Time to try Tumblr?

I think a lot of bloggers are in the same boat. We’re trying to improve our stats, use more SEO terms, spice up our writing style – all the stuff that we here at Blogging Tips write about. But I know that some of you are feeling kind of baffled by all this. You got into blogging for one reason: to write down your random thoughts where your friends can read them.

For you, I suggest a different kind of format: the Tumblr model. Tumblr is a site that provides space for people to throw down ideas and images without giving them a lot of thought. At first I thought this was the fast food version of blogging, but a closer look made me realize that with their clean format, easy interface and generally high quality, tumblelogs are nothing like fast food. They are, instead, the really good, really cheap falafel stand on the corner that’s open all night and always throws in a ton of extra napkins. (If I had to pick, I’d say MySpace is the fast food of blogging. But I know not everyone would agree.)

According to Tumblr, “If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks.” Tumblr posters don’t write lengthy, essay-style posts: they just throw what they’re thinking onto the page, along with a handful of images and videos. It makes the page visually interesting, and provides the meat of a blog entry – the one-liners, the random ideas – without the wordiness.

This is not going to be everyone’s answer to blogging, of course. (Although I know at least one guy who writes a comedy blog, and also keeps a Tumblr page for shorter jokes that aren’t solid enough to build a full-length entry around.) Still, it’s worth checking out, if for no other reason than that someone has finally created a way to make old-school blogging look formal and fancy.