Blogging platform Tumblr is rolling out ads on Thursday, and it wants to share the generated revenue with its bloggers.
Tumblr has had advertising for a while, such as sponsored posts and videos and Gemini native ads, but its sales haven't quite skyrocketed. In the aftermath of Verizon's $4.8 billion Yahoo acquisition, Yahoo-owned Tumblr is now looking to shake things up and its bloggers will start getting a cut from paid promotions.
This means that if you have a popular Tumblr blog, you will soon be able to start making money from it. If you want, that is. Tumblr bloggers who would rather not commercialize their blog can pass on this feature and keep their blog personal. Those who want to opt-out of on-blog advertising can do so in Settings.
Tumblr notes that some of its users have already managed to monetize their passions with the Creatrs program, and the move to roll out ads across all Tumblr blogs now enables more creative and talented individuals to make some money from their blogs.
While the ads are rolling out now, it remains to be see when, how and how much Tumblr bloggers will actually start getting paid.
"We're still figuring out all the details of the partner program and working on the payment system," says Tumblr. "All we can say right now is we plan to launch a partner program sometime in 2016. It's worth noting that you can't make money until you register with the partner program — which is coming."
Tumblr also offers some details on how and where it will display ads on blogs, noting three instances. The first one is on the main page for those using the default Optica theme. The second instance is "the slide-out thing on the web." Lastly, Tumblr will also display ads on mobile apps and mobile web.
It's worth pointing out that those who want to turn off this advertising feature from their Tumblr settings can't do it on the mobile apps just yet, but Tumblr is working on making this possible soon.
Tumblr is joining this party a bit late, considering that bloggers using Google's Blogspot platform have been able to make money from their blogs for a few years now. The shift may have something to do with Verizon's acquisition of Yahoo's assets, but Tumblr makes no mention of it in its announcement.
More details should become available soon regarding when and how Tumblr will pay its bloggers who agree to get on board with ads, and we'll let you know as soon as we learn more.
