Tumblr and My Experience

Into my ever expanding list of social network sites, I've recently added Tumblr. I realize the site has been out there for some time (over two years) but I held off as I have a bit of control issue (read: I like being able to "futz" with my site when and how I wish) and didn't want to have yet another blogging site to contend with. However, this past week I took the plunge and was pleasantly surprised at the site's ease of use as well as its subtle complexity.

Right off the bat, you can choose to either use a vanity domain (yourname.tumblr.com) or you can opt to use your own domain. Tumblr gives you information on how to change your A record for your domain to use the later. If you either don't have a domain to use or aren't sure enough about the A record changing process, don't worry - you can always implement the domain option later.

Once you have your account setup, you can then change the theme. There are tons of themes available at the Tumblr site. If you'd rather have a unique design and have the html skills, you can use the advanced option available in the customization area to input your own style and graphics. So, for the control freak in some of us (read: me), you're able to control exactly how your new Tumblr site looks to the world.

After all the tweaking and customization is done, you can then start blogging with the service. The "dashboard" portion of Tumblr is very easy to use. It is where you'll start when posting new content to your site. You can choose to post:

* Text - your own words
* Photo - share photos you find on the web or your own
* Quote - quote and referencing
* Link - share links with the viewing public
* Chat - unique posting bit here that allows you to show a conversation (real or imagined)
* Audio - audio clips
* Video - video clips

Splitting the different styles of blogging into clearly labeled buttons makes blogging on Tumblr an absolute breeze. Add the "Share on Tumblr" bookmarking script to your browser bookmark bar and you can add to your web site "on the fly".

Along with allowing you quick access to key blogging tools, the dashboard also lets you know who has "liked" your content and who has recently decided to follow your site content. If you're ever wanting to see what other interesting things fellow Tumblr bloggers are putting out on the web, you can click on "Popular" within the dashboard and view Tumblr in real time via "The Wire" (graphic representations of what has been recently posted) or check out some of the "On our radar" picks of top posted content.

One part of Tumblr I'm still trying to wrap my head around is "Tumblarity". This is a number assigned to your site based on your recent activity on the blogging service. I've managed to jump from 0 to 47 in the matter of a few days. I can only conclude that it really depends on how much your add to your site. As I'm a rather "chatty" kind of gal with a lot of links and information that I check out and share on a daily basis, I conclude that my sudden rise in "Tumblarity" is due to exactly that.

Tumblr is a really great and free blogging service that manages to combine ease-of -use with some great features that will be sure to make your blogging experience fun. I highly recommend checking them out.