ensure this matches the email address you use for Tumblr.

Importing An RSS Feed To Tumblr

The RSS import is straight forward to set up. All you need to do is choose which blog to import to, choose whether to import text or links and insert the RSS feed’s URL.

Limitations

Any photos in the feed will be inserted as if part of a text post at this stage, however the developer hopes to add full support for photo feeds in the future.
TumblRSS doesn’t yet support importing tags, but they hope to add this feature soon.
RSS imports into Tumblr are limited to 100 posts per day. Currently the TumblRSS application is blocked for any user who reaches that limit, so it’s best to avoid hitting it.
If you later change the Tumblr’s URL, the RSS import will be broken and you will need to set it up again. This is because TumblRSS sees the blog as an entirely different blog. There’s no unique identifier for Tumblr blogs other than their name.

Despite TumblRSS’s limitations, it still provides a useful service that Tumblr doesn’t currently provide. I look forward to the proposed improvements eagerly.

Do you import an RSS feed into Tumblr? Why? Do you think Tumblr should re-introduce the ability to import RSS or should it be left to developers like TumblRSS?

10 Awesome & Inspiring Tumblrs To Perk Up Your Dashboard

Angela Alcorn — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:01:25 +0000

Tumblr is fast becoming one of the hottest communities on the web, having grown exponentially in the past year. But it’s not just for angsty teenagers. Although there are many of those, it’s also a great way to display blog posts visually and connect to like-minded people. Most of the best Tumblrs stick to their topic religiously, sticking to great photos, video and pithy quotes only so that audiences don’t get bored. Occasionally, a great Tumblr will also include longish essays in posts too, but that’s a less popular option.

Here are some great Tumblrs to get you thinking, laughing and loving life. If you’ve never tried Tumblr, it’s very easy to get set up. Check out our basic Tumblr guide and maybe a few advanced Tumblr tips to get yourself started. Then, come back and see some of the excellent Tumblrs you should follow to keep your dashboard interesting.

1. Awesome Stuff Women Did

Are you sick of being told about Marie Curie and want to find some other great women to look up to? Well, Awesome Stuff Women Did is a Tumblr dedicated to showing off some of the greatest women in history and the things they achieved. Perfect for girls of all ages.

2. F*!# Yeah Travel Inspirations

If you’ve ever had a case of wanderlust, the F*!# Yeah Travel Inspiration Tumblr will be dangerous to you. It’s full of gorgeous scenery that will have you itching for more.

3. The Lisa Simpson Book Club

Book geeks worldwide secretly love Lisa Simpson and her natural passion for learning and reading. The Lisa Simpson Book Club Tumblr collects photos of Lisa reading books and is actually compiling a book list of her favourites.

4. Science is Beauty

If you love science and fantastic photography, the Science Is Beauty Tumblr is a must. It showcases simple, elegant photos of beauty in science. It’s something you’re bound to appreciate.

5. Hungover Owls

If you’ve ever woken up on a Saturday morning with that horrible hungover feeling, you’ll appreciate the Hungover Owl Tumblr. The owl expressions in the photos are perfectly fitting and bound to elicit a wry grin.

6. All Things Europe

Here’s another dangerous one for the lovers of travel or photography (or both). All Things Europe features stunning photographs of European cities, beaches, festivals, buildings, countryside and more. It’s inspirational and beautiful.

7. STFU Parents

STFU Parents is a Tumblr for people who want to laugh at parents who really should STFU. You know you’ve seen them on Facebook and Twitter – the parents who think you need to know all about their child’s life in incredibly gory details. And no, I don’t mean just an overload of cute photos: these are stinky, vomit-inducing status updates that could turn a generation off parenthood for good. Or it might just make you laugh and feel glad that it’s not you.

8. Animal Blog

It’s a world of cute at the Animal Blog Tumblr. Domestic and wild animals feature in natural or odd poses, leaving readers both fascinated and squealing with delight.

9. Historical Non-Fiction

Full of random snippets of historical facts, the Historical NonFiction Tumblr will get you thinking and learning about our weird and wonderful past.

10. Delectable Food

Who honestly can overlook gorgeous food photos? Not me! The Delectable Food Tumblr is colourful and tasty!

More On Tumblr

If you’re just getting into Tumblr, you might appreciate these posts too:

Do you have a Tumblr worthy of being mentioned here? Add it to the comments!

