
TANVIR TechnologyTalk 04 January
CONNECTING YOUR TUMBLR SECONDARY BLOGS WITH YOUR PRIMARY BLOG
We all know that Tumblr is a very important platform for hosting blogs. And to top it, it’s free. For each account with a unique E mail id, it offers you one primary blog. Than, you can create several secondary blogs under the primary blog. But, the secondary blogs are not directly connected to your primary blog.
Tumblr also offers you to have your own custom domain for your primary blog. Your custom domain, you will have to buy from a domain service provider like Godaddy, Weebly, Yahoo, Wordpress etc. To customize your primary blog, the instructions which are also present on the Tumble helpline are as follows:
“Make a configuration change in your custom domain settings, depending on the number of levels in your desired domain.
Domain configuration two levels:
Point A-record (IP address) to 66.6.44.4
Domain configuration three or more levels:
Point C NAME record to domains.tumblr.com
Its wise to do both the above steps in all cases.”
Post login steps:
“Click settings (the gear icon) at he top of your Dashboard. Click the blog you did like to update on the right side of the page. Click the pencil to the right of the username section and enable ‘use a custom domain’. Enter your domain (example tanvir.in in my case).
Click ‘Test your domain’. Correct problems if the test finds any and click ‘test your domain’ until the test is successful. Hit ‘save’. “
Though the above instructions are according to the Tumblr helpline but practically you will have to wait 24 to 48 hours before changes are propagated across the Internet and the test is successful. Wait till such time as necessary and than click ‘save’. If you are able to click ‘save’ and it resolves, it means that your Tumblr blog has now your custom domain address.
Now, even when someone visits your Tumblr URL, they will be redirected to your custom domain.
But, all this hard work of custom domaining your Tumblr URL has more purpose to it. Now your visibility to search engines and searches will increase.
But, if you have created secondary blogs under your primary blog and want visitors to access and visit these secondary blogs from your custom domain dashboard, you will have to work a bit harder.
There are two effective ways, by which you can make your secondary blogs visible on your primary blog dashboard or your custom domain dashboard, as the case may be.
1st Method:
In this method, you create a standard page. You can title it “My Secondary Blogs” or some such name. I have titled my page as “TANVIR BLOGS”.
In this method, to create a page like “TANVIR BLOGS”, you go to your primary Tumblr blog. Click on “Customize” which is an eye symbol , below posts. A rotating wheel will appear.
On the left appears a series of options, which depend on the Theme you have chosen. But, in most cases there will be on the left, ‘Appearance’ options, ‘Theme’ options and below that is “+Add a page” and last is ‘Advanced options’.
Choose and click on “+Add a page”
Standard layout / Show a link to this page ∞
www.tanvir.in/url
Page Title
Page content
A screen similar to above will appear. Click on ‘Standard layout’. Give your page a title like I have given it “TANVIR BLOGS”. Next in the page content, type the names of your secondary blogs. Like the names of my secondary blogs are TANVIR NewsAnalysis, TANVIR LifeStyle, TANVIR MedicalCare, TANVIR Sports, TANVIR SpiritualTalk, and TANVIR NatureTalk. You can type the names of your secondary blogs, one under the other.
Next, choose each secondary blog title by spreading the cursor over the secondary blog title. Next, click on the link icon above. A table will appear asking you to type the URL of the directed website, in this case your secondary blog URL. You can also choose whether it opens in the same window or new window.
Sequentially, choose each secondary blog name, click on the link icon, and type the URL of the chosen secondary blog.
Save it.
The page will appear on the dashboard of your primary blog or custom domain. Like it appears as “TANVIR BLOGS” on the dashboard of my custom URL http://www.tanvir.in
When a visitor, visits http://www.tanvir.in, it will see “TANVIR BLOGS” in the dashboard on the left. If the visitor clicks on “TANVIR BLOGS”, the page will open with names of all my secondary blogs. The visitor can click on the secondary blog name it wants to visit and the link will take it to your secondary blog.
But, your secondary blogs are not the only blogs you can include in this way. You might have other blogs on other websites and platforms and may want to attract the attention of visitors to these blogs as well.
To include such non-Tumblr blogs, the method remains the same. On the page content portion of the standard page, type sequentially the name of such non-Tumblr blogs. Spread the cursor over each such non-Tumblr blog name, choose it and next click on the link icon. A table will appear where you can type the URL of your non-Tumblr blog. Choose whether it opens in the same window or new window.
Click ‘save’.
In this way you can present to the visitor, all your secondary Tumblr blogs as well as non-Tumblr blogs on a single page.
