Theme Tumblr Like a Pro eBook Review

Apparently I’ve been living under rock and didn’t realize a new tutorial ebook has published on how to make a Tumblr theme called “Theme Tumblr Like a Pro“, by Jeffery Way (at NetTuts). Now if you have read my post on How to Make a Tumblr Theme, then you should be familiar with that name already. He is the mysterious voice behind the Tumblr video tutorial located on the NetTuts. He decided to take his very  popular Tumblr Tutorial series one step further by creating a complete guide for newbie Tumblr Themers.

This is the most complete Tumblr resource book I have seen thus far. No one else has even DARED to create a Tumblr Theme Tutorial because of how intense it can be. Not only do you need a clear understanding of HTML/CSS, you will need a firm grasp of Tumblr’s custom codes and some sense of design.

Is this book better than the NetTuts Tumblr Tutorial series?

Well … yes. My biggest frustration with the NetTuts Tumblr video tutorial series is that after I finished my theme and I tried to submit my theme to Tumblr’s Theme Garden I missed a few steps and custom codes which I needed to get my theme approved. Luckily I was able to fix the problems with my Tumblr theme because of all the great information Jeffery provided, but key parts were missing. These essential elements however, are covered in the book.

Also I like the fact that with the book you can follow along with the video. With the original Tumblr video tutorial I found myself pausing and rewinding frequently to help keep up with Jeffery. He moved kind of fast through the steps, which made it tough to follow along at times.

How much does it cost?

The cost of the book is $29. Yes, it costs a bit more than the How to Make a Tumblr Theme video tutorial (which only cost’s $9), but you also get more. You get the ebook, original source files to work from and the video series. So like I said, it costs a bit more BUT, you don’t have to sign up for a subscription at NetTuts to get the tutorial, especially if you are the type that will forget to cancel the $9 payment before the next billing cycle.

What else comes in Theme Tumblr Like a Pro tutorial series?

• The fundamentals: template tags, basic structure
• Blocks
• The various post types and variables
• Build a theme
• Working with the Tumblr API
• Passing Tumblr-specific values to your JavaScript
• Adding enhanced functionality with JavaScript and the API
• A plethora of miscellaneous recipes
• Working with custom meta types to create an options panel, which then provides maximum flexibility for the user of the theme
• And plenty more…

Did you buy the book?

Yes I did. I like to try out everything I buy before I recommend it. After I made my first Tumblr theme, I realized there was still alot more I needed to know about how to make a Tumblr theme. I have a few new ideas I’m working on and I’ll update this page, once I have something to show off! lol

Click here to buy your copy of the “Theme Tumblr Like a Pro” tutorial series.

Are there any other books you recommend?

Yes! If you are new to web design, Photoshop or HTML/CSS, you should strongly consider adding the following tutorial books to your home library.

• Photoshop to Html ($29) – In “Photoshop to HTML ”, Nettuts+ editor Jeffrey Way takes you through the entire process of converting a design from Photoshop into a complete HTML /CSS website! But this is NOT just an eBook. It also comes packed with extras! You also get a directory of Photoshop, HTML and CSS files for you to use as you work through the book AND a series of 14 screencasts covering the whole project from beginning to end.
• Mastering Photoshop ($20) – Mastering Photoshop is written for advanced and intermediate designers who want to brush up on their workflow and improve their Photoshop skills. The eBook contains 178 pages, explaining fundamental techniques that Web designers need to know to produce high-quality work in Photoshop.
• How to Build a Succesful Blog Business ($39) – How to Build a Successful Blog Business is a straight forward guide to building a publishing business online that covers everything from choosing a niche to hiring staff, registering a business to selling it, finding traffic to monetizing it.

I know you’re looking at the prices and shaking your heads, right? But consider this web design is a growing field (especially since I’ve been a successful designer for more than 10 years), Tumblr (and their themes) have grown and a newbie web designer can easily create a steady stream of income buy selling Tumblr designs. Designers on NetTuts can easily make a few thousand dollars a month selling themes. In addition, selling Tumblr themes has become so popular, that even Tumblr has created a premium themes section, where users can purchase top notch Tumblr themes.

With the unexpected popularity of my first Tumbr them “Be Original“, I’ve even considered becoming a professional theme designer myself!

So good luck! If any of you try out the tutorial and have a theme you want to share, feel free to contact me. I would love to post it in my Free Tumblr Templates section! (Even if it doesn’t make it into Tumbr Theme Garden!)

Rio Theme

The Rio Theme for Tumblr has finally been finished. Well actually, it’s been finished for months, but for some reason Tumblr (and Peter Vindani) won’t add it to Tumblr’s Theme Garden. The only response I received was “Does not fit accepted Tumblr blog functionality or aesthetics.”

WTF!?!?!