Magazine App Feedly 6.0 Adds Tumblr Connection [News]

Bakari Chavanu — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:31:59 +0000

In its recent 6.0 update, the popular RSS magazine-style iOS reader, Feedly, has integrated the fast growing microblogging site, Tumblr, as part of its source content. This means that Feedly users can link to their Tumblr account within Feedly and view the content of their blog(s) and dashboard. Facebook and Google Reader have also been included as feed sources.

With the new Tumblr integration, users can not only view related content on their Tumblr site, but they can also favor blog postings by their followers just as they do on the web platform of the Tumblr account.

Original Tumblr pages can also be viewed within Feedly, and Tumblr users can log into their account and create blog entries and re-post content on their dashboard. The process may be a little slower, but it makes for fuller integration with Tumblr.

Feedly includes a wide variety of other feed resources, including articles about technology, design, business, cooking, cinema, sports, travel, and world news. As with similar RSS feed readers, Feedly users can also search for feeds by name or URL.

The 6.0 update also includes improved social network integration with Facebook, improved navigation, and pinching gestures to close inlined articles. User setting changes for Feedly are done through the settings of the iOS device. In there, you can also choose, amongst other features, to have Feedly auto-mark articles as read, turn off the Essentials navigation bar, and turn on the Auto Preview Partial Articles feature.

Feedly is also available for Android, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.

Source: ReadWriteWeb

How To Set Up A Group Tumblr Blog

Angela Alcorn — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 21:31:39 +0000

You’ve no doubt heard about Tumblr before or during its incredible growth over the last year. Maybe you’ve tried using it – maybe not. But take it from the many millions of people who have – Tumblr is fun and generally really easy to get started with.

These are also some of the many reasons why Tumblr might be ideal for your group blogging platform. But some people just don’t realise how easy it is to create a group blog using Tumblr. So we’ll help you to get started with a few simple step-by-step instructions.

When looking for a blogging platform for group blogging, simplicity and style will usually come into the equation somewhat. But Tumblr now offers another great opportunity – a huge potential audience. Using some advanced Tumblr tips to ensure your posts get seen by multiple eyeballs, you’ll usually be able to get readers for your Tumblr blog pretty quickly.

1. Start Your Own Personal Tumblr

Tumblr is set up in such a way that the primary Tumblr blog you run is essentially your personal identity on Tumblr and your username. Each person who you wish to contribute to the group Tumblr blog should first register for their own personal Tumblr, including yourself. Collect all of their email login details so you can invite them to the group blog later.

2. Create The Group Tumblr

While you’re logged in as yourself, create a new Tumblr blog. There are two good reasons for this:

You will find it easy to manage your Tumblr blogs if they’re co-ordinated with the same login details.
You can’t add group members to a blog which is the primary Tumblr blog for an account.

To actually create the blog, navigate to the “My Blogs” list icon in the navigation links of your Tumblr Dashboard. At the bottom of your list of blogs, you’ll see a link to “Create a New Blog“.

As you choose the blog name, you may also choose to password protect the blog. This could be useful for families or other small groups who do not want to share content publicly.

3. Add Members To Your Blog

From the dashboard list of your blogs, choose the blog you wish to use as a group blog. This gets you into an administration page for that blog only.

On the right hand side you’ll see several links to Settings, Posts etc. Click on Members.

Each member needs to be invited individually using the same email address they used to create their own Tumblr account.

Any user can be promoted to an admin if you wish to give them rights to change the blog design. All regular members of the blog will have permission to post to the blog.

Note that if all members of the Tumblr blog leave, including yourself, the blog will be deleted.

4. Allowing Submissions

Another way of managing posts to a group Tumblr blog is to merely allow submissions of posts. This is perfect if you have built a following of people who are likely to see content online that might suit your Tumblr’s goal. For instance, a recipe Tumblr might be happy to accept submissions of new recipes which can then be approved by the members of the blog. A company blog, on the other hand, is less likely to appreciate input from the public.

There are so many great things you can do with a Tumblr blog. Here’s some of MakeUseOf’s best guides on Tumblr:

How do you use Tumblr? How do you think it rates compared to WordPress?

4 Big Name iOS Apps That Could Do With A Rethink

Tim Brookes — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 23:31:32 +0000

When a big-name brand with a swelling bank account and past record of providing innovative products and services creates a sub-par mobile app, many of us have to resort to the mobile web or give up altogether. It’s a shame because software that runs natively on your device should perform faster, provide a couple of extra bells and whistles and much of the time allow some limited offline access too.

It’s true that much of the time the app and service is provided for free, but in certain instances the information you have surrendered to the company and the adverts you have stared at for hours on end are payment enough. More importantly why would a company sit back and let the bad reviews come in, lose potential users and let the creation stagnate?

Let’s see who isn’t pulling their weight on the App Store.

Facebook

From first hand experience, the Facebook app doesn’t work all too well. OK, I’ll say it – it’s terrible. Don’t just take my word for it, there are plenty of reviews on the app store saying the same thing.

Many users report that the app functions perfectly well when first installed, then seemingly becomes bogged down and starts behaving erratically. The ordering of status updates seems to be a repeating problem, with updates from a few hours ago interspersed with updates dating back days.

Facebook Chat isn’t much better either (though the new Messenger app provides a workaround). The app is sluggish to load your online friends and occasionally things go very wrong with no friends listed – just a blank scrolling screen. I’ve had this issue many times, and it seems killing the app is the only way out.

A friend even managed to break his Facebook application to the point of no return. He left the app on a status update, realised he needed to change his password, returned to the app after doing so (back to the status update, he was prompted to enter his new password) and this happened:

See if you can work out how to get “back” from there. Thanks to @AndrewFairbairn for the image!

Tumblr

How do you break an app that is seemingly pretty good? According to Tumblr, removing the search facility is one way of going about such a feat. That’s right, and the app was updated this very month to include “Bug Fixes” – but complaints about the lack of search and angry comments from their legion of users went unheard.

Tumblr doesn’t necessarily owe us anything – we should be lucky to have a mobile app, right? Sure, but what’s the point in leaving out probably the most important feature on just about any website?

Also present on the App Store are a considerable number of reviews from users who are unable to login, despite providing the correct credentials. Bug fixes!

Google Earth

It’s not a bad app this one. At all. In fact, it’s pretty damn good. It just needs an update or two to include many of the things that the full-fat desktop version has had for a while. Implementing Google Street View would be a great start, but there’s more that could be done to make this awesome.

Both Mars and our moon have had the Google Earth treatment for quite a long time on the desktop version. Whilst this isn’t exactly a navigational aid or useful feature, it would certainly make Google Earth that little bit more varied and exciting.

Google Earth desktop has also been used to highlight seasonal events and trails – such as the Tour de France – and it would be great to have access to this sort of thing on an iPhone or iPad.

YouTube

It was a combination of the tweet below and my sub-par Internet connection that spurred me to include YouTube on the list. No low-quality video streaming option means I can’t actually use it in a lot of situations, instead I have to rely on YouTube’s (thankfully excellent) mobile site.

Of course this app isn’t necessarily bad, but it could certainly use a major update. The ability to choose lower-quality video streaming options would also reduce mobile data usage, saving precious data allowance.

My main annoyance is that YouTube links automatically open in the YouTube app. I then have no way of watching the video because I’m locked into a high quality iPhone optimized stream that takes forever to cache.

Conclusion

There are plenty more problematic apps on the App Store from companies who should know better. In some cases, Apple’s own suite of apps aren’t up to par – but with iOS5 just around the corner we won’t have to wait long to enjoy updated versions of core apps like Mail and Safari, as well as deep integration of Twitter. Let’s just hope a couple of other apps get the updates they so badly need too, eh?

Are you a disgruntled iOS user? Which app has angered you this time? Vent some steam in the comments below.

10 Creative Tumblr Blogging Ideas For When You Have Writers Block

Bakari Chavanu — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:31:10 +0000

For the last few months, I’ve become a fan of Tumblr, visiting and adding content to my blog nearly every other day. What’s great about Tumblr is that, similar to Twitter, you can reblog posts by other members of the site, particularly the people you follow. This helps keep your own blog fresh with content without you having to always develop it yourself. On the other hand, you might find yourself becoming a Tumblr-er who reblogs more than you create original content.

If you’ve been on Tumblr for a while, head over to tumblrcloud and have the application generate a cloud of words you blog most about. When the cloud is posted to your Tumblr blog, it will include your total number of original posts and reblogs.

