I came across this guide recently, and i thought it was quite interesting to see that you can in fact make money from a tumblr page, and in fact, it's perhaps easier in some respects from making money from a website.
How to make money from a tumblr page.
-- Choose a niche that you find interesting. Create a new tumblr blog.
-- Make sure that you spend some time choosing a GOOD name that is both descriptive and seo friendly. This is important!
-- Choose a user and SEO friendly theme. This is important!
-- Choose an avatar that is easy to see in small thumbnail form, represents your niche, and makes people want to click on it.
-- Every day, spend ONE hour browsing tumblr and reblogging content that fits your niche. Reblogging other people's content is easier than getting it off your computer and helps increase your followers.
-- Follow every tumblr blog that you reblog from as well as all related blogs that you find. Helps increase your followers and helps you find new content.
-- When you blog/reblog, Be sure to put your tumblr url in the "Clicking this photo links to the URL" box. Replace whatever link is in there with YOUR tumblr url. This creates backlinks to your tumblr blog whenever someone else reblogs you and helps increase your followers.
-- When you blog/reblog, comment appropriately, using keywords that fit your niche and the photo. (Basic SEO, and also creates backlinks to your tumblr blog whenever someone else reblogs you and helps increase your followers.)
-- When you blog/reblog, select "Add to queue" instead of publish now and set your blog to publish 6-10 times per day, depending on how much you have in your queue. This allows you to have 2-3 months of content posting on autopilot.
-- When you blog/reblog, use tags to categorize your content. This helps to keep people on your blog longer.
-- If you feel ambitious, you can ping out your individual posts or do scrapebox blasts for them.
-- After you have a decent amount of content and follower base built up find an affiliate or CPA that fits your niche.
-- DONT plaster your tumble blog with banners and ads! Unless you have already found that to be effective and know how to do it without driving people away.
-- Select banners that fit your niche and blog feel well and put one or two of them on the theme for your tumblr blog
-- Every so often, instead of putting your blog URL in the "Clicking this photo links to the URL" box when you reblog, put your affiliate link in instead. I usually shorten the link (bitly or similar) with a custom short url that fits the niche and affiliate. Many affiliates have free content that you can use to promote them and landing pages tailored to that specific content.
-- Once you have built up a few thousand followers and are ranking well on google, sell your tumblr blog. You will continue to get affiliate traffic from the old posts that are still being reblogged by others and you will make a good chunk of change for the blog.