I often get asked for tips on various aspects of creating a studyblr and then how to grow it! It can be really daunting before you start if you don’t know how to go about it or what to post - I remember really wanting to create one for months before I actually built up the courage to make one.
This post is hopefully going to make this easier for you and give you the tips you need to get the best out of your blog!
Disclaimer: this is quite long! i wanted to make it as detailed as possible and it kinda got away from me XD
study + tumblr = studyblr
A studyblr is a tumblr blog that posts anything associated with studying.
These blogs are part of the ‘studyblr community’, which is an online community of students who share their love for studying, stationery and their current lessons and study tips.
Why should you create a studyblr?
There are honestly so many reasons why i think that studyblrs are an amazing thing and why i can’t see myself leaving this community any time soon! here are some of my personal experiences:
1. i want to study! i have always been a very conscientious student and i have always worked very hard but i’m going to be completely honest with you and say that a lot of the time, particularly as i’ve been getting older, it has been a real struggle to get the motivation to do work. since i’ve started my studyblr, i’ve noticed a real increase in my desire to work because i want to have new things to post and talk about. it acts as a sort of outside external motivator!
2. my studying has got more interesting! when i say this, i don’t mean the content. i’ve learnt so many new techniques and ways to organise my work that each set of notes that i do is different and i don’t feel like i’m doing the same thing every day!
3. my notes and handwriting have got neater! if you follow me, you might have seen a post from me a while back where i talked about my insecurity about my handwriting because i was *always* the person with the messy handwriting™. unfortunately, i am a perfectionist and i really wanted to have neat handwriting and notes. so my studyblr - because i wanted my posts to look good - made me spend more time focusing on the appearance of my notes and forcing me to slow down (this had been my main problem). now i can see a huge difference and i’ve reached a place where, even though my handwriting will never be the perfect font-like handwriting, it is noticeably neater and more consistent and i now love my pretty and unique handwriting
4. incredible advice about everything studying related! no matter where you are from, or what you study, it is possible to find advice about something that is relevant to you! people in studyblr are going through or have gone through everything you have and they give incredible advice on some many different things, from college applications and how to study a certain subject, to book recommendations and notetaking tips. but there are also plenty of tips on lifestyle and self-care, which are invaluable. even if you can’t find a post that helps you, you can always send someone an ask or a message and they’ll always try to help you out!
5. my mental health has got better and the community has helped me through so tough times! being a student today is hard and keeping your mental health in a good place can seem even harder. but i personally have found the studyblr community really helpful with this because i don’t feel so i alone. i know that there are so many mutuals and blogs that i follow that are going through similar things and i know i could always reach out to them for anything. i’ve also become less hard on myself and give myself significantly less impossible goals since i started studyblr
6. you will meet some incredible people. this was something that i wasn’t really expecting because when i started my blog i thought i would get 100 followers *max*. instead, i have been completely embraced by the community and have had some amazing conversations with people i know genuinely consider to be my friends. it is so easy to meet like-minded people who just want to support each other!
these are just the most important benefits that I’ve experienced with my own studyblr journey and there are so many more!!!
if you are seeing this post i assume that you already have a blog! maybe you don’t but luckily for you its very easy to create one. the main think you need to think about is whether you want to create a primary or secondary blog! you can find the differences between these here!
2. choose a URL/blog name
your username can be pretty much anything and can be a good way to show your personality, your likes or dislikes, or your goal for your studyblr! you can get really creative with your username and though most are, it doesn’t have to be study/studyblr related.
here’s are some ideas that you could use when coming up with a username:
Favourite subject or your degree
Role models or fictional characters
Your favourite study snacks
COFFEE (this is very popular with many studyblrs… i wonder why?)
