Advantages and Disadvantages of Tumblr: Everything You Need to Know

Advantages and disadvantages of tumblr

Are you looking for a free blogging site, or you’re tired of using Facebook, Twitter, and similar social media sites?

Tumblr is an option for both.

So what is Tumblr?

Tumblr is a microblogging and social networking site developed by David Karp in 2007. It’s free to use, and currently, it’s owned by Automattic.

Like other social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, Tumblr allows you to follow, like, and share other people’s blogs and content. 

So, what are the advantages of using Tumblr? This article examines the advantages and disadvantages of the Tumblr blogging platform.

Advantages of Tumblr blogging platform

Free blogging platform with a free SSL certificate

An SSL (secure socket layer) is a certificate that facilitates the transmission of sensitive information about users.  Since 2018 when google decided to flag all websites without an SSL certificate, its importance has increased rapidly. Some of the benefits of having an SSL  certificate are;

• It helps your search engine rankings
• It improves customer trust
• It affirms your identity.
• It protects data such as credit card numbers, email passwords, and bank account passwords.

An SSL certificate will encrypt sensitive information and convert it to a secret code that is impossible to decode. There are so many types of SSL certificates, and they cost money, and the cheapest SSL certificate costs $8/yr.

However, with Tumblr, you’ll secure your customer’s data without spending any money. Tumblr provides a free SSL certificate to ensure you don’t lose any sensitive data to hackers.

If you want to start a blog, then you can consider the Tumblr blogging platform. With no premium packages, Tumblr provides you with everything for free.

Tumblr provides free web hosting.

When starting out blogging, trying out different hosting provides an excellent way to determine which one suits your needs.  You can either choose to try free hosting or find web hosting with free trial plans. 

Tumblr is a free blogging site, and it’s much similar to blogger. Your articles and media will be hosted on Tumblr servers at no cost.

 However, like most free hosting sites, there is nothing to smile about  Tumblr’s free hosting. The loading speed of a Tumblr blog is neither too good nor too awful, and we’ll test the speed later.

Easy to set up a Tumblr blog

I believe what sets Tumblr apart from other blogging platforms is the ease of creating a blog. So, how can you start a blog on Tumblr?

• First, search for tumblr.com on the google search engine. You’ll have several options to create; choose to ‘continue with Google.’ It’s the easiest option.

• Put in your age and blog name.  Tumblr does not accept blogs for people aged 13 or below.

• Next, select what you are into. You can skip this.

• That’s it. You have a Tumblr blog!

Now, to test the speed of your Tumblr blog, head over to gmetrix.com or pingdom.com and put your URL.  My Tumblr’s blog speed on Gmetrix. The performance is amazing. However, note that the website has no content. (Gmetrix speed)

On Pingdom, the website scored a B. several loading issues were detected.

On google page insights, my Tumblr blog scored 72% on mobile and 96% on desktop.

As you have seen, Tumblr blog page speeds are high on desktop and low on mobile. The light theme enables the blog to load in faster.

Another factor to consider when choosing web hosting is the uptime guarantee, and Tumblr does not provide any uptime guarantee to its users. Don’t expect your website to be online all the time.

Unlimited storage space

The disk space or storage space plays a crucial part when deciding which blogging platform to use. While several free blogging platforms, especially the WordPress free hosting sites, limit the storage space, Tumblr does not.

With a Tumblr blog, you can store an infinite number of videos, audio files, posts, and photos without worrying over the storage space. However, Tumblr has limitations on what can be uploaded.

For example, you cant;

• Upload more than 75 photos on any day
• Upload files larger than 10MB
• Upload GIF files exceeding 1MB
• Upload more than 250 posts on any day.

An easy-to-use UI.

If you need a blogging platform with an easy-to-use interface, then Tumblr is among the best available. As you’ve seen, you can set up your Tumblr blog in under 2 minutes and start sharing content.

How can you start posting on Tumblr?

On the top, you have all forms of content that should be uploaded on Tumblr. It has text, audio, video, image, gif, quotes, links, chat.

Everything you wish to put on your blog is simple and can be done in a few clicks.

Tumblr takes the hustle of building a blog from scratch from you. With its easy-to-use interface, you won’t need to create menus, categories, or even worry about which are the best plugins for different aspects.

 This also applies to themes. You won’t have to worry about which one is mobile responsive or whatever as they take care of that. All you have to do is start sharing the right content. I find this awesome.

Tumblr doesn’t monetize users’ blogs.

Like other free blogging platforms such as Weebly and Wix, Tumblr tried to monetize its users’ blogs. They added adverts to each blog. 

However, this failed, and thus they no longer monetize blogs with ads. The fact that Tumblr is a single page and not a website was a reason for their downfall in monetizing the blogs. 

Both the users and advertisers were not satisfied, and as a result, Tumblr pulled their adverts from blogs.

Tumblr is both a blog and a social media platform.

Apart from creating your blog posts and sharing your content, Tumblr allows you to meet and communicate with other users on the platform. 

If you’ve created your Tumblr account, you should have noticed the step where you’re supposed to choose 5 topics you’re interested in. if you didn’t skip, Tumblr would provide you with similar content, allowing you to do so to interact with other Tumblr users.

