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Hey guys, hope you like the new template.
Also, to the higher-ups at Tumblr (Michael, Topher, anyone):
- Make it so people can reply to non-default Tumblr pages. (Right now all people can do is comment, and that’s not nearly as fun.)
- Make it so that people can see followers of this blog, because right now they can’t.
- Make it so that I can make this my default Tumblr page.
Please. I will give you my non-existent Tumblarity.
~Will
PHOTO REPLY FOR FUNSKIES!
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This is an article I wrote for a class on Tumblr’s new features.
That’s right, I’m doing my final Media Writing project on Tumblr. What up.
Anyone’s An Artist: Blogging Service Testing New Feature
Tumblr, the Internet service targeted at simple yet expressive blogging, began testing its new “Tumblr Prints” feature on the blog Eat Sleep Draw on April 16th.
The feature, made for artists who are looking to sell their work, will allow visitors to buy high-resolution prints of an image posted on one’s blog. Tumblr will keep a small share of the profit, but artists will gain both money and recognition outside of the blogosphere.
The feature’s debut and trial was very small: A picture of a mounted deer head drawn by user sunygao made the cut as the first image to use the new feature. By clicking a button on their Dashboard, followers of the blog would be able to purchase an 18x24’’ poster of the image. Although the trial was limited to this select group of people, the feature will soon blossom to incorporate all visitors of any cooperating blog.
“It’s pretty interesting,” said Tumblr user Robert Shoykhet about the new feature. “I know people from whom I wouldn’t mind buying a piece of their artwork, whether it’s to support them or Tumblr.”
The feature is just one of Tumblr’s many revenue-gaining methods. As a blogging service which does not use advertising for monetary gain, Tumblr has resorted to different – and at times, quirky – methods.
“We’re pretty much opposed to advertising,” said Tumblr founder David Karp in an interview with the New York Times. “[But] we’re just now to the point where the Tumblr platform is where we had always imagined it. Now that we’re there, I think you’re going to start seeing a lot more revenue-generating stuff. Because that’s what we’re doing now.”
Other revenue-generating methods the company has used include a special feature posted as an April Fools’ 2010 exclusive. On that day, the blogging platform allowed users to by a spot on a board on the Tumblr main page for $5. On this day alone, the feature made $4,000.
Another option the Tumblr team has launched allows theme builders to sell their themes at premium prices. The prices for these themes range from $9 to $49; and while the latter may be pricey for a template, feedback has shown that the design marketplace has been successful since its launch.
With 4.4 million blogs and counting, Karp is trying to tap into the monetary possibility of the platform without conforming to the norm and banality of advertising. As he said, “We’re looking for something unique and different.”
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HAPPY BELATED TUMBLR BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!
Yeah, so… it was my Tumblr birthday on January 6th, and I didn’t even realize it. Soooo… happy blog birthday to me. Thanks to the 30-something followers who stuck with me. Yay.
EVERYONE HAVE CAKE!
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SELF PORTRAITS OF THE NINE DEADLY SINS
Yup. Run fast if you see them.
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OH. MY. GAAAAAWD.
It’s like this class was DESIGNED to make me sleep. Is it wrong to be on Facebook and Tumblr in class if you’re doing it just to stay awake?
No. Just ask everyone in my Business lecture.
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Last one for now, I swear. But yayyyyy.
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WHY I SCROLL DOWN SLOWLY ON TUMBLR
There’s a vagina with a toy baby coming out of it.
Had I been in class, I might have peed my pants in fright.
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TO HANNAH
Hannah mah dear:
I’m sorry. I never meant to say that people who angst on their blogs are emo and introverted. You most definitely are neither of those things. And now I feel like a mega-ultra-power-tools tool.
I will shower you with cookies and such when I come home on Thursday. And now a picture of a kitten!
Peace and love, Will
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THE LONG POST ON TUMBLR ANGST
Thanks, Kylie, for refollowing.
Look, I don’t want to be the bad guy, but I can’t understand why people deal with their problems on the Internet. It’s absolutely ridiculous. All we get done by doing that is hurting ourselves and the many other friends we have that connect to us virtually. But we don’t face the root of the problem and we don’t attack it.
I know; I had issues with this too. I was introverted, I was angsty, and I was scared. I was a sixteen year old manboy. And I spent most of my time online, ranting about things I didn’t believe, trust, or reconsider.
Do I care about that time in my life? No. Whatever I said then was in the past. I was hurt and I didn’t really know what I wanted. But now I do. I am a confident, aware, and able-minded college student, hoping to get ahead in life. How do we get ahead in life when so many things are bringing us down?
We attack. We pick up arms and FCKING ATTACK.*
By being passive, by straining our feelings in the collander known as the Internet, we resign ourselves to invisibility, to hiding behind fake names. But when we’re active, aggressive, or assertive, we make ourselves known. We make names for ourselves. We state our goals and desires. And we do what it takes to get them.
And if things don’t go our way, then fine. We take a moment. Let it out. Then it’s back to the game. Nobody stays on the bench anymore.
I may be a hypocrite for saying this. There are plenty of times where I wish it was simple enough for me to pour out my feelings into my blog, whether in the form of a long drawn-out essay or a short yet cryptic message. But I don’t. Besides, if I wrote it down, it’d just be there forever. Remember, NOTHING DISAPPEARS COMPLETELY ON THE INTERNET. Do we want our angsty posts floating around for us to rediscover someday? I think not.
So, with that said, it’s time to forget about the shackles holding us back. It’s time to leave the practices of Tumblr angst and Facebook drama behind. Let’s use those for other things, like posting pictures of kittens and pictures of our vacations and interesting and happy things. As for our troubles, let’s get up from our chairs, do some stretches, and prepare ourselves. It’s time to fight them.
I’ll be here all night, ladies and gentlemen. ~Will