If you’re short on original content ideas, you might consider some of the following creative writing ideas for Tumblr posts.

1. Complete A Challenge

The easiest way to produce Tumblr post ideas is to take a daily challenge. Some of the more popular challenges include The 30-Day Tumblr Challenge, The Vampire Diaries 30 Day Challenge and the 30 Day Book Challenge.

This Tumblr blog has archived dozens of the challenges that are sure to get your creative juices flowing.

2. Create A Bucket List

A Bucket List is simply a list of things you want to do in your lifetime. You might create a single list of to-dos, or post them separately in daily blog posts.

3. Ask Me A Question Post

Ask your followers to ask you a question, or make a list of questions yourself, and ask them to pick one or two for you to respond to. See my article on advanced Tumblr tips for how to set up a question in a blog post. Experienced Tumblr members know that you also have an Ask box to leave questions.

However, be mindful that Tumblr is not Twitter. Your followers might want their Dashboard flooded with your “Ask me a question” everyday.

4. Currently Reading…

If you’re an avid reader, then you should definitely be posting about your book consumptions. On Tumblr, you don’t have to write a book report; just a summary or short reaction will do. Or not…upload an image of a book cover and you got yourself a post.

5. Start A Book Club

Several book club blogs have been started on Tumblr, but I’m not sure how well they are doing. You might try hitting up your followers and seeing if they’re interested. A similar idea might be to start a Tumblr blog based on a popular television show.

6. GPOYW

If you’re a little vain, you might participate in Tumblr’s Gratuitous Picture of Yourself Wednesday meme. Nothing to write here. Just take a photo of yourself and post it.

7. Explore Tags

If you’re not inspired by your followers content, you might want to check out Tumblr’s Explore Popular Tags page. There you will find several dozen tags – from fashion, comics, to science—that you can peruse for inspiring content.

8. Newspaper Blackout

If you want an interesting creative challenge, try your hand at Austin Kleon’s Newspaper Blackout type of poetry. You’ll understand it best by visiting his Tumblr page. It mainly involves you grabbing a newspaper, a marker, and creating a poem out of selected words in an article. It may not be as easy as you think, but it makes for interesting Tumblr content.

9. Writing Prompts

If you’re still stuck on what to write about, check out this growing list of Tumblr writing prompts.

10. Post A Quote

Often what makes Tumblr so appealing is that members tie words and images together to create content. A simple photo and a quote said by yourself or by someone else can be an inspiring post on any day.

For other MUO articles on Tumblr, start with these posts:

Let us know about your Tumblr content ideas. If you’re looking for some followers, feel free to post your Tumblr blog link in the comments.

Image sources: Newspaper Blackout, Peachy Keen

Tumblr Users Warned About Large-Scale Phishing Attack [News]

Tim Brookes — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 02:31:23 +0000

Microblogging site Tumblr and its users have been targeted recently with a phishing attack that lures unsuspecting users into entering their login details only to have them stolen. The scam operates by offering users access to additional content after inputting login details, in this instance “adult content”.

What makes this phishing scam slightly more sophisticated than usual is the way in which many were affected via Tumblr pages which contained code designed to imitate the Tumblr login. Not all users fell foul via this method, with some being directed to new URLs containing the faked login form.

Many of the Tumblr blogs that hosted this phishing code had been compromised in previous attacks. A small number of sites appear to be at the centre of the phishing effort, including tumblriq[dot]com, tumblrlogin[dot]com and tumblrsecurity[dot]com.

The scam has prompted a few Tumblr users to set up their own anti-phishing sites in order to warn other users, including phishing-alert.tumblr.com and antiphishingontumblr.tumblr.com. These community-led efforts contain information pertaining to phishing (and what it means) as well as recovering your Tumblr account if it has been compromised.

Tumblr themselves have been answering a lot of emails related to this incident recently, so many that they’ve prepared an automatic reply (above) for new support requests. The pre-defined response includes information about undoing the damage done by a compromised account.

Do you use Tumblr? Has this affected you at all? Let us know in the comments.

Source: GFI LABS Blog

Some Advanced Tips For Those Starting Out Building A Tumblr Blog

Bakari Chavanu — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:30:29 +0000

About a week after I wrote my first list of Tumblr tips, the site made changes to its all pervasive Dashboard. The re-design was a welcome facelift for many members, while others lodged some major complaints. Nevertheless, the features of the Dashboard remain basically the same with a few enhancements.

