Themed blogs will always get more followers.
when I made my "horror" blog it got over 500 followers in the first 10 days. 2 years later I'm at almost 2000 followers. I could probably have more if I still actively posted, but I kind of fell off the tumblr train at the moment.
do you have a theme you're trying to roll with or are you just posting whatever?
Set up Queues
Find your own pictures from sources other than tumblr.
Interact with other blogs
Interact with followers
Make sure your layout works properly and is entertaining to look at
If you have a music player, put it at 20% default volume if it auto-plays
Don't forget to tag all of your posts
the more tags you have on a post the more people will get that post returned in their searches
download "Missing e" as a browser add on for tumblr and you will have a much easier time running your blog
So first and foremost you have to understand that Tumblr is often an escape from judgment for a lot of people. Its a social networking site in a sense, but its more of an expression of yourself through media such as words, pictures (moving and not movie) and/or both pictures and words. So tumblr is not a place like Twitter or Facebook where you are going to follow only your friends, you are going to follow random people you have never met and probably will never meet because you like what they post/reblog and since you want that stuff on your blog to express your own self, you are going to have to follow them.
Also be warned of groups of people who share a common unhealthy interest in something or someone and they are very easily triggered to try and justify their liking of that thing or that person without any logic involved at all, and they post in packs like wolves. These groups of people are called Fandoms and they just about rule everything on tumblr that isn't hipster crap like just a floral sample or just a girl in high waisted shorts and a flannel top with tons of cleavage or stuff like that. An example is the group of people that love the show Supernatural, they are called the SPN Fandom, and those who like the show Doctor Who are called Whovians.
Next you need to learn that following people helps gain you followers which further helps your blog become whatever you want it to be. Also, using someone's photo without their consent is one of the golden rules you don't break. I hope you are older than 12.9 or else you need to report to Wheenie Hut Tumblr in order to rightfully use Tumblr because we don't really accept 12.9 year olds and they have voice their opinion about it too.
All in all accept everyone for what they post and don't be mean to others because this is there escape from that bs so don't come in and ruin the vibes. Also, post what you want but you need to follow other blogs in order for your dashboard to be full of new posts because you can only see posts of the people you follow on your dashboard (which is like your homepage for other sites). You can edit your theme by clicking on your URL (the custom link that ends with .tumblr.com that you create) that is on the right side of the top of the dashboard right under "Search Tumblr" then once you see your own blog you can click "Edit Appearance" in the top right hand corner and you can choose from pre made themes or search them on google like you would for Myspace back in the day where you paste it into the code. Just post whatever you want follow people to view more posts. And to search for something specific use the "Search Tumblr" search bar and it will search tags and posts and you can follow the blogs of the searched posts that appear. Just have fun with it most of all.
i just started tumblr but i have no idea whats happening
