It’s the question that many ask, and rightfully so. Truth be told, there is nothing wrong with wanting to increase your audience so that more people have access and can view your content.

Another truth is that there is no secret or instant way to get yourself more viewers or “follower”, but there are plenty of things you can do that can attract new followers and keep them around.

How To Get More Followers On Tumblr

Getting more followers is very closely related to getting more “subscribers”, the traditional type of follower in the blogging world.

With Tumblr, certain tactics differ than “normal” blogs however, mostly due to how the service is set up. That is not to say that oldschool techniques like guest posting do not work, it’s just that there are other useful techniques for getting more Tumblr followers.

I’d like to go over some of the best strategies below.

1.) The Really Obvious Advice

This is the obvious advice that nearly everyone who will post on the topic will tell you, and although I will reiterate it here, I’m going to put a new spin on it.

The really obvious advice that everyone gives is to post “interesting, informative, or entertaining content.” This is very true, but there are some things you should be aware of before simply posting anything and everything you find amusing on the internet.

Try to stick to a theme: Even if your tumblelog is personal in nature, the best way to get followers is to have a general theme for the things that you post. This website is an example of a fairly strict theme: the posts all focus on tips for your tumblelogs and microblogs.

But a personal site may have a larger variety of content that is posted (as your personality has much more variety than a topical site). A thing to remember, however, is that your followers will often follow your site based off of their own interests.

To help reassure them that your site is worth following, your entertaining/informative/interesting content should not stray radically from a few of your favorite topics.

If someone follows you because much of your blog focuses on humor in TV shows & movies, for instance, it would be off putting to them when you post about dog grooming or some other “out of the blue” type topic. Therefore, even if it is your personal blog, it is best to have a couple of topics to stick to.

Try to have your content be new, or at least a new take on something known: New is important on the Internet, with things becoming “old” in a very short time after they go viral or garner some popularity. What you post doesn’t always have to be brand new, but should most likely include at least your new take on whatever it is.

New also does not mean the date it was first published. New simply means that it hasn’t been seen by tons of people. So if you find something “old” that you find really interesting and hasn’t garnered a lot of exposure, that would make an excellent candidate for a post.

2.) Tag Your Posts Extensively

One key aspect of Tumblr is that you can use Tumblr search search the site for tags in the upper right hand corner of any Dashboard. Many Tumblr users will search for topics of interests using this feature, and this is why you should tag your posts.

Someone searching for pictures of the beach will miss out on your post if you don’t take your recent beach photo with “beach” or “ocean.” And if your page has some focus on the beach, or if the user finds your overall blog interesting, you will have also missed out on a potential follower.

Thus, it is best to tag each and every one of your posts extensively for any related search terms you might think of someone using that could be interested in what you posted.

3.) Pace your posts

One thing that you definitely want to avoid is a bad pace when posting to a tumblelog. Since tumblelogs and microblogs are constantly changing, going for a long time without posting and then flooding your blog with content is not a good way to garner followers.

If you find you can’t log on regularly enough to keep a good flow of posts going, pick one day out of the week and schedule your posts for the rest of the week (most tumblelogs these days, including Tumblr, offer this feature).

One or two posts a day ought to do, although be warned that you won’t be able to post about a breaking story or content if you did not log in that day.

4.) Interact With Your Followers

People like getting attention for their content. Isn’t that the whole idea behind this post and using tumblelogs? So, in order to give back a little to your followers, and to encourage them to stick around to following your tumblelog, interact with their content a little.

All it takes is checking out a new follower’s page and liking a post of their’s that you find interesting, or asking them a question you think that they would enjoy answering and elaborating on.

It’s best to have your blog come off as an interaction and portrayal of yourself, not just another page where content is posted automatically without a human component. People like when there is a personality behind the blog.

5.) Inform Your Other Networks

This is the best way to garner instant followers, especially if you are already somewhat experience with blogging or social networks and just want to get the most out of Tumblr’s recent surge in popularity.

You can have an absolutely huge surge of new followers if you have been building an email list all of this time via other means, but it’s okay if you haven’t, you can start now, and there are other networks on which to notify your followers of your Tumblr.

Inform your followers and friends on your more established social sites, such as your Facebook, Twitter, or other traditional blogs that you may run (such as on Blogger, TypePad, or WordPress).

Let them knowthat you will be updating a tumblelog on Tumblr on topics related to your interests and common themes that you post about, and many of the followers you have already will be glad to check it out.

6.) Connect With Other Blogs

Reblogging content you find interesting on other Tumblr pages and adding your own spin to things (via an additional description) will often attract people to your page.

Already established tumblelogs on Tumblr can have many thousands of followers, and connecting with these blogs can be great for your new Tumblr page, as people interested in the same topics you are will already be viewing them.

So don’t be scared to reblog a view things and add your own thoughts to it, comment, and ask questions/send messages to other Tumblr users and established blogs. It will help you not only attract an audience, but attract an audience with similar tastes to yourself.

7.) Source Your Original Content

Adding a link back to your blog or small watermark to your original content can be a great way to bring people back to your blog.

Watermarking or adding a source link to photos is especially useful if you feel like your content will be popular amongst Tumblr users.

To give an example, one image I posted on Tumblr has currently been reblogged 13,000+ times, and since I added a small watermark (don’t make it big or intrusive) at the bottom of the photo, I was able to have hundreds of people check my page out and follow me for more.

So if you post a lot of original content, it’s okay to source yourself, just don’t make your watermark or links back too obvious or desperate, as it will decrease the likelihood that people will check out your page for more.

I hope this guide was useful for you. If it was, please feel free to share it with your followers. Thanks for reading!