Mystery author Beth Groundwater posted about analyzing her blog using a web tool called Typealyzer. It’s easy to use — just type in your blog’s URL, and you’ll quickly receive an analysis of your blog persona, complete with an image of which parts of the brain — thinking, intuition, sensing, or feeling — are most active during the writing. I’m fascinated by analytical tools, so I ran Words Into Books through the analyzer, as well as two other blogs I write. Here are the results.
The analysis indicates that the author of http://wordsintobooks.com is of the type:
INTP – The Thinker
The logical and analytical type. They are especially attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications.They enjoy working with complex things using a lot of concepts and imaginative models of reality. Since they are not very good at seeing and understanding the needs of other people, they might come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what they are talking about. [I’m really hoping that last bit isn’t true– I think I’m actually a nice person, and not any of those things!;-)]
Both of the other blog personas were variations of the Thinker persona (my brain graph was seriously lopsided in all the variations!). One was Mechanic (I write a lot of “how-to” things for that blog), and the other was The Scientist. Here are the descriptions for each of those personas.
ISTP – The Mechanic
The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment and are highly skilled at seeing and fixing what needs to be fixed. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.
INTJ – The Scientist
The long-range thinking and individualistic type. They are especially good at looking at almost anything and figuring out a way of improving it — often with a highly creative and imaginative touch. They are intellectually curious and daring, but might be physically hesitant to try new things.The Scientists enjoy theoretical work that allows them to use their strong minds and bold creativity. Since they tend to be so abstract and theoretical in their communication they often have a problem communicating their visions to other people and need to learn patience and use concrete examples. Since they are extremely good at concentrating they often have no trouble working alone.
Now, no one who knows me would mistake me for a mechanic or scientist– those are just labels for particular types of “mind patterns, interests and human motivations,” according to the Typealyzer creator, Mattias Östmar. The common thread between the three types is that they centered on the thinking axis of the graph and extended in one case toward the Practical/Sensing, and in the other, toward Intuition. The “Feeling” quadrant of the graph was untouched, which means that there’s none of what my grandmother would call “the gooshy stuff.”
The analysis seems fairly accurate for each of the blog personas, and the description of the Scientist is probably closest to my actual personality. Beth writes that she revisited the Typealyzer about 18 months after her first analysis to see if her writing style was consistent, and she found that it was. If I remember, I might revisit it too, and see if anything’s changed. Writing that’s too cerebral can be a bit dry– maybe I need to try gooshing it up a bit!
While blog analysis is mostly just for fun, it can be helpful to analyze the focus and tone of your blog to be sure that you’re attracting the right readers. If you’re writing for “Thinker-style” readers, you probably won’t be successful writing with a “Feelers” voice, and “Feelers” probably won’t be very attracted to a strictly “Thinker” blog. If you’re not getting the readers you want, maybe it’s time to analyze your blog text and see who you’re speaking to!