Basically, it can be anything! and don’t worry, if you decide later that you don’t like the name or you come up with soemthing better, you can always change it
this can seem like a very daunting task if you are completely new to tumblr but don’t worry! there are plenty of options and you can play around with this until you get what you want!
mobile theme: this is usually just changing the colours to fit with what you like and the mood of your blog
desktop theme: this is where it gets interesting! your desktop blog usually looks much more unique compared to mobile and you can add various different pages and really get it to look professional. there are so many different incredible themes that you can find that are free to use and can be customised slightly to fit your blog (there are also paid themes). you can also make your own theme (but i know nothing about this so i can’t really offer advice for that!)
i personally think icons are really important because they can often be how people begin to recognise your blog when they see it on their dashboard and it can be a glimpse into what people expect
you can just use a normal picture for this: for example of your notes or something that relates to your URL or blog (eg a coffee cup)
however, you can also make your own from scratch! you can create your own icon using applications like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Canva or Word/Pages. i personally used canva to make my icon (as well as all my banners for posts) and it is really easy to use and best of all is free! there are also people who have made icons for you to use (as long as you give credit) or will make them for you (sometimes for a small fee)
5. find some studyblrs to follow
this is probably the easiest step! if you know about studyblr, you probably already know a few blogs! just go through their blogs and see who they reblog or you can search through the #studyblr tag. i am also always happy to give recommendations of my favourites blogs (of which there are too many to count) or can try to recommend blogs that i know who study the same thing as you/are at the same level of study or are from the same country
i am a big believer in studyblr introduction posts! i think they are the best way to meet people when you are just starting and are the way that you get people to notice and interact with your blog.
what should you put in a studyblr introduction post?
your name or a nickname so people know what to call you
what level of study are you at (high school, uni etc.)
your hobbies and passions
why you made your studyblrs
tag some of your studyblr inspirations! (this is quite important because they will probably reblog the post and more people can discover your blog
these are just some suggestions and you don’t have to include all of them if you are comfortable with sharing certain things!
if you want some examples of these posts, have a look through the #studyblr introduction tag! on my blog you can find that here!
the beauty of studyblr is that you can pretty much post whatever you want and you will find a place in the community!
i love reblogging posts that come on my dashboard that i love or stuff from my mutuals! however, it is also really important to post your own original content because this allows people to get to know you and is probably the best way to grow your blog!
here are some ideas for what to post:
pictures of your current book
pictures of your annotations
pictures of your desk/study space
pictures of your food/ study snack
pictures of your drink/coffee
pictures of your favourite cafe
pictures of your handwriting
text posts about something funny that happened in school/class/uni/your life
text posts about what is going on in your life
text posts about what is on your mind
texts posts where you share your journey completing a particular goal
text posts where you share your plan for the day
self-care and lifestyle tips
essentially, it is whatever you want and whatever works for you!
you should post whenever works for you! i know for a lot of people (myself included) most of the time you do not have time to post every day because that is a big commitment and that is absolutely ok!
when i first started, i thought that i had to post every day and it was a lot fo pressure! it was basically impossible to keep up because not only was it taking up a decent amount of my evening editing and posting my notes but also i didn’t actually have enough material available to post! a studyblr should never get in the way of your schoolwork so try to fit it around this! post when you have time!
if you do want to have a more consistent posting schedule, there is a feature that allows you to schedule posts! so, say you have a bunch of free time on the weekend, you could schedule all the posts for the week ahead of time!
i would also recommend building up a queue for reblogs because this means that you again have some consistency in posts and you have new stuff quite regularly! (i personally always have a huge queue)
How to Grow Your Studyblr
the main thing i want to stay is that you should not be too worried about how many followers you have or how many notes your posts get because it really is unpredictable! i’ve had posts that have got crazy amounts of notes and i literally expected them to get hardly any and vice versa! i have no idea how the tumblr algorithm works so you just have to try and post for yourself!
that said, i know that it is really nice to have people interact and appreciate your posts so here are 3 quick tips:
use popular studyblr tags. these include #studyblr, #notes, #studyspo. you could also tag the stationery that you used, what subject it is and what level you at are (eg #high school or #uni)
tag other studyblrs. many studyblrs track certain tags and if you want them to see what you’ve posted and they will often reblog your post! i personally track the tag #myhoneststudyblr. you can find a post i made a while ago with some studyblr’s and their tags here! (note: this may be slightly out of date)
try and have a relatively consistent ‘look’ to your posts. you don’t have to follow a specific aesthetic but having some consistency in your posts can help people recognise your stuff. i personally keep my pictures of my notes very clutter-free (often just the notes and the pen i used) and bright. however, you can definitely switch things up if you want!