The disadvantage of this method is that on the dashboard, the name of the page, like “TANVIR BLOGS” is not very prominent and gives very little information as to the contents. The advantage is that it acquires very little space on the dashboard and is easy to make.
If you wish to make your secondary blogs look more prominent and show as separate entities on the dashboard, you can go for this second method.
2nd Method:
Till you choose “+Add a page”, the steps remain the same as above. A window like below will appear
Standard layout / Show a link to this page
www.tanvir.in/url
Page Title
Page Content
In the second method, you choose and click on the right side of the window, which shows the text ‘show a link to this page’. Type your page title, which will also appear in the ‘show a link to this page’ window on upper right. The page title can be the name of your secondary Tumblr blog.
In the second row, you see your primary blog URL or custom domain URL slash url. In my case since www.tanvir.in is the custom domain, so the second row appears as www.tanvir.in/url. In place of url, type the URL of your secondary blog which should begin with www and http:// is omitted. You can also type the URL of your non-Tumblr blog as well.
In the window, in blue above is ‘save’ button option and on right of that is ‘update preview’ button. If your URL and other things are in order, clicking on ‘save’ button, the ‘save’ button will disappear.
Also, the page title will appear on the dashboard of your primary blog or custom domain. You can also add a short description of your secondary blog in the ‘page content’ area. Since you cannot leave this area blank, you can retype the full URL of your secondary blog if you do not want to add any description.
As you continue to add your secondary Tumblr blogs by this method, they will continue to appear on the dashboard of your primary blog or custom domain in sequence.
This way, a visitor to your Tumblr primary blog or custom domain will see the names of your secondary Tumblr blogs and non-Tumblr blogs in the dashboard.
But, clicking on the name of your secondary blog is not going to take them to your secondary blog but will open a window with the name of your secondary blog and a link URL below it. Clicking on the link URL will take the visitor to your Tumblr secondary blog or a non-Tumblr blog as the case may be. Instead of the link URL, you can type the name of your blog gain or a little detail about it.
In this way, you can have your Tumblr secondary blogs and even non-tumblr blogs appear on the dashboard of your primary blog or your custom domain, http://www.tanvir.in in my case.
Wish you happy tumbling!
Wish you a happy Mesopotamian New Year 2015!
COPYRIGHT © TANVIR NEBUCHADNEZAR
All Rights Tanvir Nebuchadnezar
CONNECTING YOUR TUMBLR SECONDARY BLOGS WITH YOUR PRIMARY BLOG
We all know that Tumblr is a very important platform for hosting blogs. And to top it, it’s free. For each account with a unique E mail id, it offers you one primary blog. Than, you can create several secondary blogs under the primary blog. But, the secondary blogs are not directly connected to your primary blog.
Tumblr also offers you to have your own custom domain for your primary blog. Your custom domain, you will have to buy from a domain service provider like Godaddy, Weebly, Yahoo, Wordpress etc. To customize your primary blog, the instructions which are also present on the Tumble helpline are as follows:
“Make a configuration change in your custom domain settings, depending on the number of levels in your desired domain.
Domain configuration two levels:
Point A-record (IP address) to 66.6.44.4
Domain configuration three or more levels:
Point C NAME record to domains.tumblr.com
Its wise to do both the above steps in all cases.”
Post login steps:
“Click settings (the gear icon) at he top of your Dashboard. Click the blog you did like to update on the right side of the page. Click the pencil to the right of the username section and enable ‘use a custom domain’. Enter your domain (example tanvir.in in my case).
Click ‘Test your domain’. Correct problems if the test finds any and click ‘test your domain’ until the test is successful. Hit ‘save’. “
Though the above instructions are according to the Tumblr helpline but practically you will have to wait 24 to 48 hours before changes are propagated across the Internet and the test is successful. Wait till such time as necessary and than click ‘save’. If you are able to click ‘save’ and it resolves, it means that your Tumblr blog has now your custom domain address.
Now, even when someone visits your Tumblr URL, they will be redirected to your custom domain.
But, all this hard work of custom domaining your Tumblr URL has more purpose to it. Now your visibility to search engines and searches will increase.
But, if you have created secondary blogs under your primary blog and want visitors to access and visit these secondary blogs from your custom domain dashboard, you will have to work a bit harder.
There are two effective ways, by which you can make your secondary blogs visible on your primary blog dashboard or your custom domain dashboard, as the case may be.
1st Method:
In this method, you create a standard page. You can title it “My Secondary Blogs” or some such name. I have titled my page as “TANVIR BLOGS”.
In this method, to create a page like “TANVIR BLOGS”, you go to your primary Tumblr blog. Click on “Customize” which is an eye symbol , below posts. A rotating wheel will appear.
