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.

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.

Last week Graham and I visited Tumblr’s headquarters in New York. As I walked through the double-glass doors, the first thing I noticed was how quiet it was. With 30+ very creative people in the NYC office and an open space floor plan, I expected there to be a lot of noise. But there wasn’t. You could literally hear a pin drop.

We had to wait a few minutes for the person we were meeting and it remained quiet. Now maybe everyone was out to lunch, but we did see some people (including the one and only topherchris) get up from their desks. I also noticed that a few people stepped out of their desk area into the conference space to make phone calls.

As a consultant, I’ve visited and worked at a lot of different workplaces and typically there are many distractions. They might be purposeful, such as a ping-pong table or a candy bowl, but many times they are not. How often do you have to listen to another co-worker’s phone call on speaker from the nearby cube? From what I could tell, Tumblr’s staff disciplines itself rather well when it comes to distractions. They were respectful of each other’s space and work during the time we were there. This type of behavior in the workspace leads to a highly productive and efficient team, which usually means less time spent at the office. We think that’s something worth striving for each and every day.

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

This month our first Tumblr theme, Single A, passed 30,000 installs. We submitted the theme to Tumblr on April 1st. It’s rather humbling that over 30,000 blogs are using it less than 6 months later.

I’ve been using Tumblr since December of 2007. The community here is incredible and it’s you, the users, who I’d like to thank first and foremost for your support. We listen to your feedback and have ideas in the works for future versions and themes based on that feedback.

I’d also like to thank the Tumblr staff for their support and guidance as we worked on our first theme. Last, but not least, this milestone would have never been achieved without Graham, Amanda, and Jessica. They are the people behind the development, design, and support of the theme.

If you have an idea for Single A or a future theme, send us a message. We look forward to hearing form you.

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

Every now and then a project estimate is way below the actual time spent on a project. While it’s important to continually improve our estimation process, going over budget does happen on occasion. We usually cap our projects with a not-to-exceed figure, so unless the scope of a project changes, we eat the costs when going over budget.

When we do go over budget, I don’t focus on the budget at all. In fact, I don’t focus on the financials of a deal once the deal is signed. From that point forward, the most important thing to me is delivering what we agreed to deliver at the highest quality and with the friendliest service no matter the cost. If scope happens to change along the way, then you can renegotiate the original deal, but it does you no good to cut corners or cop a negative attitude toward a client because you underestimated the work. Doing so is only going to sour a relationship that could have been a fruitful one over the long term. And for what? Over a few hundred or maybe thousand dollars? In my experience, the potential return on investment by keeping the client relationship positive is much greater.

So the next time you feel the pressure of going over budget on a project, don’t sweat it. Stay focused on getting the job done and making your customer happy. After the project is complete, take the time to evaluate your estimating process so that you can improve upon it. Maybe the next time around you will exceed your customer’s expectations while budgeting the work accurately.

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

Every now and then I plan to write about some of the tools and apps we use at Business Bullpen to be more productive and efficient. Today I am going to focus on our latest company love affair … with rdio.

I stumbled upon rdio, the subscription streaming music service, several months ago, and decided to give it a try. I am always searching for new music and listening on iTunes, Pandora, and Tumblr. It was becoming harder for me to keep up my collection of digital music as I discovered new tunes and albums through blogs and free streaming services. I could no longer keep up with downloading music. Now, the recent Apple announcement about iCloud might make things a bit easier, but it still requires me to keep up a collection of music that I own.

Since our culture is so accustomed to getting music for free (legally or illegally) these days, paying $9.99 per month for a subscription service is a significant barrier for some people. Luckily rdio gives a free trial for seven days. If you spend any time on rdio during those first seven days, you will be hooked. The rdio music library is impressive. In addition to the web, it can also be accessed on the iPhone or Droid. The thing that triggered my love affair with rdio, though, is how easy it is to discover new music. There is a separate section/page on the rdio Mac app and website just for new releases. Every Tuesday there is a plethora of brand new tunes to peruse. You can also discover new music from the people you follow on rdio. You have a timeline just like you do on other social media apps that tells you who did what when. In addition, rdio lets you know the top artists that everyone or those people in your network are listening to.

Everyone in our office is a passionate music fan, and a couple of the guys play music. Music is a part of our company culture. Thus, I’ve always wanted to provide some sort of music perk for our employees. Last December, we bought tickets to the Jeff Tweedy show for the company holiday party. That was nice, but we were going to do something nice for the holiday party regardless. So after a couple of months of using rdio, I convinced my partner to offer rdio as a perk for our employees. We would pay for an employee’s subscription as long as they were using it. Judging by the number of times I’ve seen our team playing air guitar or air drums, I think we made the right move.

Todd Wickersty is the Founder of Business Bullpen. You can follow Todd on Tumblr or Twitter.