How to Make a Cool/ Good Tumblr Blog

First, to make your blog, you just go to www.tumblr.com and click "sign up" to join tumblr and begin making your own tumblr page.

Once you've done this you will see your news feed. At this point, it will be empty because you have not yet followed anyone. To follow people: log in to tumblr, and then go to the url of anyone's tumblr page and click "follow" in the top, right hand corner of the page. Then when you do this, their posts and the pictures they reblog will show up on your news feed, there from which you can now reblog, like, or reply to.

It's a lot like twitter, just with pictures instead of tweets. Keep repeating this process to build your news feed.

I would recommend only following people's blogs that you find interesting or else you will just have a lot of clutter on your feed and very little of interest. People can also follow you, but that can only happen after you create your blog.

Basics:

To begin creating your perfect blog you must follow other people's blogs(using the process explained in the article above) so you can find pictures that you like and want to reblog, in order to show people what you're about and what you like.

After you have followed a few(20 or so) people, you should now start actually making your own page.

Go to the dashboard. This is your central hub for all things you can do on tumblr. It consists of your newsfeed, posting tools, liked posts, following/followers, previous posts, and tools to find new blogs.

From here, you can edit old posts, create new ones, reblog others' posts, and send/ receive messages. At the top of your dashboard there are 5 buttons: home, messages, help, settings, and "log out".

Click on the "settings" button. Then click on the right side where it says your blog's name, which is about 5 places down. Here, you can change your URL, preferences, links to other social networking sites, and many other things. Choose a URL name you would like to use and an avatar photo of you that other people will see on their news feed when you make posts.

Then click on the "customize button" under that, next to "theme".

Setting it Up/ Mechanics:

Once here, you can do even more. Everything you can do is on the left hand side of the page. The preview on the right is just for looks and shows examples of what your blog will look like with random posts on it.

You probably want to start by adding a description of yourself, your page, and a title. I would keep it simple and easy to read, but informative (you know, if that's your style).

You can then, change the colors and layout of your blog (which is optional) under "appearance". For layout, to have an "easy to use" and visually appealing blog, I would mark the boxes labeled: 2 or 3 columns, back to top button, infinite scrolling, sidebar fixed, and sidebar left or right.

You can then add links and such on the sidebar as well as a sidebar portrait and background images: those of which, are found farther down the list under "appearance". For links, paste the URL of your social networking site or whatever you want to link it to in the space labeled "Link (1,2, or 3)" and then what you want to call it or where it goes in the space labeled "Link(1, 2, or 3) Title". For your background photo or sidebar portrait, just click on the "upload" button and pick one you like.

Now, the next step would be getting a sick layout for your tumblr. I would recommend going to http://themes.themaxdavis.com/themes/ for layouts because they're awesome, but you can probably do a search and find some more somewhere else. The website explains how to install the layout: but basically, you just choose one and "copy and paste" the html into the "Custom Theme: edit html" section of your customize tumblr page (which will be on the top of the toolbar at the left).

If you want, you can also add music. The place I use is called http://scmplayer.net/. It is pretty self explanatory once you get there, but it is pretty much the same deal as the Max Davis themes set up.

You can also add extra pages to your tumblr for pics of yourself and whatnot at the bottom of the toolbar on the left where it says ">pages". Just copy and paste pictures, links, or whatever in the text area of the new window that pops up, then name it, save it, and it will show up as a link on your page.

After you have finished customizing it, just go to the top of the toolbar, click "save", then "close" and it will take you to your newly customized tumblr page so you can see how it will look to others and then you can just bask in the glory and pride of your new creation!