According to the Tumblr staff, users will be have advertisements on their blogs as of today. These ads are set as the default for Tumblr blogs. As such, users will have to disable these ads under the settings for their blog if they do not want said ads to appear. Tumblr’s staff has stated that this partner program is still in the process of being developed. When it is completed, users will be able to apply for the program and earn revenue from the ads on their blog.
This advertising program is an attempt by the Tumblr staff to boost revenue for the site. Tumblr was bought by Yahoo in 2013 for $1 billion. Since then, Yahoo has had a difficult time generating revenue from the site. This is in light of Verizon buying Yahoo for $4.83 billion.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier this year, Tumblr’s value was approximately $230 million. In other words, the site is only worth approximately 20% of what it was paid for by Yahoo. Tumblr’s value appears to be but a measly percentage of Yahoo’s overall worth according to Verizon at approximately 4.7%.
Tumblr’s advertising program bares similarities to YouTube’s partner program. YouTube is currently the only other social media website that allows users to have a cut in the revenue of advertisements.
This program could have similar issues to Youtube in terms of copyright. There is a vast amount of fan created artwork and videos featuring copyrighted material on Tumblr. If a user were to sign up for the advertising program, they may be susceptible to copyright reports if they post such material on their blog.
The Tumblr staff has not discussed the issue of copyright in regards to the advertisement program. CommonGeek has reached out for comment and will update accordingly.
How To Disable On-Blog Advertisements
- Select “Accounts” on your dashboard and choose which blog you want to edit
- Select “Edit Appearance”
- On-blog advertising will be the default. Press the button next to “On-blog advertising” to disable ads.