If you’re hopping onto the Tumblr bandwagon—I recommend you do—here are some additional—perhaps advanced—tips you might be interested in after having set up your Tumblr blog and built a following. And don’t worry, none of these tips require that you get your hands dirty with code.

Oh, and by the way, if you haven’t set up your Tumblr blog yet, this article will show you how.

Pages and Tags

Let’s return to Tumblr’s Dashboard Preferences, for there are other little tools you might want to enable in there to enhance your blog. I covered few other Preferences features in the previous article.

Pages:

Similar to the WordPress.com, you can add stagnate pages in your Tumblr site. You’re not limited to just your home page. On the Dashboard page, click on the Customize button and select Pages > Add a page. You can add three types of pages: Standard, Custom Layout, and Redirect.

You can pretty much add anything you like to these pages. Here’s one idea you might find useful.

Tagged Post:

If you get in the habit in tagging your Tumblr blog posts, as discussed in the last article, you can create a page that will show all your posts with a specified tag. So for instance, you might want to highlight all your posts that are mini “essays.” Here’s how to set it up.

Select the “Redirect” page. Now copy and paste the URL for one of the tagged posts that you want inserted into your new page. It should look this—with the name of your blog, followed by “tagged,” and ending with exact name of the tagged posts you want filtered on the page.

http://sampleblog.tumblr.com/tagged/essay

Finally, be sure to select “Show a link to this page,” and type a name for it, which will show up in the menu bar of your homepage. When the page is clicked, it will show all your posts with that designated tag.

More Appearances

While we’re in Tumblr Preferences, let’s click on the Appearance tab and see a few other features that are not turned on by default.

Show Streampad

If you want to add some musical ambiance to your Tumblr homepage, click the Streampad box, and essentially the plug-in will play songs that have been uploaded to your Dashboard.

Depending on your Tumblr theme, the player should show up at the end of your homepage. If you want to further customize the player, click over to this Streampad page and follow the directions for making changes and adding the code.

Fixed Sidebar

If keeping visitors and readers focused on the sidebar content of your homepage is important to you, then check this box. It will keep the sidebar in a fixed position, even when readers scroll further down your page to browse all your awesome Tumblr posts.

Small Follow Box

When the “People I Follow” icons get long and unwieldy, clicking this box will put them into a smaller scrolling box for you.

Ask Me Widget

If you’re fairly new to Tumblr, you might often see the people you’re following posting a question to others on their Dashboard—in the form of a text box for responding to the question. It’s a great little feature, but it’s not quite obvious how to set it up.

To do so, simply create a Text post, and then type the question you want to ask. Be sure that the question ends in a “? “mark. When you do this, a little box, “Let people answer this”, will appear on the right side of the Dashboard. Click it and add your post like you normally would. The responses will show up in your Inbox. The checkbox will not appear until you put the question mark at the end of your question.

Mobile App

If you’re an iPhone, Android, or BlackBerry user, and a Tumblr addict, you will no doubt want to download the Tumblr app for your mobile device. I find the iPhone version (iTunes Store link) super easy to use. It allows you to both browse your Dashboard as well post Tumblr blogs.

Other third-party apps like Instagram include Tumblr support as well.

Well, that’s it for these round of tips. Tumblr is taking the lead as the fastest growing microblogging site, so many more features and upgrades are sure to be arrive in the coming months.

Let us know about other Tumblr tips that new bloggers should know about.

10 Useful Tumblr Tips That New Users Need To Know

Bakari Chavanu — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:31:03 +0000

I’m absolutely hooked on Tumblr. I found my way back there recently, and in two days I managed to post 45 blogs – some reblogs, some quotes, a few long form essays, and lots of image posts. I don’t know what the appeal to Tumblr is over other similar blogging sites such as Posterous or WordPress, but I’ve caught the Tumblr bug and I have learned some things that might not be so obvious to those who are new to the fastest growing microblogging site.

1. Following & Followers

When you blog on a site like Tumblr, you’re typically not there to talk to yourself. Tumblr is as much a social chatting site as Twitter is. After you’ve set up your blog, you will want to follow other bloggers and be followed back. What’s the quickest way to do that? Easy, click on the Dashboard and then click Explore.