It works the same way as other social blogging sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok. You can share your posts as well as other people’s blogs. Also, just like you can keep your Instagram private, you can do so with your Tumblr blog.

What else?

As a social blogging site, you can use it to drive traffic to your existing website and get relevant backlinks to boost your rankings on SERP. This is possible whenever someone saves or reblogs your content.

Disadvantages of Tumblr blogging platform

You don’t own the blog.

The fact that you create a blog, create content, and build an audience and still not own the blog is difficult to accept.  Tumblr owns the blog and not you.

Just like other blogging platforms such as wordpress.com, Wix, Weebly, or Blogger, you don’t own the blog. Simply put, you have no control.

And as said, it is difficult to accept. This fact becomes evident when you screw things up. The moment you break Tumblr’s terms and conditions, they’ll close your blog without any notice, update, or mail.

 A good example of this happened in December 2018. After apple removed Tumblr’s app from their AppStore due to pornography concerns, Tumblr went on and banned sites with pornographic content, and removed sites with not safe for work (NSFW) content.

Furthermore, the chances of having your blog banned have increased due to changes in policies. For example, glamorizing bad behavior, pornography ( which drove most of the traffic), and having divergent political plans will have your blog banned.

To sum it up, you are at the mercy of Tumblr’s admins, just like other free blogging platforms and social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Try to avoid breaching the policies if you want to keep your account and audience engaged.

There is no access to plugins.

Plugins make working on a website or blog easier. For example, you can optimize your content for search engines, create comparison tables, make your blog appealing, and so on. 

However, on Tumblr, there are no plugins to help with your blog. You’ll have to do everything by yourself, for example, you have to carry out SEO manually, including optimizing URLs and adding meta descriptions to posts.

And if you don’t know how to edit HTML code, then you’re doomed unless you hire an expert from sites such as Upwork and Fiverr. Also, to optimize your images, reduce them to the required sizes, you’ll have to search for websites to help you compress them to the required size.

The blog is less customizable.

When it comes to your blog, you only have a handful of the basic templates. A quick look at them, and you’ll find them unattractive or unwelcoming. It’s more embarrassing to know that the only things you can change are the blog’s cover image, font, and logo.

There is only one way to personalize your blog, buy a premium theme or edit the HTML code. As said, if you’re not familiar with it, the easiest way is to hire a freelancer to do it, and this is expensive.

Limited  safety and security

In recent years hacking has been on the rise. Technology giants such as Google and Facebook are some of the recent targets.  Government websites have also been targeted, and this means that any website can be hacked.

Having a Tumblr blog can be risky. In the past, there have been instances where hackers have exploited Tumblr blogs for malicious purposes. 

 A good example is Tumblr 2013 data breach. During this hacking, over 65 million Tumblr users’ data was stolen. The information consisted of email addresses and their passwords.

Apart from that, data such as age, IP addresses, blogs corresponding to emails, users’ preferences, and other information isn’t as secure on Tumblr as you would think.

Poor user experience

When it comes to websites and blogs, navigating from one page to another is good for SEO and improves the reader’s experience. However, the Tumblr blog isn’t built for that.

A Tumblr blog is a single page, which degrades the user experience since users cannot navigate to other parts of the blog. For example, you can’t create menus, sub-menus, and categories.

Also, it’s difficult to keep scrolling up and down looking for posts. As a result of this poor design and structure, advertisers stopped bidding for ads on Tumblr. This is why Tumblr hasn’t monetized any blog.

It isn’t designed for long-form content.

One reason I rarely post on my Tumblr blog is the love for long content. The only content you’ll come across is images, memes, gifs, quotes, audio, infographics, and short posts.

Simply put, Tumblr is a microblogging, and this platform is geared towards people under 40 years.

The social media platform isn’t all that great.

While Tumblr can be referred to as a great blogging platform, it cannot be said about it as a social media platform, and it’s full of everything bad and good.

Every day, you have to go through tons of hate speech from strangers and threats if you happen to disagree with them. Also, while pornographic content is still banned from the platform, there are still traces.

If you include that all this may lead to mental health issues, it makes the Tumblr social media platform a no-go zone.

Should you start a Tumblr blog?

Whether you want to start a Tumblr blog or not is a personal decision. 

Starting a blog is a personal initiative. The same can be said on the choice of blogging platform you choose. However, id recommend you to start a Tumblr blog if you;

• Want to write brief content.
• Just want to start a blog.
• You want to build brand awareness

However, if you want;

• To establish an internet presence
• To have total control over the blog
• Write lengthy articles
• Monetize your site through ads;

Then you should not consider starting your blog on Tumblr.

What are the alternatives to Tumblr?

There are excellent blogging platforms to start your blog on. If you’re looking for free hosting and an easy-to-use interface, the blogger platform is an excellent start.  Another option is to start with wordpress.com.

Other alternatives include Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace. Depending on your needs and skills, there is a platform right for you.

However, if you’re serious about building an online community and making money through different ways, having a self-hosted blog is important. I recommend you start a blog with WordPress.

 To get started, you need to buy a domain name and web hosting. I recommend you start with Bluehost, and they are among the best and are recommended by wordpress.org. Furthermore, they’ll provide you with a free domain to start creating your online business. 

Next, explore the benefits of starting your blog with Bluehost.