How To Start An Ask Blog On Tumblr

Anonymous So I'm thinking of putting one of those character memes on my blog? Like those ones where it asks a bunch of questions and people send you numbers and the character they want to answer? Is that a good idea?

It's a wonderful idea! Ask memes are icebreakers! Sometimes people
have trouble thinking of questions on their own so it helps to have something
there to just "Ah yes, this!" I highly recommend ask memes.

Admin Ryan back and I'm excited to be helping again!

I'm going to quickly apologize to everyone (admins included) for my disappearance but it was for my own health and personal needs to step away from the World of Tumblr. However, I'm back!

If you see the Rapunzel icon, that means that I am answering the question (need to redownload X-Kit), and if you want to address a question to me, just include my name somewhere in that handy dandy ask.

But, hello! I will be on much more often and I really have to update my page. I will still gladly help with anything cosplay related, but now I will also happily help in the theme and promo department if you need it. I recently got photoshop and I'm hooked (just don't ask for PS gifs because I'm clueless on that atm)

I've also recently started from the ground up on a roleplay blog (kind of similar but not really) so if you have any questions on that, please let me know.

Anonymous My ask blog is always empty, any ways how to make people ask questions on my ask blog?

Send yourself anons, answer the questions you want to answer. You can't make people ask you stuff no matter who you are. It's hard to believe, but we all struggle with receiving asks sometimes. It's not cheating to send yourself something. Especially if you're just starting out and want to spread your blog a bit, yeah?

It will take time to get those asks flowing in and even then it probably won't be a daily basis. If you get a lot of asks at some point, be a squirrel and stock up for the slow days. Hope this helps and best of luck!

Anonymous I'm making my ask blog for a very small fandom. The show ended last year but there are many blogs for the fandom that are still going on. I know there is at least one (incredible) ask blog that is currently active, so there are people still loving the show. I know getting people to notice you is hard even in a large, active fandom, so my question is, should I keep asking myself anon questions till it picks up? Thanks!

Sending yourself anons is honestly one of the smartest things. No one wants to say it, but we all do it. Whether it be because it's a slow day or because we really want to answer something, we all send ourselves anons.

I recommend also checking the tag for the fandom, following people who like it if they post stuff you like, and maybe reaching out to other ask blogs in the community. It also doesn't hurt to sometimes "cross fandoms" just make sure the blog you try to do it with is cool with it.

I hope things are going well with you on your blog, have a wonderful day!

Anonymous Should I politely address the unkind nonnies or just ignore them? Different people do different things and I want to know what you think the best course of action is.

Well, I know quite a bit about anon hate. It comes with the territory. All I can recommend is ignore and use that block button. tumblr's blocking system isn't the best, but it doesn't hurt to try. If worse comes to worst, turn off anon for a bit. It doesn't mean they won or anything. It's just you taking a break from the battle, yeah?

Tumblr's supposed to be fun. Don't let people ruin that for you with rude anons. Best of luck to you!

arc-trooper-jess I just started an ask blog and do you have any advice for getting it off the ground and noticed?

Well, you can't expect followers and asks in a day, trust me. BUT to get off the ground, I recommend following others (no publicity better than showing up in someone's activity), making a promo of some kind (be it graphic or text post), and just making sure to tag properly when you post answers to asks.

Hope this helps and sorry if it's late! Good luck with your blog!

lattechii-deactivated20180822 hi~ I recently started an ask blog and I have it all prepped and stuff ). how can I promote my blog? ik I can follow other blogs but how else could I make it appealing? (the URL is popo-and-nana if you want to look at it, thanks in advance xx)

I recommend making a promo graphic or making a quick post saying "New ask blog for _____ please spread" and then tag it with stuff such as the fandom or if an oc unaffiliated, general tags such as "ask blog" "art/cosplay blog", etc.

And to anyone out there reading this, be sure to check this blog out!

Sorry this is coming so late, I forgot the password for my blog meaning I couldn't get to the sideblog. Consider this open for business!!

Anonymous I've got a really good (at least I think) idea for an ask blog with a few canon characters and a few OCs of mine. I'm not good at drawing people, so I've got two options- draw some background stuff for emphasis, and have any speech written in different fonts and with different colors, or not do the blog at all. Is having the characters write things down not a good idea? The show I'm doing this for breaks the fourth wall all the time, so that's the least of my worries. Thanks you for your time!

There is actually several ways to do this!
1) Texting
Many blogs use text messages between their characters. Very effective and easy to make, good for humor
2) Roleplay
Emphasis on interaction with other blogs so I don't know if this is for you, but it may be a good idea
3) Make shitty drawings
Sounds odd, but trust me there's a lot of potential with this if you go for a certain type of humor. Remember that manga artists like ONE started out like this!

useless-trashcann-deactivated20 Hi there, I've recently made an ask blog for my ocs, and only 1 person has asked a question. Another thing is that I only have 11 followers also. How do I get people to notice my ask blog and ask questions? The ask blog is askustheundertalekids. Thanks!

I checked out the blog and from quick observation I can say:
1) Icon and name are pretty! No issues there. Maybe a red ask bubble would be good in the icon composition tho.
2) There's a lot of ooc and irrelevant posts on your blog.
3) There's tumblr ads on your blog
4) (personal taste I know, but:) Social justice stuff

The combination of the last three may be an issue because if I check your blog, the first 10 entries are either memes or ads. A blog like that will usually be less likely to gain followers because people are impatient beings (I call it the 2 seconds rule or 5 posts rule: if you scroll down at regular speed on your phone and it takes more than two seconds or 5 blog entries to find the last relevant post, you should maybe delete some of those ooc posts and disable the ad function)
Then, social justice posts. I know this is a personal preference and all, but if I see SIGNAL BOOST!!! and "Reblog If you care about…" on an askblog about a fictional character I am easily annoyed because I generally dont wanna be guilt tripped when I search for blogs about my favourite show. Separating politics from fiction is important there. I know a "help xy get shelter" or "please support this cause" is a good thing in theory but there's a time and place for everything.

Of course all of those points above aren't strict rules! I don't stick to them all the time either but that's because I've got enough followers, I don't care if someone unfollows or doesn't follow me at all because of one of those things.
I hope this helped!