Maybe it’s because I borrowed the original design from Amy and Pink’s WordPress Rio Theme, but I think the design is HOT! I even went the extra mile to contact Marcel from Amy & Pink to get permission to recreate their WordPress theme for Tumblr. So I honestly have no idea what’s the issue.

With that said, I’m releasing the theme on my own, with the hopes that you will love it just as much as I do! Let me know what you think.

About the Theme

• A fresh and funky Tumblr template
• Narrow tumblog-styled design
• Fully customizable with Appearance panel
• Easily upload new background and header images
• Header image can be replaced with a title

Additional Resources

• Free Tumblr Backgrounds

All About Tumblr Backgrounds

The reason way I love Tumblr as a content management system because of how simple it is to use and customize. One of the easiest ways to spruce up your current Tumblr template is to change your Tumblr background image. Easy enough, right? So today’s post is dedicated to helping you find some cool Tumblr backgrounds and show you how to install it.

Why Should I Change My Background?

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of Tumblr templates available online and the best way to set your tumblog apart from all the rest is by changing your Tumblr background. A new background image can easily add a bright and interesting look to your Tumblr template without much effort.

200+ Free Tumblr Backgrounds

Here I have complied a list of more than 200 hundred free Tumblr backgrounds which can be downloaded and installed into your theme within minutes.

GypsyGarden (1 pattern)

Pattern 2 (14 patterns)

Patterns 2 (6 patterns)

Textured Stripes (6 patterns)

Photoshop Pattern (4 patterns)

Pattern Part1 (9 patterns)

Patterns .24 (33 patterns)

Lace Patterns: the prelude (6 patterns)

Untitled patterns 03 (12 patterns)

Patterns .23 (33 patterns)

Green Patterns (6 patterns)

Patterns .27 (50 patterns)

Patterns 3 (6 patterns)

Softly Plaidly- Peachy Keen (11 patterns)

Black – White patterns (13 patterns)

PINKgossip_04 patterns (13 patterns)

Additional Tumblr Background Image Resources

• Over 1,002,864 user-created seamless patterns from Colour Lovers
• 1000+ Free Background Patterns
• Background Pattern Designs from Behance
• 100+ Seamless Patterns Great for Creating Website Backgrounds

How to Change a Tumblr Background

Now that you have picked out your new Tumblr background and downloaded it to your local computer, it’s time to add it to your theme. There are two ways to add a background to your Tumblr theme. I will discuss them both below.

Option 1: Appearance Panel

If you can add a new background through your Tumblr Customize > Appearance Panel choose this option.

1. Login into your Tumblr account and click CUSTOMIZE in the right side of your dashboard.
   
2. When the customization section opens, click APPEARANCE at the top of the page.
3. When the panel opens you simply click the UPLOAD button to select your theme from your local computer and you’re done! If you have the option for repeating your background choose “repeat-y” if you pattern needs to repeat vertically (from top to bottom). Select “repeat-x”, if you background need to repeat horizontally (from left to right). Choose “repeat-xy”, if you image needs to repeat both vertically and horizontally. You can also choose “no-repeat”, if you have a really large background image that doesn’t need to be repeated.

Option 2: Hand-coding Custom HTML

Use this option if you do not have the Tumblr Appearance Panel available with your theme.

1. Login into your Tumblr account
2. You will need to upload your new background image onto Tumblr’s Static Image Server
3. After uploading your file, make note of your image url. You can copy it to NotePad or SimpleText for safe keeping.
4. Return to your Tumblr Dashboard and click CUSTOMIZE in the right side of your dashboard.
5. Select THEME from the top menu.Click the USE CUSTOM HTML buttonLook for the BODY tags. This is the code we will be editing. (Your coding won’t be exactly like this, so you should look for something similar near the top of the code.)
   

   body {  background: #f8f7e5 url(wdw-bg.jpg) no-repeat center top  }

   

6. Paste your image url  into the CSS
   body {  background: #f8f7e5 url(http://safe.tumblr.com/theme/3383425/) no-repeat center top  }
7. You may need to adjust your background image by changing your background color and whether it repeats or not.
   body {  background: #f8f7e5 url(http://safe.tumblr.com/theme/3383425/) no-repeat center top  }

   Choose “repeat-y” if you pattern needs to repeat vertically (from top to bottom). Select “repeat-x”, if you background need to repeat horizontally (from left to right). Choose “repeat-xy”, if you image needs to repeat both vertically and horizontally. You can also choose “no-repeat”, if you have a really large background image that doesn’t need to be repeated.

8. Click the UPDATE PREVIEW button in order to see your changes.
9. If you are satisfied with the results click the green SAVE & CLOSE button at the top right of the page.
   
