There are a few other ways to post to Tumblr other than the dashboard or the mobile app. Some of these are well-known and others are hidden gems.

1. The bookmarklet: For some, the bookmarklet is essential to the Tumblr experience. It truly makes it super simple to post to your blog while you browse on the web all day long at work instead of getting done what you needed to complete yesterday.
2. By email: Did you know that you can post to Tumblr via email? Each blog in Tumblr has its own unique email address. To find out that magic address, log in to the dashboard, click on the blog you want to post to, click on the blog settings link. Scroll down about halfway and you should see a Post by Email Address. Tumblr also provides a guide on how to post via email.
3. By phone: I haven’t used this often, but you have the ability to publish an audio post by phone. To configure this feature, head over to Tumblr’s goodies page and scroll about halfway down the page. You should see a “Call in audio” section. It takes a minute to set this option up for your blog. All you have to do is click the “Configure” button to start. 

There are other ways you can post or share content to your Tumblr blog through third-party services, such as via Flickr and Soundcloud. Do you have any other examples?

Posted by Todd Wickersty, founder of Business Bullpen. You can follow Todd on his blog, Tumblr or Twitter.

We’ve decided to bring an old blog feature back named “Apps That Rock”. Instead of highlighting something brand new, I decided to focus on my favorite iPhone app of all time, Instapaper.

I’ve had an iPhone shortly after the first generation came out, before third-party iPhone apps existed. I have also been an Instapaper user for a few years now. So the point here is that this endorsement is not after a few weeks or months of using Instapaper.

Chances are you have heard of Instapaper or use it yourself. It currently sits in the top ten of paid apps within the iTunes news category. If you haven’t used it, this post might just change your life. It’s that awesome. :)

For those of us with desk jobs, we are always finding new articles and blog posts to read. But we don’t want these articles to get in the way of what we are supposed to be doing. Enter Instapaper. It enables you to save articles to your Instapaper account so that you can read them later, when you have time. Through the use of a bookmarklet and a host of integrations with other iPhone and iPad apps, such as Twitter, Flipboard, Reeder, and Hootsuite, it is extremely simple to save an article to your Instapaper account with one click or touch. Let’s say you receive a lot of links to articles via email. Instapaper provides you with an email address that you can forward these links to, so you can read them later. It literally takes a second to save an article to Instapaper whether you are surfing the web, using email, or a mobile device.

Once you are ready to sit down and read all those articles that you saved, you can do so on the web, with the iPhone app, iPad app, or Kindle. I haven’t tried Instapaper on the Kindle, but all of the other options are pleasing experiences. Each one is slightly different too. Regardless of the device, your saved articles are stripped of all ads and other distractions or you can visit the article again on the website that hosts it.

Instapaper offers other features as well, but it’s worth it alone (and more) for the base functionality. It’s the one third-party app on my iPhone that has stayed on my first screen since day one.

Posted by Todd Wickersty. Todd is the founder of Business Bullpen. You can follow Todd on Tumblr, Twitter, and exfm.

With the holidays well behind us and our New Year’s resolutions slowly beginning to take effect (or dwindle altogether), we thought we’d take a moment to look back at 2011. It was a good year for Business Bullpen. A lot has happened in just 12 months; here are a few of the highlights:

Besides our client work, one of our biggest accomplishments this year was to design, develop, and release our first theme to the Tumblr theme garden. We knew from the start that we wanted to create a theme that was simple, clean, and easy to use, with features no other theme had. We think our Single A theme, with it’s sticky post and featured tag options, did just that. At 65,000 installs in less than a year, we’ve been blown away by the community support we’ve received since we launched it in March. More themes to come in 2012.

We grew our company by 50% this year with the addition of Brian Chenault and Jessica Swope to our team. Brian came on as a software developer in late April, lending his ninja skills to existing clients and helping us to expand our client list. Jess has worked part-time for us since November of 2010, but came on as full-time web editor in September. We’ve been psyched to have her around to write, edit, and strategize content for our clients. She’s also done wonders for our candy bowl.

A definite highlight of 2011 was moving our office to our new location on Market St. True, we gave up the convenience of being right on the downtown mall, but we gained an entire building to ourselves with hardwood floors, built-in cabinets and desks, and tons of natural light. And the mall is still within walking distance. And we’re right around the corner from Beer Run. And we get to park in front of our building. Definitely a good move.

2011 was the year we implemented community service days at Business Bullpen, and we got the ball rolling this year with a Habitat for Humanity project. On a hot day in late June the team helped Habitat of Humanity of Charlottesville to construct a home in Sunrise Park. It was great to play a small role in bettering our community, and a perfect way to start an annual tradition.

Had enough? But wait, there’s more. We also hosted an open house, had a holiday party, celebrated birthdays, attended Mobile UXCamp DC, and sponsored WordCampRVA.

To recap: Made a theme. Grew our crew. Moved our digs. Did some good. Had some fun. Not a bad year, 2011. Looking forward to you, 2012!

This last Saturday, Graham, Todd, Amanda, Emily (our new intern), and I trekked to Washington, D.C. to attend the 2012 DC UXCamp. Graham and Todd are veterans of the Bar Camp style of conference, but the rest of us had never attended one before Saturday, and I, for one, was not entirely sure what to expect. I am as fearful of speaking in public as anyone - would I have to present something on-the-fly? Would I be required to be actively involved in every discussion? Egads, I’m just the developer over in the corner with my head down, coding!

