How to Use Tumblr # Step 1: Register You can sign-up on the homepage of the Tumblr site in three easy steps. http://www.tumblr.com/ Firstly, enter your email address in the first box. Secondly, enter a password in the next box. Try and make it difficult for other people to guess but not so hard that you might forget it. It may be ideal to write it down in a safe place. Thirdly, type in the URL of your preference before the ending domain of.tumblr.com. You can change the URL at any time and you can also add your own custom domain. After entering this information, click the Sign up and start posting button underneath and this will take you to your Dashboard. # Step 2: Dashboard The Dashboard is where users can submit posts, read their posts and their friends posts. On the top of the page, there are seven icons for each of the various posts a user can submit. You can submit text, photos, quotes, links, chat, audio and video content. On the sidebar, you will see information on your blog. When you click your URL link at the top, you will see all your posts and whether anyone has liked, reblogged your posts or started following you. Underneath is a link that takes you directly to your blog, then there is your tumblarity rank, any drafts that you have created, any posts that you have scheduled and a link which can allow you to customize the blog. # # Step 3: Posts On the Dashboard or on another person s Tumblr blog, you can see your own posts and other people s posts. On a person s post/post page, you will see the term reblog, a heart and possible some numbers with note(s) after it. The heart stands for a like. When you see a post that you find interesting, whether it be a quote from Shakespeare or a image of the Eiffel Tower, click the heart button to show that you like it. Every time you like a post, their post will gain a note. When you click reblog, their post is then put on your blog. Once you have written a post, there are various options that you can do. You can submit your post to another blog, you can add to a queue which will schedule your post to be posted at a later date or set a date which you would like it to be published on, save it as a draft which you can edit later or publish private so that only you can see the post. You can then add tags to help make your post be found in the search engine, this will be especially helpful if your post is an image post. # Step 4: Customizing Click Dashboard in the top four links at the top of the page and then in the sidebar click Customize. Alternatively, you can visit your blog and click the Customize button in the top right hand corner. You will have a taskbar on the top with five buttons. On the first button is Info, which can allow you to add a title and description which will be included in the description when search engines like Google list your blog. You can also add a portrait photo, which will be shown throughout Tumblr when you write a post or like/reblog. Additionally, you can edit your username for your Tumblr domain or add a custom domain of your own. The next button, Theme, allows you to select one of the many free templates from Tumblr. You can also visit more Tumblr themes underneath by selecting Browse more themes. If you prefer to design your blog yourself, you can select Use Custom HTML. One finished, click Update Preview to see how it looks like. Once happy, you can then click save button on the right. To further enhance your theme, the Appearance button may allow you to make further changes such as the color scheme for your blog. The Services button can connect with programs such as Facebook and [{Twitter]] so that you can share your posts there. Finally, the Advanced button allows extra features such as the number of posts visible per page to be managed on your blog. # Step 5: Social You can see lots of people s posts through the Popular page. A live streaming of people s posts from images to quotes will appear seamlessly. You can click a image or post and it will directly take you to the person s post page where you can like, reblog or become friends with the tumblr. Becoming friends with users is easy. You can either search for users using the search bar at the top or using the Popular page to find other users. You may find that people find you as if you post something interesting, you will gain views. Your tumblarity is how much you participate with Tumblr and is based on people liking, reblogging and becoming friends with you. The higher the tumblarity you are, the better your blog is. You can visit your tumblarity by clicking on the Dashboard, then on the sidebar where it lists your tumblarity. Additionally, you can see all the people that are following you and who you are friends with as well as seeing how you rank in the world (in the top 50,000) and locally. # # Step 6: New Blogs You can create a new blog by clicking on the Dasboard and then on the