Normally I’d apologize for a title like this. I’d usually blame it on a lack of sleep thanks to the new addition in our family, or a food coma from watching yesterday’s Daytona 500 (or whatever distance it was yesterday with the three segments…don’t get me started). Not today though. Today I’m proud to give a mention to Culture Club and Boy George. Don’t ask me why, it just feels right. Anyway, the subject for today’s Blog post is actually due to the new addition in our family. My wife and I aren’t huge Facebook posters. She posts more frequently than I do, but we don’t live on it. When you’re our age, Facebook seems to be overrun by baby pictures. One or two shots may be cute, but after a while, you really don’t want to bombard your “friends” with images of your daughter sleeping. Our own family is a different story. however, as they can’t seem to get enough. So, this begs the question: is there a way to display your pictures in a blog type format that can be shared with family? Enter Tumblr.
What is Tumblr exactly? From Wikipedia: “Tumblr is a microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007, and owned by Yahoo! since 2013. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog. Users can follow other users’ blogs. Bloggers can also make their blogs private.” It’s a very popular website, as Wikipedia continues: “As of February 1, 2017, Tumblr hosts over 334.1 million blogs. As of January 2016, the website had 555 million monthly visitors.” We didn’t quite make the February 1st cutoff, but our family blog is now among them. What made Tumblr appealing to us is the fact that we could make our blog private, and give the link and password only to those we’ve chosen. If you don’t want to be an Internet star, this is a good option. Also when your site is private, viewers don’t have to have Tumblr accounts to access your blog. This is helpful for the less tech savvy members of our family. Finally, your Tumblr blog can be made into a book. My step brother and his family gave us this idea. We’ve decided to do a pretty much daily diary of our daughter’s first year, and will then have that turned into a book that will hopefully be a keepsake that she’ll treasure.
If all this sounds good to you and you’d like to create your free blog, visit https://www.tumblr.com/login and click “Sign Up” in the upper right corner of your screen. Next, click “Get Started”, then enter your e-mail address, create a password for your blog, enter your birth date (yeah, I know), and gender if you’re so inclined. Then, click “Continue”. On the next screen, you’ll need to check a box to prove you’re an honest-to-God human being, then click “Continue” again. At this point, you’re successfully signed up, but you’ll need to check your e-mail because Yahoo will send an e-mail asking you to verify your e-mail address. Simply open the e-mail, click the underlined “here”, then click “Verify” in the window that opens and you’re all set. Now, return to Tumblr, and create a username. When you’re happy with your selection, click “Continue”. Go back to your e-mail one more time, and verify your e-mail address with Tumblr. Open the e-mail from Tumblr, click “This is me!” and you’re an official Tumblr member. When you sign into Tumblr, you’ll be asked to pick five categories you’re interested in. After clicking five, click “Next”, and your Tumblr experience will be created. You’re taken to your new blog which may be customized as you wish. From the title to design style to who can comment on it, you’re in control. If you’d like to view your blog, the web address is your username .tumblr.com. So for example, it would be yourblog.tumblr.com. By default, your main blog is public. If you’d like to have a private, password protected blog, you’d have to click on the person icon at the top right of the screen, then click “Settings”. Look on the right side of the screen for the “Blogs” heading. Just below your existing blog, you’ll see “Create a new blog”. Click on that, then enter the “Title” of the new blog, the URL (yourblog.tumblr.com), then click “Password protect this blog”. When you’re finished entering the information, click “Create Blog”. Now when you’re at your dashboard and click the person icon, you’ll be presented with both your public and your private blog. Click the blog you’d like to edit, and the tools for customizing your blog are presented at the top of the screen. You may add text, photos, links, audio, and video to make your blog exactly the way you want it.
Everyone has a story to tell. It’s never been easier to create a good looking blog to document your life and share it with whomever you choose to share it with. All you need to do is upload your photos and you’re on your way! If that’s a confusing proposition for you, read our earlier post, “Going Up(load)?“. I should also mention a Tumblr app is available for your device. Visit the App Store or Google Play and search for “Tumblr.” For information on turning your blog into a book, go to blog2print.com. With an ease of use and beautiful result, you’ll tumble for Tumblr too!