Blogging is no doubt an important aspect to developing your business. However, we are often caught amidst various services that are available out there, which are all equally good. Tumblr has been described as the home to some of the most creative people on earth. If that rings a bell, Tumblr is very popular among designers and developers of every kind.
Why Tumblr is Great for Creative Business Owners
These qualities are important to web designers and developers if they intend to grab clients who prefer visually attractive portfolios.
How to Use Tumblr
Tumblr comes with 8 different options in the dashboard, all of which are unbelievably simple to use. The dashboard comes with text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio, video and answered questions which can immediately be published with ease. What is different is that when you upload a video, the video becomes the central object and any caption or text you may add is secondary.
Likewise, your graphic work, or design templates or 3D creations get more attention than the peripheral distractions. All the 8 features can be used to upload your examples of your work, instructional videos, quotes of famous web designers for inspiration, web designing tips that you may want to share with other Tumblr users, and also answer questions that other web designers and possible clients may have to ask. You can share links to your work published elsewhere, and on the minimalist Tumblr platform, it looks visually appealing.
Publishing and Sharing your Content
It is not necessary to use the dashboard to publish your content. There are several other ways to do so. The bookmarklet allows you to post directly from the web browser while mobile applications for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android allow you to do so while on the go. Tumblr also allows you to publish videos, MP3 files, text and photos just by sending an email from your mobile phone. There are also third party applications which help you to publish your content wherever you are.
Customising Tumblr Blogs
The themes can be customized or changed, pages can be added and Tumblr posts can automatically be shared over other social networking sites. Custom themes can be designed for other Tumblr users, which can be offered for a price. There are several tutorials out there which teach you how to design custom Tumblr themes. These tutorials of immense use, and eventually we shall publish a detailed Tumblr custom theme building blog post.
Managing Projects on Tumblr
The community feature is probably the most important aspect of Tumblr and possibly the most useful for managing art and design related projects. When visitors arrive at an image, video or text post that you have published, they have the option of ‘liking’ it or re-blogging it. It is important to start following blogs that are dedicated to web designing and web developing. Designers usually share tips, tricks and even announce gigs on Tumblr blogs, and following Tumblr blogs of web designing authorities can be extremely important. Tumblr can also serve as a great collaborative tool, where a number of artists and designers can upload templates, Flash images, PSD files and use them to brainstorm. An article on Net Magazine described why Tumblr is important for designers and provides certain coding instructions.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, Tumblr may seem a little too minimalist to web designers who are used to complex CMS platforms like Joomla, WordPress or Drupal. However, simplicity is not necessarily ineffective. In the case of Tumblr, it is a very effective platform to upload your portfolio, gain audience, drive traffic to company website, look for clients and build authority and influence.