How to Get Involved in the Community
There are so many different ways that you can do this! Here are some of the best ways in my opinion!
send asks and messages to people!
i highly recommend sending asks to people, for example, if they reblog an ask game post or even just asking for some advice because they will start to recognise you as someone who is engaged with their blog and you could also learn something new about one of your favourite studyblrs!
messages are also a great, slightly more personal, way to interact with people. it can be as simple as messaging people to tell them you love their blog, or again asking them for some advice. if they do a post about a test or exam that they have coming up, you could even message them good luck or ask how it went. i have had some amazing conversations with people through messages and it is a great way to meet new people
just a reminder: always be respectful and polite in messages and asks to ensure that the community remains positive
reblog posts with a comment on their posts!
(or just add a comment, although this could be confusing if your studyblr is a side blog so just be warned)
this is a really nice way to let people know you’ve seen their post and it is always nice to give feedback. a comment can be as simple as: i love your handwriting! or good luck in that test! but that simple message reaching out it so nice to get! also, reblogging is really helpful to blogs because it means more people see the post
ok, so i’ve had this blog for about a year and a half now and i had a pretty decent amount of followers (which i seriously do not understand XD) but i never got the same amount of interaction and involvement in the studyblr community until i created my #2020 quarantine challenge (click here if you wanna find out about this). i would get reblogs and likes on posts but i don’t think that i used to get nearly as much interaction with my posts with people leaving comments and stuff. furthermore, although i had blogs where we were technically mutuals, i didn’t really have mutuals like i do know where we actively keep in touch and check out each other’s posts all the time and stuff and that is honestly the nicest thing
challenges mean that you are most likely posting every day (or at the very least pretty regularly if you cannot manage every day) and this is good because you post lots of new content for people to discover. another great thing is that there is usually a tag that you can search for and scroll through and find others who are doing the challenge alongside you. the person who created the challenge also probably checks the tag out every few days and reblogs the posts
for these reasons, i cannot highlight how amazing challenges are for interaction and getting involved in the community!
The Golden Rule of Studyblr
🚨 ALWAYS BE POLITE AND FRIENDLY 🚨
probably my favourite thing about the studyblr community - and i know many others share this opinion - is that is such a friendly and welcoming place. it of course has its problems but this is a place whose ultimate aim is to support each other through our studying journeys! we are all here because we wanted to find likeminded people who we can make friends with and share our lives! therefore it is really important that we always try and lift each other up because you never know what someone is going through
there are lots of benefits to starting a studyblr so you definitely should!
it’s good to make your blog look nice and clean!
studyblr introductions are very important to start your blog off!
post what you like when you like!
tagging can be a great way to grow your blog!
don’t focus too much on the number of notes you get or how many followers you have!
send asks and messaging, reblogging and commenting on other people’s posts and joining challenges are all great ways to get involved in the community!
we are all here to support one another so always be polite and friendly!
here is an answer to an ask i received about starting a studyblr (here is another one)
here is an answer to an ask i received about editing photos
A Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Studyblr by @eintsein
12 Step Guide to Starting and Running a Studyblr by @emmastudies
How to Start a Studyblr by @caffeineandcoding
Advice for New Studyblrs by @studyquill
Starting a Studygram by @studyrellablr (many of the tips are the same for studyblr)
I hope this was helpful to any new studyblrs and even existing ones! As always i am always happy to answer asks and messages about and give any advice! If anyone else has any tips or tricks, please add them below!!!
