How to Become Tumblr Famous (From Somebody Who's Legitly Done It)

Tumblr is the sanctuary of hipsters (dont call them that!....ever.....), procrastinating teenagers, and nutella lovers. And those thousands upon THOUSANDS of notes in the corner of that one chick's photo can be SO obnoxious next to the fat 0 in the corner of all ten photos you've blogged. So HOW on earth do you accumulate the thousands of followers you need to make your tumblr--and you-- feel like you've got a voice in that vast tumblr world? It's actually worlds easier than you'd think.

Peruse through the tumblr theme garden (To get there: log in to tumblr, go to your blog page, in the right hand corner click "customize," on the left side of the green "save" button is the black "themes" button, click that) and choose one that's really visually appealing and also just screams YOU. BUT do take into account: you want a wide spectrum of people to like your blog, think about universal appeal. In other words: dont just think, would *I* like this theme or this photo, would OTHER people like it? If yes, then design and blog away!

BIG TIP: Pick a theme that has a HEADER option. Then, design up a header using a good-lookin font and/or images that really describes and characterizes your blog (Your blog title, a picture of something associated with your blog title?) This makes your blog look professional and impressive and important and makes people obliged to follow when they feel like they're following something legit and important.

Your blog is like Waldo. And nobody is gonna find him. UNLESS, you have the magical, hidden, little tool that pops up--and is ignored by you--every time you blog a photo. TAGGING your photo is what makes it show up in a search engine. Why is it important for a photo to show up in a search engine? Same reason you'll never get your name picked out of a hat if you didn't put your name into it to begin with. Having your photos in a search engine gives them the chance to get noticed and thus reblogged.

REALLY popular tags are the ones that are most general: girl, boy, love, smoking, color, party, hate...

Tag your photos according to what's in them, and tag them without prejudice. ANYTHING even slightly related by a hair to what's them, put it in the tags. The more words the photo pops up under, the more chance it will be seen.

HOW TO:

1. When you go to blog a photo, a tag box will be to the right.

2. Put commas between tags!

Suppose a pic you blog is noticed? People instinctively click on photos without even really thinking about it. THIS IS IT.. You now have a prospective-follower (F*CK YEAH!), they're taken straight to YOUR blog when they click on the photo, and now they get to see in all its amazingness and then follow you. BUT ONLY if you've got a click-through link set.

HOW-TO:

1. When you go to blog a photo, you'll see "Set a click through link" under the optional text box

2. Make the click-through link the url of your blog

TIP: Also set your url as the content source, even if it's not. Nobody'll know, and people will want to go to your blog to see similar photo blogs. The "content source" link is right above the tag box!

Lots of people follow back, this is a good way to get a good net of initial followers who will possibly reblog your photos, which will multiply your chances of them getting seen.

Some people arent into it, I'm not because I think its akin to tumblr-whoring, but you can showcase an "I Follow Back" somewhere in your description that may prompt some people to follow. Once you've gotten a good-lookin amount of followers, you can ditch it, and just let people follow you on merit.

Following these rules, I, cross my heart and hope to die, QUADRUPLED my number of followers. One photo I blogged? GOT 42,000+ notes and counting in the last 5 days since i posted it simply from tagging it right. Highly recommended, thoroughly guaranteed, YOUR WELCOME(: