I didn’t know much about Tumblr, so I registered on it last week. Funny, I thought, considering that I had only recently begun using another popular blogging platform to create this very page you are reading this content on. Was I overwhelmed by WordPress? No. Is this a comparison between Tumblr and WordPress? Nope.

The agency that I am currently with was tasked with an interesting request. A client asked that we develop a blog and noted a few requirements. I set out to review the requirements and report back to the team. Our preliminary recommendation was Tumblr with its user friendly reputation so I dug around Tumblr and Google a bit. Ironically, the same day I read this headline: Tumblr Tops 13 MM U.S. Uniques in July. And, while on Tumblr, I also read this message from the ‘Tumblr Staff’: We’re very excited to welcome Spanish into our roster of supported languages!

Wow! Lots going on over at Tumblr, and I’m feeling a little left out. More interested in Tumblr than I initially was, I dug a little deeper to ensure that it meets the clients’ expectations. I’ll leave you with a few tidbits below but first give you y take. If you have the slightest interest in Tumblr or blogging in general, sign-up now. If you aren’t tech savvy or aspire to be more tech savvy, sign-up. Blogs like this are a bridge between personal literary creativeness and the web. It’s one of the most inexpensive creative outlets out there. Tumblr is extremely easy to set-up, use, and maintain. It’s fun. Do it: get creative and blog.

Design. The requirement was for the blog to have the client’s look and feel. Tumblr has a great variety of themes that one can choose from- many free and some premium themes- that are reasonably priced. If you’ve picked up a little HTML, you can also customize every theme. One can browse the numerous themes within the Theme Garden. For reference, here’s an instructional page that delves into customizing themes.

Mobile Posting. Being able to blog using a mobile device was of utmost importance given travel plans. With so much stimulus coming to us from all directions, one needs to be ready to report any time, right? Tumblr delivers on this point and posting from a mobile device is very straight forward. One convenient option is to post via an iPhone publishing app or an Android app (both free). Sorry Windows users, at the time of this post, no Windows OS app is available that’s offered by Tumblr. Read a little about mobile + email publishing here.

Commenting. This requirement I thought would be a blogging platform requirement. That’s to say, all blogs should be required to provide the ability for other users to comment. I was wrong. Apparently, Tumblr doesn’t have inherently include commenting capabilities on many themes (if at all). Users are instructed to install commenting platform plug-in via HTML which in turn allows other users to post comments for each post one authors. All of Tumblr’s featured themes let you easily install the Disqus commenting platform.

Categorizing. Organized client wants organized posts. Tumblr uses tags (not categories as other platforms utilize) to categorize posts. It’s extremely straight forward; however, the blog owner will have to specify tags every time a post is created. Once posts are compiled, users can also search for  posts that are tagged and list them by topic. Here’s some more information about tags.

Custom Domains. When you register with Tumblr, by default it assigns you a URL  resembling this: http://myblogname.tumblr.com. Users choose the “myblogname” part of the URL; but what about users who own a domain such as abeldiaz3.com? You guessed it. Tumblr allows the use of custom domains. You can find more information regarding this here.

Let’s hope that the preceding information hasn’t become obsolete when you read this. Enjoy Tumblr.