On the left appears a series of options, which depend on the Theme you have chosen. But, in most cases there will be on the left, ‘Appearance’ options, ‘Theme’ options and below that is “+Add a page” and last is ‘Advanced options’.
Choose and click on “+Add a page”
Standard layout / Show a link to this page ∞
www.tanvir.in/url
Page Title
Page content
A screen similar to above will appear. Click on ‘Standard layout’. Give your page a title like I have given it “TANVIR BLOGS”. Next in the page content, type the names of your secondary blogs. Like the names of my secondary blogs are TANVIR NewsAnalysis, TANVIR LifeStyle, TANVIR MedicalCare, TANVIR Sports, TANVIR SpiritualTalk, and TANVIR NatureTalk. You can type the names of your secondary blogs, one under the other.
Next, choose each secondary blog title by spreading the cursor over the secondary blog title. Next, click on the link icon above. A table will appear asking you to type the URL of the directed website, in this case your secondary blog URL. You can also choose whether it opens in the same window or new window.
Sequentially, choose each secondary blog name, click on the link icon, and type the URL of the chosen secondary blog.
Save it.
The page will appear on the dashboard of your primary blog or custom domain. Like it appears as “TANVIR BLOGS” on the dashboard of my custom URL http://www.tanvir.in
When a visitor, visits http://www.tanvir.in, it will see “TANVIR BLOGS” in the dashboard on the left. If the visitor clicks on “TANVIR BLOGS”, the page will open with names of all my secondary blogs. The visitor can click on the secondary blog name it wants to visit and the link will take it to your secondary blog.
But, your secondary blogs are not the only blogs you can include in this way. You might have other blogs on other websites and platforms and may want to attract the attention of visitors to these blogs as well.
To include such non-Tumblr blogs, the method remains the same. On the page content portion of the standard page, type sequentially the name of such non-Tumblr blogs. Spread the cursor over each such non-Tumblr blog name, choose it and next click on the link icon. A table will appear where you can type the URL of your non-Tumblr blog. Choose whether it opens in the same window or new window.
Click ‘save’.
In this way you can present to the visitor, all your secondary Tumblr blogs as well as non-Tumblr blogs on a single page.
The disadvantage of this method is that on the dashboard, the name of the page, like “TANVIR BLOGS” is not very prominent and gives very little information as to the contents. The advantage is that it acquires very little space on the dashboard and is easy to make.
If you wish to make your secondary blogs look more prominent and show as separate entities on the dashboard, you can go for this second method.
2nd Method:
Till you choose “+Add a page”, the steps remain the same as above. A window like below will appear
Standard layout / Show a link to this page
www.tanvir.in/url
Page Title
Page Content
In the second method, you choose and click on the right side of the window, which shows the text ‘show a link to this page’. Type your page title, which will also appear in the ‘show a link to this page’ window on upper right. The page title can be the name of your secondary Tumblr blog.
In the second row, you see your primary blog URL or custom domain URL slash url. In my case since www.tanvir.in is the custom domain, so the second row appears as www.tanvir.in/url. In place of url, type the URL of your secondary blog which should begin with www and http:// is omitted. You can also type the URL of your non-Tumblr blog as well.
In the window, in blue above is ‘save’ button option and on right of that is ‘update preview’ button. If your URL and other things are in order, clicking on ‘save’ button, the ‘save’ button will disappear.
Also, the page title will appear on the dashboard of your primary blog or custom domain. You can also add a short description of your secondary blog in the ‘page content’ area. Since you cannot leave this area blank, you can retype the full URL of your secondary blog if you do not want to add any description.
As you continue to add your secondary Tumblr blogs by this method, they will continue to appear on the dashboard of your primary blog or custom domain in sequence.
This way, a visitor to your Tumblr primary blog or custom domain will see the names of your secondary Tumblr blogs and non-Tumblr blogs in the dashboard.
But, clicking on the name of your secondary blog is not going to take them to your secondary blog but will open a window with the name of your secondary blog and a link URL below it. Clicking on the link URL will take the visitor to your Tumblr secondary blog or a non-Tumblr blog as the case may be. Instead of the link URL, you can type the name of your blog gain or a little detail about it.
In this way, you can have your Tumblr secondary blogs and even non-tumblr blogs appear on the dashboard of your primary blog or your custom domain, http://www.tanvir.in in my case.
Wish you happy tumbling!
Wish you a happy Mesopotamian New Year 2015!
COPYRIGHT © TANVIR NEBUCHADNEZAR
All Rights Tanvir Nebuchadnezar