As it turns out, the entire concept behind a Bar Camp is that it is very informal, and how involved you choose to be is entirely up to you. The sessions ranged from full-on presentations with slideshows to very loose group discussions. I honestly expected there to be a lot more in-depth, fine-grained discussions about UX - including maybe some HTML5, or jQuery, specific talks with some nitty-gritty details. Instead, the sessions I attended were much more high level.

The first two sessions I attended revolved around wireframing and prototyping. The first was a presentation of a tool that the presenter’s company had built to facilitate quick creation of wireframes and the second was an open discussion about various tools that attendees use or have used and what we liked or didn’t like about each.

One thing I love about the Bar Camp format, is the informality. We attended WordCamp in Richmond in the fall, and while I do feel that I learned more there than I did at UXCamp, I found that it got to be a drag being in the same room the entire time. UXCamp allots a 2-hour break for lunch, which allowed us to venture out, get some fresh air, and get some quality team-time in together.

After lunch, I attended what was by far my favorite session. When I walked in the room, the presenter was showing a slideshow of pictures from a recent concert by the band Rush. I knew then that I was in for a different session than the previous. As people wandered in, he discussed Rush’s show aesthetic and how it relates to UX. Then the session transitioned into a presentation/discussion about Frank Lloyd Wright and how his architecture and designs relate to UX. Very cool concept, and my interest in FLW was renewed after this session.

I was very excited about the final session of the day that the entire team attended. I don’t recall the title, but it was about iPad/iPhone design, and I was hoping to learn quite a bit as Business Bullpen is growing our mobile development experience. Instead, the session ended up being about the new features in iOS5, and admittedly I found myself nodding off a couple of times. To be fair, we left Charlottesville at 6 am and had a hefty lunch so I’m not blaming this entirely on the topic or the presenter, but I found it to be a little too much of an Apple advertisement.

Having said that, I am already looking forward to UXCamp 2013! And who knows, maybe I’ll even find it in me to lead a session …

Posted by Brian Chenault, developer for Business Bullpen. You can follow Brian on Tumblr or Twitter.

Most of us took some time off during the past couple of weeks. With today being the first day back to work (for many), your inbox might not be as full as other times of the year after some time off. Wouldn’t it be nice if this was always the case after a vacation?

As a small business owner, I can’t expect to completely disconnect when I go on vacation. But I can take some steps that will help minimize work distractions while I’m “relaxing.” Just because you state in your “Out of Office” message that you won’t be checking or responding to email doesn’t mean that people won’t email you while you are out. First of all, you need to make sure that you aren’t going to respond to any of those emails that you receive during vacation. If you can stick to that rule, make sure you ask everyone on your team to not send or CC you on any emails over the course of vacation. This request should include the person or people who are covering for you. In addition, ask that person covering to take you off any email threads started by clients/partners/others that were directed to you. Instead of having to comb through dozens to hundreds of emails when you return, have the person covering provide you with a summary of what went down while you were away on the day you return. This could be communicated in a document, one long email, or discussion.

If you need to be aware of how things are going at the office while you are on vacation, you should funnel all communication through one person. Luckily for me, it’s my business partner, Graham. We spoke a few times over the phone while I was away. Typically these phone calls occurred while I was walking my dog, which was great because it was on my schedule and did not interrupt quality time with my kids or wife. Graham kept me up-to-date and focused on the high priority items that needed some feedback now rather than later. This saved me valuable time away from the computer during and after vacation. In addition, I was able to get a true sense and understanding of how things were going because I spoke with Graham instead of reading and interpreting email (potentially the wrong way).

While these ideas might not seem ground-breaking, they can be easily looked over. All it takes is a few minutes to ask your team and person covering for you to do these things for you while you are out. It’s not a lot to ask and you should always return the favor when it’s their turn to go on vacation. Don’t just rely on the “Out of Office” message otherwise you will never truly get out of the office.

Posted by Todd Wickersty, founder of Business Bullpen. You can follow Todd on Tumblr and Twitter.

I recently took a 2-week course on SEO copywriting through mediabistro.com. I can’t say I learned anything super new in the course, but it articulated in a cohesive way little nuggets I’ve been gathering here and there. It also laid out some basic assumptions about SEO copywriting that I found worth sharing:

• SEO writing is about ensuring content is visible and discoverable in the digital space
• Identifying keywords to incorporate into your website copy is a critical first step in optimizing your content
• It’s useless to insert keywords willy-nilly into your content (search engines have gotten hip to that game); resist the temptation and use keywords as naturally as possible
• The more human and conversational you are in website content, the more search engines will pay attention to what you have to say, and the keywords you use to say it
• Contrary to other forms of copywriting, SEO copywriting should be less flashy and entertaining and more informative/educational/utilitarian
• “A good writer can learn SEO skills, but someone with SEO skills can’t necessarily learn to be a good SEO writer.”

Want to learn more? Looks like they’re offering another course starting January 12th. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who has minimal SEO experience (almost half of the course is an exploration of SEO fundamentals).

Posted by Jessica Swope, web editor for Business Bullpen. You can follow Jessica on Tumblr.