Tumblr Cars: Ranking Position #1 and #9

How weird. I just apologized for my inabilty and stated I still have to learn how to use Tumblr. But something must have went right: Tumblr just ranked two of my blogs in their "#cars" top ten (link only works for logged in users). The Dodge Charger III Concept—source: Amcar Guide—went on first place, the 1970 Pininfarina Modulo, which I found at Flavien Dachet's always inspiring "Karznshit", ended up on position nine.

This is funny. I started using Tumblr as my personal scrapbook and moodboard, used it later as a workaround to collect inspiring sources for our Chromjuwelen Grid, but never checked whether my articles are liked by the Tumblr community. All the more I am surprised to find my articles in Tumblr's "Popular Top Ten".

But to make it clear: It was the Amcar Guide, who wrote the article about the Dodge Charger III Concept. And it was Flavien Dachet, who presented the Pininifarina Modulo. This means: The kudos belong to them!  

I failed at tumblr

I just received an e-mail from one of my best-loved blogs, Just A Car Guy, that I reblog articles without quoting the sources right. I am a loser.

One of the biggest and outrageous blogging mistakes is not naming the sources—blogs, flickr, profiles—where you dig your stuff. I hate it when people are doing this with my stuff. But this is exactly what I did, so it seems.

I use my tumblr to dig articles which inspire me. We import those articles to Chromjuwelen.com as well. I relied on my workaround that everything would be fine. But it is not.

With this post I would like to apologize for my failure.

Do You Have A Gear Philosophy?

Oh gosh, I love my Rolex Submariner. Without that bubble for date magnification, of course. A date display is always the best indication for a faked one—or did you ever see a faked Oyster Perpetual without "Cyclops"? Also I really, really love money clips. At the moment I use a clip which I got from Jesse James, with his "Pay Up Sucker" claim engraved on it, but I think I have to order another one here. Lighter? A worn Jack Daniel's Zippo, what else. And before I switched to Evernote, I used Moleskine or Muji notebooks to get things out of my mind. Pen? A Mont Blanc Masterpiece. And do I have to mention I dig electronic gadgets like the iPhone? I am far away from being a fan boy, but especially the iPhone is one of my favorite cameras. No, I am NOT kidding.

How could it happen I missed The Gaer Journal? And EDC? What a bummer.

Btw, Ryan Cochran, the genius behind "Atomic Indstry" (The Jalopy Journal ("H.A.M.B."), The Jockey Journal, The Garage Journal, The Gear Journal, The Ford Barn) just rolled out a new magazine: DOGFIGHT. This means ... this means ... more breathtaking stuff to fill up my Tumblr Mood Board!

(Note to self: I have to get myself a knife ...)

SEO, SMO and Motorkultur. Err ... what?

As I mentioned before, I've just fallen in love with Tumblr. I know—under SEO (Search Engine Optimization) aspects it isn't really clever to share your stuff on several platforms. But as we all just learned: SEO isn't everything, in lieu thereof SMO (Social Media Optimization) becomes more and more important. Especially if you deal with a special interest topic like car passion.

Imho SMO is CRUCIAL if you want to reach the right people. To speak from my own experience: I follow a lot of "trust agents". Which means: I read their blogs and follow their Twitter. In short: Really awesome and inspiring stuff isn't brought to me by search engines. And as my partner Chris philosophizes: "It can't be the interest of search engines that everyone out there is writing/producing search engine "correct". It must be more in everyone's interest that search engines digg really inspiring stuff—which is seldom SEO correctly produced. Or—btw—don't you ever have had that creeping feeling that you only find stuff via search engines which is produced by companies with big SEO budgets? Well, I do. Every day.

Any way. Buzzword bingo switched off. I just changed the template on my Tumblr, and with that new (free!) layout comes a tiny archive button. This function was new to me, but what I found behind that link really blew my mind. It's a thumbnail mosaic of my tumblered articles. Ok, the pages takes a moment to get loaded, but it's a nice little feature which I would love to have on my other—really content heavy—site(s) as well. It just gives you an intutive approach to content, which I actually miss on several sites. Especially when I am en tour with my iPad, where a "nornal" hypertext navigation hits the wall.

Maybe this doesn't impress you, but it exactly matches with some thoughts about an all-embracing Chromjuwelen.com weight-loss program. Also it solves another problem: Thumbnails are language independent, so you don't have to read my German School English any longer ...

Tumblr: I Just Can't Get Enough

If you hang around at the internet 24/7, and Google Reader is one of your "always on" services, you will involuntarily get overwhelmed with breathtaking pictures. 

I am subscribed to almost 500 sources, but unfortunately my day has got only 24 hours. So it's completely impossible to blog all those awesome treasures. So—what to do? Download and steal 'em (no way) ... throw 'em on Facebook ... or bookmark 'em? Hmm. Not easy.

Some time ago I started playing around with Tumblr, which is some sort of microblogging. But much more in a graphical way. It seems Tumblr exactly solves that problem: it let's you blog stuff when passing. Also you can both follow other Tumblr blogs and "reblog" stuff. I decided to give Tumblr a try. Check it out and tell me what you think!

Btw, "Facebook": I failed. Call me a dud bomb. I thought it would be possible to quit, but it isn't. Not if you—as I do—earn your money with "Web 3.0" or Social Media stuff (oh ... Buzzword Bingo!). So I had to bring back my Facebook account. Darn!