How To Gain or Get More Followers on Tumblr - The Ultimate Guide

Have you been into Tumblr for a while now and still couldn’t figure out why you’re still having followers amounting only enough to fill a classroom?

I guess it will always be difficult building up followers especially in the initial stages.

Tumblr isn’t like any other social networking sites where you can gain considerable amount of followers instantly just by informing your friends that you’ve signed up. It will make you feel somehow lost, and leaves you clueless on how and where to start. Without thorough research, it will be a painstaking work figuring out how to find those prospect followers. You really have to grind it up to get the numbers you desire. You might have been like me when I just started up, and must have asked, “Where is everyone?”

What’s exciting about this is once you’ve got at least almost a hundred followers; if you know and do the right things, and does it repeatedly, you’d be pleased how your follower counter hikes great heights in rapid progression.

The methods written in here can be used in both personal and niche-focused blog types, but some may benefit more than the other. Separating these methods particularly for one type and some to the other will be a complicated thing to do, for many of these methods apply for both. So, instead, I’ve made a general approach on the matter, and left the decision to you which of these methods would benefit you most.

I hope that through the use of this article, I could help new Tumblrers in this one-stop instruction on how to acquire many followers on their blog.

So, How Do I Get More Followers?

1. Choose Your Best Photo – A Good Presentation of Yourself or a Nice Logo

Before people even see your blog, or even its content, the thing they would see first is your photo.

A high quality captured photo that presents yourself well would be an attention-catching one to the audience. And this would be the beginning of your contact with them.

It is very easy for a curious individual to click on a well-presented photo of yourself. It makes anyone assume that your blog must be worth having a glimpse on. So, be sure to put your most beautiful, eye-catching photo.

2. Wisely Select A Name

The next thing people would recognize after seeing your photo is your blog’s name. Your blog’s name suddenly appears when someone hovers over your photo, so be careful of choosing your blog’s name.

The name could really be anything, as long as it is not offending or provokes annoyance to your audience. Be creative.

3. Install a Neat-Looking Profile Theme

Now, you’ve got them viewing your blog. The moment they get there, they’ll have two instincts dictating their next action; it’s either they will immediately close your blog and goes on looking for another, or stay and further scan the content and structure of your blog which can persuade that person to follow.

Of course, you’d prefer the latter. There are many neat-looking themes that you can choose from in the Theme Garden and many other sites.

4. Tumblr Train

Perhaps the mostly used train site for follower-seeking Tumblrers is “tumbletrain”. But, what is a Tumblr train? It simply is an imaginative or supposed train where the passengers are actually Tumblrers who are looking for followers.

The common practice here is - visit the site, see who’s on the train, follow a passenger, and most probably, you’ll get a follow back. Most of these passengers do follow back.

The advantage, however, of being in the train is that you’ll get exposure from fellow passengers and people visiting the site. If you wish, you can just sit back and wait for a follow, and that is some kind of a relief, isn’t it?

Your Tumblelog will likely only have 2-3 hours of stay in the train because people are constantly riding in. Be sure to regularly check if you’re still in; if not, ride again. It’s just a cycling process. You can also try looking for other Tumblr trains. The more the better.

Tip - Getting rid of the pop-up script:

When you visit this site, a pop-up will prompt you to fill up a form before being able to join the ride. You can get rid of this by following this particular sequence of action. Press the "Tools" of your browser, look for the "Web Developer Tools", look for the "Disable" option, look for "Disable the Javascript", and finally, disable the "Script Warnings". That's it. You can now enjoy the ride with the others.

5. Use the Power of Social Networking Medias

Twitter. If you know how to use Twitter properly, it will be of big help in your Tumblelog’s exposure. You can put your Tumblelog's link in your Twitter profile. You can tweet a post from your blog and vice versa. Be sure to use appropriate hash tags.

Facebook. I found facebook pages and groups the most effective. I’ve really enjoyed the benefits of using them to expose my Tumblelog. Try visiting one, and you’ll see hundreds of Tumblrers’ posts asking to be followed, and they also guarantee a follow back. Do the same, and certainly, you’d see some good numbers being added up to your current followers.