On the Explore page you’ll find lots of popular topics that members are blogging about – everything from tattoos to food to architecture.

Nothing in the list appeals to you? Then search for a topic and see if you don’t find a minimum of ten people who are tumblr blogging about what you’re interested in.

2. Tag Your Searches

Another way to follow your various interests on Tumblr is to save your search tags. When you search for a topic, you can easily revisit that search by clicking the “Track this tag” button. The tags you track will appear on the right side of your Dashboard.

3. Re-Post & Ask Questions

When you are new to Tumblr, you will want to quickly start filling up your homepage with content. People will start following you when they see you have content. So one way to get some content on your page is to reblog posts by other members, as well as create your own.

On Tumblr there’s nothing shameful about reblogging. When you see a blog you like in the search list and you want to reblog it on your page, put your cursor over the upper-right corner of the post and click. Once the page downloads, you will see a small menu bar of four items that show on every blog post of Tumblr (unless the poster chooses to disable it).

Click the familiar little “Reblog” button to repost it on your blog. Or you can give a little love and simply click the heart button to let the poster know you like the post.

4. Leaving Comments

Leaving comments on Tumblr is different than on most other blogging sites. First off, you need to click Account > Preferences settings > Customize your blog. Next, click on Community and select one or both of the Replies tick boxes.

In order to deal with trolls and spammers, Tumblr only allows replies from people you follow. You can also select to only allow people to comment on your page after they have been following you for more than two weeks.

5. Submissions & RSS Feeds

Another interesting Tumblr feature is one that allows other bloggers to post submissions to your blog. I discovered a few Tumblr blogs that are totally made up of submissions by different bloggers. To use this feature, you also set it up in the Preferences section of your account.

You can also set up your Tumblr to accept blog posts from RSS feeds.

6. Deselect Twitter & Facebook?

Another preference setting you will want to think carefully about is if you want to have your posted Tumblr blogs immediately shared on your Twitter and Facebook accounts. This feature might be turned on by default.

If you find yourself posting a lot on Tumblr, sharing numerous posts might be a turn off to your followers on your other sites. So it’s something to carefully consider.

7. Customizing Background Colors

There are lots of great and free Tumblr themes to choose from. You no doubt spent some time looking for just the right theme for your blog. But even if you don’t know any CSS coding, you can still change the background and font colors of your selected Tumblr theme. Again, this is found in the Preferences section under Appearance.

8. Queued Up

If you catch the Tumblr bug and start posting a lot on your page, you might consider spreading out your posts so your followers can get a little time to appreciate all the content you’re sharing. In Tumblr you can put your posts in a queue or set a specific date for them to post.

I use this feature for working on several blog posts at a time, like daily challenges, which means I can write several blogs but not have them all post at once. Notice you can also save posts as Drafts and come back on work on them later.

9. Chat Post

One of the seven types of posts you can make on your Tumblr is called Chat. When you click it, it appears that it might be a way to hold a public chat with your followers or the people you’re following. But that’s not the case. The purpose of this feature is to copy and repost a chat (e.g., Instant Messsage, iChat) that you had online.

But one way to initiate a little public dialogue on Tumblr is ask and answer questions of your followers. In Preferences you just need to turn that feature on for your blog. This is also where you can change the “Ask me anything” line to anything you want, like “No question is too personal, so ask.”

10. Publish Your Blogs

When you post enough blogs, you might want to publish your Tumblr entries in book or PDF format. Feed Fabrik is set up to do that for you. After setting up your account, the site will import all your blog entries and create a book.

If you need some how-tos about getting set up on Tumblr, you can also check out How to Easily Create a Blog with Tumblr. Let us know what you think about Tumblr, and if there are tips and tricks for using the site that I overlooked.

The 10 Most Amazing Free Tumblr Themes

Simon Slangen — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 23:31:29 +0000

Yes, WordPress is by far the most popular blogging platform. But that is not a reason to discount the others. Tumblr has kept on its steady growth as well.

It’s one of the easiest, straightforward blogs, and it’s got an impressive array of themes. We already discussed the Top 10 Free Themes To Create a Tumblr Portfolio, but now it’s time for the actual bloggers to get a treat.

Below are ten of the most amazing Tumblr themes (freely) available!

