Posts Tagged ‘Tumblr’

 

Tumblr + Pinterest = Medium

Saturday, August 18th, 2012

What if there were a way to combine the visual interest of Pinterest with the blogging simplicity of Tumblr?

This past week Biz Stone and Evan Williams, co-founders of Twitter, did just that when they launched the new site Medium.com.

What Is Medium.com?

From the creators:

“Media is still the “connective tissue of society,” as Clay Shirky eloquently put it. And we think it can be better. Better for creators. Better for consumers. Better for the world. So, we’re re-imagining publishing in an attempt to make an evolutionary leap, based on everything we’ve learned in the last 13 years and the needs of today’s world.”

My own take on Medium is that its a faster, sleeker social media platform for those who appreciate design over writing copy.

Why Would I Use Medium?

Though the ability to post onto Medium is not yet open to everyone, the draw to incorporate Medium into your social media consumption and production is two fold:

1. You don’t have to become a blogger to use it (read: no writing).

2. You don’t have to develop an audience.

For some, those are two major selling points that other social media platforms don’t offer.

Take it For a Spin

Admission: I was a bit skeptical. Another social media site? Really?

And as the saying goes: don’t knock it ’til you try it.

So I jumped onto Medium.com and read this page. I found myself saying yes a lot while reading more and more about why Stone and Williams founded the new scocial media site.

Initially, many users who feel that Pinterest is just for recipes and fashion will enjoy Medium’s Pinterest-esque feel with it’s broader scope of topics and interests. Many Tumblr users who don’t want to take the time to write copy will also be drawn to the layout and simplicity of Medium.

I particularly enjoyed a sample page called Been There. Loved That.

Have you tried Medium? If so, leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Tumblr Has A New Monetization Strategy

Monday, February 6th, 2012

Tumblr has been growing exponentially for quite awhile now, but one question has always remained for venture capitalists:

“How are they going to turn a profit from this?”

David Karp, Tumblr’s founder, has long attempted to answer this question in a way that most benefits the users.  He is well aware of the fact that they could simply start putting ads on everyone’s dashboard, and that it would make the company millions of dollars in revenue.  But, Karp is against it because he always wants to put the user experience first, and ads don’t fit in with that philosophy.

Awhile back, Tumblr had the Directory.  It can still be accessed today by directing typing in the URL for it, but you won’t find links for it on the site anywhere.  Tumblr blogs were listed in the directory, and you could pay a premium to have your page rotated in the large, highlighted area at the top.  Depending on the popularity of the category, the cost varied.  Under this old structure, you could also purchase virtual stickers to give as a gift that would show on someone’s directory listing.

While that strategy certainly brought in revenue for the company, it wasn’t a strategy that would sustain the company’s growth.

Tumblr has also tried to use sponsorship of their curated tags to monetize the site.  During Fashion Week in 2010, this was a huge initiative.  Below, you’ll see the pricing release that was released:

There was a bit of controversy with this strategy, however, because the CPM (cost per thousand clicks) was close to $70.

This past week, Tumblr rolled out its latest strategy.  It will give users the option to highlight their post on their followers’ dashboards for $1.

When a post is highlighted, a little sticker appears next to the top of the post, the text is slightly enlarged, and the edges glow slightly.

Only time will tell if this strategy will work in the long term, but I think it has promise.  It’s something that could have a big impact (compared to the cost) for users that want to highlight a product launch, a new idea, or if they just want to have fun with it.

In an effort to get the new feature to catch on with other users, Tumblr reached out to some of its top blogs and gave them a $3 credit to try it out.  If it works, you could see other platforms like Twitter or Pinterest adopting this strategy in the near future.