6. Follow the Big Boys

Follow someone that already has a massive amount of followers, but, don’t expect a follow back from this guy; he needs not do so. Some still do follow back though.

When his followers visit his blog, they will see who’s following the blog, and if your blog is catchy enough, you might get noticed and obtain a follower.

7. Put Your Tumblelogs URL in Your Website

This is, of course, exclusively for someone who has a website. Normally, what you would see on a website is its Social Networking Sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Now, why don’t you also add your Tumblr’s URL in your website? Definitely, it would help promote your blog and giving it even more exposure.

8. Submit on Promotion Blogs

Go to Google, and search for “Tumblr promos” or “promotion blogs on tumblr”. Submit your Tumblelog, but unless you follow them, the submission process won’t work.

9. Follow for Follow

You can also find fellow Tumblrers who are looking for more followers in Tumblr itself. Type in the words "follow for follow" in the search bar and you will see many Tumblrers like you who'd be willing to follow back if you follow them. Play with the word "follow" in the search bar like "i follow back" or "follow me" to get more results.

Apply these keywords in your tag section everytime you submit a post so that you'd be included in the list of users who also seeks more followers. More on tags later.

Now, you know the places where to find fellow Tumblrers and know where you can get enough exposure. You should always remember that there is a very small chance that people will follow you if you don’t tell them that you do follow back. So, follow the common practice in Tumblr; when someone follows you, follow back.

10. Promo for Promo

This one is also a good practice in Tumblr. Ask your followers to promote your blog in theirs, and if they did, you’ll promote them in return. Imagine how many followers you could get if many of your followers promoted you. By the way, you can also do this to a non-follower.

You can find people who would be interested in promo for promo in Tumblr itself. Type in the words "promo for promo" in the search bar and you'll see thousands of Tumblrers who would promote you if you promote them to both your respective followers.

To be included in this particular search results list, read the Tag tutorial below.

11. Publish Quality Posts

This is pretty basic and easily understood. A good post can do many things for you; it might get reblogged, liked, and shared in other platforms. This could be your original post, and this could also be a post you just reblogged.

Do this consistently, and people will see that your blog indeed is neat, non-spam, and worth following.

A post that is reblogged will be seen by your follower’s followers, and their followers, and so on and so forth. Can you see how it branches out? So, don’t underestimate its importance.

Remember, you want to get the maximum exposure here.

12. Reblog and Like Others’ Posts

Reblogging and Liking other’s posts can make that person get curious who reblogged and liked it, and you might just as well get reblogged and liked. Not only that, that particular post itself will display all the people who liked and reblogged it, exposing you more to the people where that post is visible.

If this post again is reblogged, since your name is already listed, you will again get another exposure to another separate hundreds if not thousands of people.

13. Tag Tag Tag

How do people search in Google? By typing keywords, right? This is the same, of course, in Tumblr. This is where tags is very well appreciated. This is very important and crucial to your Tumblr success. You can get famous just by knowing what appropriate words to tag.

If you look into your dashboard, on the right side is your tag section. You can set which tags you’d like to watch, but we are not discussing about that, so will skip that for now.

Type a keyword on the search bar and all the posts that tags that particular keyword on their post will appear in a sorted manner you set. You can choose from the Featured, Popular, and All.

I am a graphite pencil artist, so whenever I post, I always use the tags related to my post such as “pencil, graphite, drawing, sketch, art, artist, awesome, cool, nice, black and white, and so on and so forth…” There are just so many I could think of. There was one time in the “graphite” tag, my post was among the first five, and it was the time I got most of my followers interested in my work.

Aside from these tags related to my work; I also use tags not related to it. It depends on what my purpose in that particular time is. When I was just starting and is eager looking for followers, I always used the tags like “follow for follow, promo for promo, I follow back, will follow back, get more followers, follow me, and the list just goes on."

Any person searching for people especially the ones who are looking for more followers will see my post among the many posts that used the same tags.

Be creative. Be a master tagger.

There are actually more methods of how to build up your followers, but these ones are what I found most effective. I have also written an Introduction to Tumblr; so, if in case you still don't know what are the benefits of using this platform, visit the article.

And also, I believe, after all these, I deserve a follow.

Do you want to share your ideas?
Join HubPages Now!