Tumblr Monetization: Sell To Yahoo

Image by Matthew Buchanan / Flickr via CrunchBase

You have to be crazy about Tumblr to truly understand its appeal. It is half way there between Blogger/Wordpress and Twitter and, to its hard core users, more fulfilling than both. You can't amass a huge audience and not be able to monetize it. But this sale to Yahoo means monetization can wait some more.

Marissa Mayer failed to buy FourSquare as a Google executive, but she has managed to buy Tumblr as the Yahoo Chief. Both are companies that have helped put New York City on the tech map.

Last I met David Karp was during Social Media Week. This validation is well deserved. Now Karp and team get to nurture the local tech ecosystem some. I am assuming the Tumblr team will stay put in the city. I don't think it wants to wear "f----g Dropbox T-shirts!"

Karp, I have a clean energy idea that I need some seed money for. Are you in? :)

The billion Yahoo paid it will get back in the stock market reward to the Yahoo stock from the cool factor from Tumblr to the Yahoo brand. So basically this web property has been had for free. It is win win. This is also a strong signal to young and happening tech entrepreneurs that Yahoo is a brand that can be trusted with sexy acquisitions. That is worth at least another billion.

Fred Wilson must be very happy. You couldn't get near that guy without him gushing about David Karp at least once. Now you have concrete proof what it was all about.

David Karp showing up at Yahoo is like Arianna Huffington showing up at AOL, only I don't think Karp will outshine Mayer. She is a hotshot herself, very much so.

Yahoo buying Tumblr for $1.1 billion, vows not to screw it up

The deal is expected to increase Yahoo's audience by 50 percent. ..... Shares of Yahoo rose in early trading on Monday but quickly gave up those gains and were little changed at $26.54. Through Friday's close, they had risen 70 percent since Mayer became CEO. ..... David Karp, 26, who founded Tumblr in 2007 and will remain CEO. ...... Karp, a self-taught programmer who left high school in favor of home schooling ..... his take in the billion-dollar sale would top $200 million. .... "There are a lot of rich people in the world. There are very few people who have the privilege of getting to invent things that billions of people use," he said.

Update: I think Karp will buy a plane.

Related articles

• David Karp's Dilemma
• Yahoo acquires Tumblr in $1.1 billion cash deal, 'promises not to screw it up'
• Yahoo's Board Approves $1.1 Billion Purchase Of Tumblr (YHOO)
• Yahoo agrees to buy Tumblr for $1.1 billion
• Yahoo's $1.1 billion acqui-hire of David Karp
• Yahoo to buy Tumblr for $1.1B
• Yahoo's Mayer: we're committed to monetizing Tumblr
• Tumblr Brand Will Remain -- With Mostly "Hands-Off" Product Approach by Yahoo's Mayer
• Thoughts on the Yahoo! Thing
• It's Official: Yahoo Announces $1.1 Billion Tumblr Buy (yhoo)

Ingress: 300K In 2 Hours 15 Minutes

I was able to do 300K in 2 hours and 15 minutes earlier today. I did about 450K total for the day, which is the most I have ever done in one day. I think I am about half a million points from being the top blue agent in New York City.

Ingress: L8 Farm Types
Ingress: Team? What Team?
Ingress NYC Resistance "Secrets"
Ingress: The Game Changes
Ingress And Complex Strategies
Ingress: Phase 3
Level 8 In A Month

Related articles

• Ingress: Team? What Team?
• Ingress: L8 Farm Types
• Ingress: The Game Changes
• Ingress And Complex Strategies
• Ingress NYC Resistance "Secrets"
• Ingress: Phase 3

Ingress: L8 Farm Types

The Unisphere, built for the 1964 New York World's Fair, in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, New York City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don't think there is one right way to do it. Two things are for sure: it takes eight L8 agents coming together, and the L8 portals are targeted very, very fast.

You pick a time, you pick a place, and you collect the RSVPs. 10 is the safer number. And you maintain silence. All this is common sense. If your location is remote enough, maybe they will not come. But then it is harder to get your agents to go to that remote location as well. It cuts both ways. An odd time like 3 AM might work better -- and I have been to those -- but then again it is harder to get your agents to show up at such odd times as well.

Ideally you want to hack to burnout. It might cost you one L8 resonator per portal, but then you get back about five L8 resonators and five L8 bursters from each such portal. The good part is after agents are loaded they feel compelled to go out there and do some damage. Doing L8 farm events -- and that alone -- might be the top act of a team if the idea is to dominate a territory.

Of course more portals are better. 20 portals are better than 10. 30 portals would be a bonanza. You have to factor in the response time. In Manhattan the response time has been anywhere from 40 minutes to 10 minutes. Sometimes the attacking agent has showed up before the L8 farm even took shape! Because after a few times you kind of know the times and venues. They become predictable to an extent.

There is the thrill of taking down a L8 farm. It is an experience.

Even in New York City there are not enough active, organized agents to make complex events possible. But I organized a L8 farm at the Flushing Meadows Corona Park that just so happened to coincide with an inter-faction event in Bryant Park and I actively sent out a L7 agent to keep a local green agent -- currently the King of Queens -- engaged in battle on his home turf. So we created two distractions, one by accident, another on purpose. I managed two burnouts of half the portals that day.

I like the idea of involving L7 agents in the fightback. It is possible to have enough agents waiting who will keep recharging. In return they get rewarded with L7 bursters. It is not the ideas that are lacking. It's just that there are not enough active, organized agents. And if you can manage a burnout, you don't really care if the L8 portals get taken down, as they surely will.

Related articles

• Ingress NYC Resistance "Secrets"
• Ingress And Complex Strategies
• Ingress: The Game Changes
• Ingress: Phase 3