I have already covered some Tumblr tips & tricks that can assist you out with your blogging experience. Besides, I featured some tools & extensions to get the most out of Tumblr. But I bet you did not know that there are limitations on what you can do on Tumblr; for example, you can merely post a certain number of posts per day. When you hit that limit, you would have to wait until the next day to continue posting.
Furthermore, Tumblr lists some of these limitations on its Help page, but some are less than official. This article will uncover some of these limits that range from the tags you can track & fan mail you can send. Regardless of whether you’re a potential power Tumblr user or a sporadic one at best, here are few things you might do not know about using Tumblr.
1. Can Track Only 20 Tags
Limitation – Once it comes to tracking tags, some users track some tags to keep up with new content. The tracked tags will display how many recent posts are posted with that tag since the last time you have checked. Remember that reblogged posts do not get tracked, and if you’re tracking more than 20 tags, you will not get to see the number of recent posts that carry your tracked tag.
What you should do – Obviously, you should track 20 tags for tag tracking to be effective. And do some house-keeping by untracking tags that no longer interest you or track selectively. Although you could not care less about the post count, you probably track all the tags you want.
2. Limited To 250 Posts/Day
Limitation – You can never have ample posts on your Tumblr blog. Well, not in a day anyway. You can merely post a total of 250 posts daily. It includes reblogs, and the number applies to the cumulative posts on both your primary & secondary blogs. Tumblr will reset the posted limit merely when it hits midnight Eastern Time, as its headquarters is based in New York.
What you can do – In case, for some reason, you hit the 250 limits, you can do one of 2 things: wait until Tumblr resets itself, or you can queue your posts for the next day. The Queue would not be posted on the same day if you have hit your daily post limit (see below), so you must ensure to give it a time for the following day, or your post probably is lost. In case you need to check how many posts you’ve left, just enter your Tumblr username at Post Limit Checker. The tool even tells you the time left until the next reset.
3. Optimum-Res At 500×750 pixels
Limitation – Either they come in a post of their own or a photo set, there’s an optimum size for photos to display nicely and well. The usual photo size on a dashboard is 500 x 750 pixels, & the maximum size you can upload an image is 1280 x 1290 pixels. Additionally, photos bigger than 500 x 750 will be viewed in a lightbox once clicked.
What you can do – In case you share photos heavily on Tumblr, it’s obvious to keep the image sizes to the recommended 500 x 750 pixels so that your images will not be scaled down. Also, note that from the 250 posts-per-day limits, 150 of those can be photo posts. If you have any problem uploading photos, refer here for troubleshooting options. This article offers a comprehensive guide to the different photo sizes on Tumblr.
4. Cannot Go Private With Primary Blogs
Limitation – There is a saying on the Internet that the Internet stays on the Internet. Although if you delete it, someone might have seen and saved the screenshot and may resurrect it. It holds true on Tumblr once you post on your primary blog as you can’t privatize its contents; everything is made public. Apart from that, multiple authors can’t contribute posts to your primary blog.
What you can do – Here’s when Tumblr’s secondary blogs shine. Secondary blogs enable you to receive a contribution from multiple authors, and you can add password protection to its content. There is even a function that will allow you to set specific posts as private before posting them. Top of all, although you’re limited to just one primary blog per URL, there’s no limitation to how many secondary blogs you will own. Though, you can merely create 10 per day (which is more than you required, really).
5. Heavy GIFs Cannot Move
Limitation – Move on to GIFs, GIFs maketh Tumblr as you will find all kinds of GIFs here with users who specialize in making them. If you come across a GIF that does not quite work correctly, the file size allowed has been exceeded. In case a GIF is more than 2MB, Tumblr will automatically turn the first frame of the GIF into a static image.
What you can do – If you prefer making GIFs, you’ll do well to heed the size limits. The maximum GIF size was bumped up from 1MB to 1.75MB and within 500 pixels (which is the best news as most GIF makers attest to their 500 pixels GIFs having better quality). And if your GIF exceeds the size limit, try to save the post in drafts first to see if the animation loads. If it does not, you must take some time to reduce the file size to workable limits.
6. Queue Only 50 Posts/Day
Limitation – Queueing posts is an art form by itself. You would want to stagger posts not to overwhelm your followers. You can queue & publish up to 50 posts on the same day. Of course, it is included in the 250 posts per day limits, but if you’re going to be away for a time, you can queue up to 300 posts to be released across some days.
What you can do – Remember that if you somehow exceeded the 250 limits, but your queue is still ongoing, you will lose the remaining posts scheduled for the day. Rather than trying to beat the Queue limit, you can save your posts as drafts. When your Queue count is under the limit again, you can then move those drafts to Queue.
7. More Than five Tags Lead To Phantom Tags
Limitation – Tags, as most of you know, serve to keep track of things & function as a way to discover new content. If an original post contains more than five tags, merely the first five tags are searchable from the dashboard. With Tumblr’s new search, the sixth tag & beyond are searchable, unless you’re using the old tag page.
What you should do, this tip is for the regular tag commenters. If you wish others to search for your post, you should hold off your comments until after the fifth tag and tag wisely if you want your post to be found. The ‘phantom’ tag phenomenon doesn’t affect searching the tag from inside your blog. So, for a better way of searching tags, just type http://username.tumblr.com/tagged/insert-tag/.
8. Ask 10 Questions/Hour
Limitation – Mostly, Tumblr users communicate via ‘Ask.’ For ‘Ask’ to work, it needs to be enabled, & you can have the option of allowing anonymous asks. However, when someone asks anonymously, the recipient can merely reply publicly. Possibly to reduce spam, you can request only ten questions per hour (of which five can be anonymous). You’ll also have to adhere to a character limit of 500 characters.
What you should do – If you have used up your Ask quota, you can use the alternative way of communication is Fan Mail. So, FanMail is the official messaging function on Tumblr. Your message will be as long as you wish, and you can also send links to others. There’s one slight setback, though. You can merely send Fan Mail after you have been following a user for at least 48 hours. But once you have passed that limitation, you can send Fan Mail up to 500 times a day.