How to automate safely?

[Trevor]

Hi Guys.

I use bots on various social networks successfully but am new to Tumblr.

I always aim to be safe and not go beyond generally agreed limits which cause accounts to be banned. This is because I wish to build long term high power blogs with lots of followers.

So what are the boundaries for Tumblr?

1. Following. I read that 50 follows per day is good to begin with... perhaps increasing to 100 when you've built up a thousand or so followers? What have you found from experience?

2. Unfollowing. Unfollow the same number as you follow each day? Safe?

3. Reblogs per day?

4. Likes per day?

5. Total number of followed? Is there an absolute cap on this set by Tumblr? If not, is there a number that seems to be high but stable as a maximum?

6. Any other metrics I should be aware of?

7. Any practices that will get you banned? Posting affiliate links for example? How about posting images, videos, reblogging and posting links without ever annotating anything?

Thanks guys... these are the basics for me before I can even start to use the bot.

[martin@rootjazz]

1. Following. I read that 50 follows per day is good to begin with... perhaps increasing to 100 when you've built up a thousand or so followers? What have you found from experience?

100 or so seems a fair number.

2. Unfollowing. Unfollow the same number as you follow each day? Safe?

I like to unfollow after 10 days if the user is not following you back

3. Reblogs per day?

I believe here the limit is 300, but I like to stick to 100

4. Likes per day?

Am not sure of the limit, butI think it is quite high, but I stick to 100-150

5. Total number of followed? Is there an absolute cap on this set by Tumblr? If not, is there a number that seems to be high but stable as a maximum?

I believe it is 5000

6. Any other metrics I should be aware of?

Don't leave footprints, posting the same description / click through to every post you make for example

7. Any practices that will get you banned? Posting affiliate links for example? How about posting images, videos, reblogging and posting links without ever annotating anything?

Tumblr are quite ban happy, no aff marketing they say, but everyone does. Don't overdo the limits, don't spam, don't enjoy users, don't leave footprints. Even then you may get a random ban (possible due to user complaint - or a competitor!)