10. Your Done!

Additional Resources

• Free Tumblr Templates
• How to Setup a Free Tumblr Blog
• How to Add Google Adsense to Tumblr




How to Add Google Adsense to a Tumblr Theme

Tumblr has become the place where all the cool kids have been hanging out – and I must admit I love it too! Tumblr is cool, convenient and simple to use. I know I have talked before about how to make a Tumblr blog and the confusion over Posterous vs. Tumblr, but today I want to address something a little bit different.

It doesn’t matter what kind of website you want to start, at some point in time you will wonder about how to make money from it. Everyday people are making thousands online and you want a piece of the pie.

Adding Google Adsense is definitely an option to monetize the targeted website traffic visiting your blog. But adding Google Adsense to a Tumblr theme can be quiet tricky, since each Tumblr theme is designed differently.

In this quickie tutorial I will show you  how to add Google Adsense to a Tumblr theme with a 2 column design. For this demonstration we will using the Stationary Tumbr theme.

Have You Applied for a Google Adsense Account?

Is Your Tumblr Account Setup?

Have You Installed the Stationary Tumblr Theme?

Add Google Ads to Your Tumblr Theme

1. Login into your Tumblr account. You should be viewing your dashboard.
2. You will need to customize your current Tumblr theme, so click the Customize link in the right column.
3. Select the “THEME” tab at the top of the screen. This will open the HTML code of your current Tumblr theme. You will be adding your Google Adsense code to this custom html section.
4. Look for the following code:
   

   <div id=”sidebar”>
   <div id=”inner-sidebar”>
   <div id=”authorbox”>

5. Insert your Google Adsense script directly after:
   

   <div id=”inner-sidebar”>

6. You should check the code placement by clicking the “UPDATE PREVIEW” button at the bottom of the code window. Please note that it may take up to 10 min for your new Google Adsene code to appear.
7. Click on the “SAVE CHANGES” button once you are satisfied with the placement and want to save the changes made to your current template.

Note: Since you are making custom changes to your Tumblr theme, you should always save a copy of your current theme, by copying the custom html to a text editor on your local computer for safe keeping.

My 2 Cents About Domains

If you have had a chance to read my post on how to make a free blog, then you will know my position on free blog sites. But just in case you haven’t read this page, here’s a recap.

Free blog hosting sites (like Tumblr) are cool because:

• They’re free!
• They are super easy to setup and configure even for a beginner
• You can get started in less than 5 minutes

But they do have their disadvantages as well:

• You will not have control over your own domain name – especially if the blogging services goes out of business or decide to change the format of their URLs. The future of your blog is the hands of someone you DON’T EVEN KNOW!
• If Tumblr ever decides to close up business http://www.yourblogname.tumblr.com will no longer exist
• Your blog’s domain name holds all the authority, statistics and Pagerank and they are NOT TRANSFERABLE! If you are looking to create a brand or generate an income you will loose money and search engine traffic if you change your url later. If you decide you want to make this blog your own, you CANNOT add a domain name later. You will lose bookmarks, visitors, Pagerank, search engine ranking and MONEY! And worst of all if you ever decide to leave that blogging service for a large scale paid option and close that account, you will be left with nothing. Another person can start a blog with your previous address and take credit for all of your hard work.

How to Resolve the Domain Name Problem

All you need to do is register your domain name. Tumblr allows you to use a custom domain name with your free Tumblr account and you can get a super cheap domain name directly from Godaddy for only $1.99. Go Daddy is a trusted domain registrar, so save yourself a few headaches in the future and register a domain.

Rio and City Dreams Tumblr Themes

In addition to updating the Be Original Tumblr theme, I have also been working on a few other themes as well – Rio Theme and CityDreams, both originally designed by Amy & Pink. These have been a favorite of mine for years, but I never had a good use for them, until now.

The designs were both created for WordPress, but because of their simplicity I thought they would be great options to convert into Tumblr Themes. So stay tuned, They are both about 50% completed and should be done soon.

WordPress Versions: Rio Theme & City Dreams

Below are screenshots of my working designs. They may differ in the final version, but will essentially look just like these.

Rio Tumblr Theme

City Dreams Tumblr Theme

** disclaimer – disregard the nudity in this theme, all images are owned by Amy & Pink **

Be Original Theme Updated

First, I would like to apologize for all the people who have sent me emails about the pagination missing. This was my first theme and although the how to make a Tumblr theme NetTuts tutorial was very good, they did miss a few small features which are required in order to get your Tumblr theme publishing in the Theme Garden, one of which is pagination.

So I finally got around to updating my Be Original Tumblr theme. The pagination is simple, but fits with the design of the theme and the color can be changed within the Customize/Appearance section of you Tumblr’s admin section.

Feel free to comment below if you have any issues, I will try and get back to you as soon as possible! Thanks!

Download Latest Version

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Theme Information