Tumblr is a great host for blogs- not only is it super easy to use, but it also has its own social community complete with tumblarity! So, with that said, I know a lot of people joining the Tumblr community with various styles of blogs to share their thoughts, online findings, fashion sense, or to take you with them on traveling or food adventures. Thus, I thought I would share a bit of the beta to make Tumblr work that much better for you.

There are just a few external tie-ins that you will want to put in place and then you are on your way!

1.) Hosting your own pictures. It is important to host your own pictures so that they are not subject to change and won’t break. The best way I have found to do this is by uploading my pictures to Flickr and then using the specific size selected URL (click on the freshly uploaded photo and then “All Sizes”) to insert my picture into my post. Make sure you upload your photos as visible to the public so that you can openly display them on your blog.

2.) Comments! You absolutely want to add comments to your blog, so that you can engage your readers and allow with me to participate in the conversation. I have done this with Disqus.  In order to add Disqus to your blog you will need to take the bit of code they provide you with and insert it into the HTML of your blog. You can access the HTML through the Dashboard section by clicking on “Customize”. Once you are in the “Customize” screen you want to select “Theme” from the top navigation bar and when it opens up choose the “HTML” button in the bottom left corner. This will allow you to see your code and then you can paste the code into the designated place that Disqus has suggested you place it. To find that place, hold down your “Apple” and “F” key to open a find box, and then type in the first or last word where you are meant to place the code between (like {/body}) and it will spotlight where you need to place it. “Update” your preview to make sure it looks ok, and then click “Save” in the upper right corner.

This is a sample of what Disqus commenting looks like- my friend Keiko Lynn is commenting about my eco-wrapping technique.

3.) Keep track of your traffic. It is best to put a piece of code in place to track your readers right from the beginning- that way you can see where you came from as it grows into something bigger. I would recommend using a couple of analyzing services. Google Analytics is great for overall analysis and lets you look at your numbers at the stroke of midnight every day. The other one I like is Get Clicky, they allow you to view your traffic in real time, so you can see how you are fairing throughout the day. They also give a bit more detail about your readers, depending upon the service package you sign up for. Both of these are free services at the basic level, so it only costs you the time to insert the code, and this is done the same way as listed above, but obviously with the new pieces of code specific to Google Analytics and Get Clicky.

So, there you have it! I am in full support of the blog movement and hope that you all can better express and share your views in this medium- especially with these nice little add-ons.