Blogging interface Tumblr is home to people who blog about art, music, film, design, and much more. And many people within the Tumblr community have used their creativity not only to achieve fame on Tumblr, but also to turn their blogs into sustainable sources of income. Don’t believe us? Read on for some of the company’s favorite success stories — and learn how you, too, can make blogging bank!
Open for business: Created a brand? Check. Amassed a following? Check. Now it’s time to sell the sizzle to the masses! Building a small e-commerce section into your blog can be a great way to do this. PayPal offers a payment widget that plugs into most blogging platforms and will allow you to accept payment safely and securely. You can use this payment button to sell t-shirts with your blog’s logo or favorite sayings, jewelry of your own design, your band’s freshest single — the sky’s the limit!
Tumblr Success Stories:
lulinternet.com: turned a design hobby into a product design business and online store.
From Me To You: started as a fashion and streetstyle photographer, but with innovative photography and editing techniques created a unique Tumblr artform called a cinemagraph. She and her husband are now two of the most in demand photographers in the industry, and have worked with Tiffany’s, Puma, Carolina Herrara, and many more.
Take a photo: Photographs and animated GIFs are extremely popular on Tumblr. Knowing how to properly tag posts with appropriate language often makes a huge difference in the discovery process, so read up here. Once you’ve boosted your traffic, you’ll be more marketable to number-hungry ad partners. Some of the most popular photographers on Tumblr have begun to use Google Adsense and content sponsorships to monetize the crowd of visits to their pages. Hint: remember to include your social media following (twitter followers, Facebook fans, etc.) into your overall “numbers” count for an extra ratings boost!
Tumblr Success Story:
The Style Line – The Style Line is run by fashion photographer and stylist Rachel Schwartzmann. She chronicles her daily adventures as a aspiring mainstay in the fashion industry, and because of her popularity she has managed to secure content sponsorships with elite fashion e-commerce platforms like Sugar Lips and Nasty Gal.
Put it in writing: As blogs gain cult-like following, many bloggers have capitalized from bringing their work and commentary offline…and onto your coffee table. That’s right, gather up your best material and make it into a book! Penguin, Simon & Schuster, and many more large publishers have worked with bloggers in recent years. You can also elect to fund your own book with a crowd-raising site like Kickstarter.
Tumblr Success Stories:
Suri’s Burn Book: Running (parody) commentary from our favorite Hollywood sweetheart, Suri Cruise. Author Allie Hagan turned this online gem into a book sensation.
F— I’m In My Twenties: If The Girls had a Tumblr, this would be it. Hilarious commentary and imagery on what it’s like to be a twentysomething, just trying to get by in our modern world. Now available in book form at Barnes & Noble.
Get sponsored: No matter what space your blog covers, there’s plenty of opportunity out there for partnering with your favorite brands or fellow artisans. Put together a basic 2-page deck featuring your blog, your mission, your traffic, and a few screengrabs of content. Then send it along to brands that reach a similar audience with a simple pitch note along the lines of “help me help you.” Even if you just get a small mention or a few linkbacks, it’s yet another way to drive traffic back to your site. And you might get inspiration from your new friends in the process!
Tumblr Success Stories:
Cult of Pretty: A website designed for the modern women, and featuring all of the best beauty products you’ve never heard of. And guess who they partner with? Basically every beauty brand you have heard of.
We the Urban: A fashion magazine that’s published exclusively through Tumblr — and so good that it’s also available in print. Oh, and by the way, it’s run by a 17-year-old Editor-in-Chief.
And for more about Tumblr and it’s Founder/Ceo David Karp, check out our Recessionista-in-Chief on “Bloomberg West” here!
