Starting a fashion blog is not always as simple as one, two, three – but platforms like Tumblr and WordPress do help in making it a little easier.
Luckily they are both fairly easy to use and provide many options for templates as well as customization. The tough part is choosing which platform fits your needs and wants for the perfect place to host your vivid content.
Cost
In short, Tumblr is free and WordPress is not.
However, if you care less about having your own domain used then you could use the free wordpress.com site instead of wordpress.org. This is definitely not advised as there are less options for customization and limited features.
With WordPress.org the cost is not for the site, but for the hosting, design and development of customizing it.
Note: Tumblr cannot be hosted elsewhere. The blog would be hosted on Tumblr itself.
Customization
WordPress is scalable and can be customized with widgets and custom CSS to a full blown out website if desired.
WordPress easily supports widgets and plugins which can be added simply without worrying about hard coding, while Tumblr must be custom coded for similar functionality and plugins.
SEO Optimization
Both platforms are great for SEO as bloggers/authors can fine-tune their posts with keywords and tags and meta data for search.
On WordPress you can add plugins to optimize further. And WordPress can host ads too.
So unless your website, from where you can direct traffic to your blog, already has a large traffic flow it is helpful to have this SEO advantage from WordPress.
Social
While Tumblr required more help with customization, WordPress needs plugins and help for social integration. Usually a widget is needed, while with Tumblr the integration is built in.
For example you can take a picture on Instagram, publish directly to Tumblr, which then distributes to your Twitter and Facebook channels directly. Simple and convenient.
Additionally, rather than creating a community and trying to get people to your blog, Tumblr is already a community; you are joining it as soon as you start your blog.
Bonus Tip!
If you choose to go with Tumblr – don’t forget that there is not a built in comment section. You’ll need to add a comment widget like Disqus. Luckily both Tumblr and Disqus make it simple and the steps are very easy to follow.
In the end you need to decide what your first and most important needs are and then determine which blogging platform would be best to fulfill those. Have fun!
Christen Schneider
One thing that I’ve heard discussed in this debate is also the question of who hosts your content. If you have to host it yourself (like wordpress.org) It does cost you $5-15 a month, but you own and manage all of your content. If you are on a free hosted blog site, many of the sites technically own all of the content you post. If they shut down access or anything else like that, there’s nothing you can do.
I settled on WordPress for my sites and I love it. There is a learning curve if you haven’t done that sort of thing before, but you can get a fantastic site out of it. It’s great to have your company site and blog all managed in the same place.
Nicole Giordano
Great point, Christen! The ownership issue is a big one, for sure.
Thanks for your feedback.
Pam Sahota
If you have more questions re: the two you can also tweet at me at @pamsahota. Glad you liked my post!
Sharon
I love that you wrote this article– SO needed by SO many. Thanks!
Nicole Giordano
Thanks Sharon! @PamSahota, one of our marketing contributors, knows her stuff!
So glad you found it helpful. 🙂
Dolly Donshey
I tried out wordpress but settled on tumblr. I like how connected tumblr is already and how I can link my other social media platforms to it easily. I am terrible at technology and it takes me a while to learn things but I love how easy tumblr is to navigate and use. I like using tumblr to post design inspiration photos and to show my followers my interests and updates. It gets my followers excited about whatever collection I have coming up.
houseofdonshey.tumblr.com
Nicole Giordano
Excellent points, Dolly! Yes, for those not so technology inclined, Tumblr is a great choice… assuming you’re OK with not customizing the layout too much. 😉
Dolly Donshey
I had my graphics guy do me up a banner and chose a minimalistic theme so my tumblr looks very clean and organized but also shows a little of my brand image at the top with some photos from some editorials and my logo. So although it is not a full website layout, I feel it gets the job done for what I need. Like your blog post said, it’s all based on your needs and what you are looking for. If I was to start a full fledged fashion blog I would go with wordpress but as a designer using it as a tool to aid in other things, tumblr works great!
:]
Nicole Giordano
You’re right, as a supporting tool, Tumblr is fantastic!