Chunky

Chunky is a strong, multi-columned theme. At the top a dark, weighty header that’ll immediately capture your readers’ attention and promote the ‘brand’ feeling of your blog. It also demos the ultra-bold typeface that’s continued throughout the rest of the Tumblr theme in quotations and titles.

Your content is spread out over the three columns. Although this might sound counter-intuitive, the result feels simply playful, and still natural. The Chunky Tumblr theme is flexible in appearance, so don’t think you’ll be stuck with the grass-green look; a wide array of color combinations are at your disposal.

Two-word synopsis: Strong & Playful

Linear

Linear is a theme for minimalists. It rids itself of the superfluous bulk, which results in a feel of modern clarity. It’s a one-column Tumblr theme, with extra info on the left hand side of the posts in a grey, non-dominating typeface.

The emphasis is clearly on the content, and on the content alone. A bare look like this leaves little space for branding, especially considering the fact that the theme is already widely-used. You can see the ‘Untitled’ blog title in the top left corner.

Two-word synopsis: Minimalist & Minimalist

Orange Peel

Orange Peel tries a different kind of minimalism. Although the theme is still void of any abundant elements, the emphasis has clearly shifted. The header is prominent in this design, atop the categories, and post information gets far more attention.

This Tumblr theme, with its two-fold color scheme, is perfect for bloggers who are still heavy on the content, but still want to nurture the face of their blog, albeit without an abundance of eye-candy.

Two-word synopsis: Minimalist & Balance

Paper Walls

One can still stay in the more sober regions of theming, yet offer a taste of eye-candy to their readers. After all, visual elements are not only pleasing, but will be remembered and associated with your blog in the long-term.

Paper Walls features an inconspicuous striped background and an old school header, with a predominating blue-gray color scheme. Posts are put on top of crumbled paper, (figuratively) giving more texture to the overall design of your blog. This theme manages to look appealing, classy, and yet still a little playful.

Two-word synopsis: Classy & Fun

Solstice

Solstice is more of what you’d expect to find in a blog theme, and one of the darker themes featured in this compilation. The layout is simple, but also strong in appearance because of the high contrast in the color scheme.

Posts are arranged in a one classic-blog column, with the type of post and number of notes indicated at the left hand side.

Two-word synopsis: Classic & Dark

Postage

Traveling around the world? Spending a weekend in Prague? If you’re using your Tumblr as a travel log, as many users do, you should dress (your blog) to the occasion. Postage is a Tumblr theme that tries to pull off the postcard-look, and off-pulling it does.

Under the theme-header is room for your blog name and description. Further down, the theme is divided into two columns; your posts on the left, without too much graphical jumble, and more information on the right.

Two-word synopsis: Travel & Light

Papercut

Papercut is a tidier implementation of the on-paper look, as demonstrated in the Paper Walls theme, above. With straighter edges and less wrinkles, this theme looks far more professional. On the left side you can view post type and number of notes. These half-transparent buttons are the only real colors in this theme, and gives it a more modern touch.

You’ll notice that this is a very strict one-column theme – in fact, the information buttons is the only thing that’s sticking over the edge. As such, the ‘about’ column is also removed – this theme is title and content only.

Two-word synopsis: Modern & Strict

LightGrid

LightGrid aims to seduce alternative young ‘uns, with a predominately bright-colored (blue and yellow) color scheme. The theme is both playful and strict, but certainly modern.

With the design being mostly typographic and cut-out shapes, LightGrid isn’t very graphical in the strict sense, but most will agree that it’s certainly eye-appealing.

Two-word synopsis: Alternative & Sober

Esquire

This Tumblr theme was not created by, but based on the Esquire magazine (US edition). It features the same alternative color scheme and cut-out graphics, but in a different fashion than the theme above.

The Esquire theme features a static column on the left, and a scrolling column on the right – with your content. The design is certainly busier, but perfectly in balance and gives your blog both an alternative and a greatly professional look.

Two-word synopsis: Alternative & Professional

Plaid

The last in our line of alternative is plaid. If light-grid was sober, Plaid is one of the busiest themes on Tumblr. Here, busy doesn’t mean disorderly, but graphically pressing – in a good way.

Plaid is without any doubt an incredibly strong team, and if you aim to entertain a crowd of alternative youngsters, it’s an incredible theme. This theme makes you stick out of the crowd.

Two-word synopsis: Busy & Strong

Do you know of any other great Tumblr themes? Let us know in the comments section below!