One of my biggest issues with Tumblr is the way they handle analytics. If you don't spend a couple minutes ahead of time setting up filters, you end up seeing all your own visits to a ton of admin pages like edit, themes, new and a few others. They make it pretty hard to accurately track your metrics.
Tumblr Leaves Posterous in the Dust
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Re: Tumblr Leaves Posterous in the Dust
#32One of my biggest issues with Tumblr is the way they handle analytics. If you don't spend a couple minutes ahead of time setting up filters, you end up seeing all your own visits to a ton of admin pages like edit, themes, new and a few others. They make it pretty hard to accurately track your metrics.
Of course, with Posterous, you can't track your metrics at all, unless you use Google Analytics. Any JS embedding, including tracking snippets are not supported.
Re: Tumblr Leaves Posterous in the Dust
#33I've got to admit to taking a certain guilty pleasure in these numbers after Posterous' last campaign to get switchers. They were pompous, arrogent, and unnecessarily slagged on their competition. I'm pleased to see that such nasty tactics (apparently) paid little dividends.
I was actually about to use Posterous, but the campaign brought my attention to Tumblr, which previously I thought was just a tumble-log, not a blog with complete features.
After checking out Tumblr, it was not clear to me that Posterous was the better product and there were some issues with DDOS attacks at the same time. Also I saw two other people I knew using Tumblr as well.
If Posterous really became the clear-cut best blogging platform someday, I could always switch over with the switch tool, so the decision to use Tumblr for now was an easy one.
Re: Tumblr Leaves Posterous in the Dust
#34I've got to admit to taking a certain guilty pleasure in these numbers after Posterous' last campaign to get switchers. They were pompous, arrogent, and unnecessarily slagged on their competition. I'm pleased to see that such nasty tactics (apparently) paid little dividends.
Leave Posterous in the dust?...please.
Posterous is still superior in my opinion, regardless of users or traffic. It's the simplest, most intuitive platform I've used to date. Their source editor is sweet too. If I need to add some links, or change the entire template, I can, very easily... seems like it's user and hacker focused. No clutter, and they give complete control.
I'm not saying Tumblr does not have these traits, frankly, last time I used Tumblr was years ago, but no reason to write an article that assumes there is some kind of "finish line."
"pompous, arrogant, and unnecessarily slagged on their competition" Come on dude! Are they supposed to do it any different? Their "Import/Switch to" campaign was very creative, aggressive, and got a lot of new sign ups. I took notes, instead of complain...
Re: Tumblr Leaves Posterous in the Dust
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. Also, tumblr is full of NSFW blogs and that's a huge boost in visits.
That point is exactly the first thing I thought of when I read the article. How much of Tumblr's traffic is for "photo blogs" of naked girls? Based on what I've observed, probably a good amount. Not that that traffic is somehow invalid, but I think it makes the comparison a bit more apples-to-oranges.
Not exactly apples to oranges, because that doesn't make the community argument invalid. It's the fun of exploring content on Tumblr that made it possible to grow a network of erotic photoblogs (and not only erotic, check all the 'f*yeahsomething' categories, all kind of lols and such). I didn't bother to check if Posterous' TOS somehow block such content, but still if it was there, currently it's not so easy to find and follow as on Tumblr.
Re: Tumblr Leaves Posterous in the Dust
#36The two metrics that the article is based on are the number of visitors to the services homepage. On Tumblr you login to the website to post content, Posterous on the other hand uses email and so doesn't get its members visiting all the time to post new content. I think this article is flawed.
tumblr also allows posting by email, not to mention large amount of desktop publishing software that can be used to publish posts on tumblr. I have never used the tumblr homepage to publish blog post and I know quite a few people who doesn't do it either.
They do not advertise that feature as much though, and by using email, wouldn't you miss out on at least some of their main social networking selling point?
A lot of what makes them popular can only be found on their site. You don't get any engineering vibe from them, they project a very sensitive image that appeals to the heart. By not visiting their site, you are not participating.
I think the posterous offering is not diluted by email posting, and it would at least appear to me to make more sense if more people on posterous use email posting.
Re: Tumblr Leaves Posterous in the Dust
#37I evaluated both of these platforms without really thinking that either were competing with each other (although, I guess it's obvious). I found that, yes, Tumblr is huge, more user friendly and community driven, but it's also over-run with 13 year olds posting Twilight pictures, whereas Posterous just felt a little more focused on the single user blogging experience. A lot less clique-influenced. I liked that. It's disheartening to know they're going for the same things Tumblr is.
Re: Tumblr Leaves Posterous in the Dust
#38"Celebrities and big media sites" listed as key to tumblr's recent explosion? No, the secret is the service allowing a HUGE forest of porn compilation sites such as http://art-or-porn.tumblr.com/ and many like it.
What exactly do you mean by "the secret is the service allowing a HUGE forest of porn compilation sites"? That is, does Tumblr actively do something to help porn compilation sites use their service, or do they simply not ban them? Also, since I often see this mentioned as a difference, does Posterous do something to block porn (however strictly)? I suppose my real question is "Sure, Tumblr has a lock on the porn mark…
http://www.tumblr.com/directory/erotica (NSFW, FYI)
I guess you could argue erotica isn't porn, but yes, they like it. The notion actually extends beyond sexually explicit material, as many popular tumblelogs in the directory has porn or something that alludes to porn in their title even though they have nothing to do with sex.
Re: Tumblr Leaves Posterous in the Dust
#39I evaluated both of these platforms without really thinking that either were competing with each other (although, I guess it's obvious). I found that, yes, Tumblr is huge, more user friendly and community driven, but it's also over-run with 13 year olds posting Twilight pictures, whereas Posterous just felt a little more focused on the single user blogging experience. A lot less clique-influenced. I liked that. It's…
That is something I've found, it is possible that the posterous user base can be more easily monetised than the tumblr mainly because on average they actually have money too spend. They both seem to lack a real revenue model currently.
Re: Tumblr Leaves Posterous in the Dust
#40I've got to admit to taking a certain guilty pleasure in these numbers after Posterous' last campaign to get switchers. They were pompous, arrogent, and unnecessarily slagged on their competition. I'm pleased to see that such nasty tactics (apparently) paid little dividends.
Leave Posterous in the dust?...please. Posterous is still superior in my opinion, regardless of users or traffic. It's the simplest, most intuitive platform I've used to date. Their source editor is sweet too. If I need to add some links, or change the entire template, I can, very easily... seems like it's user and hacker focused. No clutter, and they give complete control. I'm not saying Tumblr does not have these t…
Yes they are supposed to do it differently, at least if they wanted to keep me as a customer. While I use Posterous just for pushing to multiple destiantions (which it does brilliantly), I moved the primary site I was using Posterous for back to Tumblr specifically because of that campaign.
As s product manager, I've worked on switching campaigns before, but the manner in which Posterous chose to do so made me lose all faith in whether they cared about their customers or was it win at all cost.