Michael Haislip: Professional Millionaire

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Does a blogger’s personality determine his writing style and niche? Let’s find out.

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I recently e-mailed several bloggers and asked them to participate in a little unscientific experiment I was conducting. It involved the classic Jungian typology test (also know as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) that classifies your personality based upon four qualities:

• introversion vs. extroversion
• sensing vs. intuition
• thinking vs. feeling
• judging vs. perceiving

The results of the test are then given in 4-letter combinations, some of which I describe below. Note: any detailed descriptions of personality types come from this site or from Wikipedia.

The Teacher Type (ENFJ)

Both Laura from Writing Thoughts and Michael from Faisca’s Corner report that they are ENFJs. This result means:

ENFJs are the benevolent ‘pedagogues’ of humanity. They have tremendous charisma by which many are drawn into their nurturant tutelage and/or grand schemes. Many ENFJs have tremendous power to manipulate others with their phenomenal interpersonal skills and unique salesmanship. But it’s usually not meant as manipulation — ENFJs generally believe in their dreams, and see themselves as helpers and enablers, which they usually are.

Besides maintaining her site, Laura is a freelance writer, which involves some degree of salesmanship (if you’ve ever written a query letter, that Extroverted quality really helps). But now, she uses that knowledge to teach others, hence the “pedagogue” description.

Michael is a self-described polymath, and loves to share what he’s learned on his personal blog.

The Champion Type (ENFP)

Both Michelle from Bloggrrl and Ray at FreshBlogger report being an ENFP. ENFPs are described as:

ENFPs are both “idea”-people and “people”-people, who see everyone and everything as part of an often bizarre cosmic whole. They want to both help (at least, their own definition of “help”) and be liked and admired by other people, on both an individual and a humanitarian level. They are interested in new ideas on principle, but ultimately discard most of them for one reason or another. ENFPs have a great deal of zany charm, which can ingratiate them to the more stodgy types in spite of their unconventionality. They are outgoing, fun, and genuinely like people. ENFPs are pleasant, easygoing, and usually fun to work with. They come up with great ideas, and are a major asset in brainstorming sessions.

So, there you go, Michelle and Ray. You have both officially been described as “zany.” I think that term better fits the sarcastic tone of Michelle’s writing and the irreverence she displays so often. I think the “bizarre cosmic whole” outlook fits both, though, based upon their ability to post seemingly off-topic posts yet still remain on topic. Go figure.

The Providers (ESFJ)

Julie Anne Bonner of the eponymous JulieAnnBonner.com reports being an ESFJ, described as:

Providers are friendly, outgoing, and gregarious. They love to talk and they can become quite agitated when they are isolated from others. Providers are fascinated about news concerning their friends, neighbors, and local community. They will often strike up conversations with strangers and will talk about anything that comes to mind. If someone wants to know what has been going on in the community, providers are often happy to provide the details.

I think this fits Julie perfectly, as her blog seemed the most gregarious and chatty of the bunch. Clearly, the Extroversion quality fits this one perfectly.

The Counselor Type (INFJ)

Steve from SteveOlson.com and Lisa from Work at Home Mom Revolution report being an INFJ, which places them in a personality group called “Counselors,” described as:

Counselors are introspective, cooperative, directive, and attentive. Counselors find helping others to personally develop and reach their potential to be personally gratifying as they have a strong desire to contribute to the welfare of others. Counselors often communicate to others in a personalized manner and are positive and kind when dealing with others. Counselors are good listeners and are highly intuitive. They are often able to detect the emotions or intentions of another individual before the individual is aware of them.

If you’ve ever read Steve’s site, you’ll know this to be a fitting description. Most of his posts are about improving people’s lives.

Lisa, on the other hand, comes across as the motherly type who truly cares about others, which fits with the Counselor archetype.

The Inspectors (ISTJ)

Charlene from Essential Keystrokes reports being an ISTJ, described as:

ISTJs are often called inspectors. They have a keen sense of right and wrong, especially in their area of interest and/or responsibility. They are noted for devotion to duty. Punctuality is a watchword of the ISTJ. As do other Introverted Thinkers, ISTJs often give the initial impression of being aloof and perhaps somewhat cold. They seem to perform at highest efficiency when employing a step-by-step approach. Once a new procedure has proven itself, the ISTJ can be depended upon to carry it through, even at the expense of their own health.

Charlene manages 6 different blogs, a testament to punctuality and devotion. Each one seems to have an efficient, methodical writing style, again fitting the attributes. In fact, in her reply to my experiment request, she mentioned that ISTJ described her perfectly.

The Composers (ISFP)

ispf over at Grad Money Matters is an ISFP, described as:

ISFPs are peaceful, easygoing people who adopt a “live and let live” approach to life. They enjoy taking things at their own pace and tend to live in the moment. Although quiet, they are pleasant, considerate and caring, devoted to the people in their lives. Though not inclined to debate or necessarily even air their views, their values are important to them.

I think this might be the only personality type that can’t be determined from writing style, and I really can’t detect it at Grad Money Matters. How do you tell if someone has a “live and let live” attitude on a blog? However, if you read ispf’s personal history there, you’ll see that easygoing attitude so common with this type.

The Healers (INFP)

Jennifer at Broke-Ass Student is an INFP, described as:

Healers are introspective, cooperative, informative, and attentive. They are highly compassionate and empathetic to the needs of others. They want to heal the problems that trouble individuals and correct the conflicts that divide groups in order to bring health to themselves, their companions and to the society. Some INFPs have a gift for taking technical information and putting it into layman’s terms.

Since Jennifer’s primary focus is helping people with financial problems, I think this description fits.

The Masterminds (INTJ)

Aaron at The Mad Hat is an INTJ, described as:

INTJs are idea people. Anything is possible; everything is negotiable. Whatever the outer circumstances, INTJs are ever perceiving inner pattern-forms and using real-world materials to operationalize them. Others may see what is and wonder why; INTJs see what might be and say “Why not?!” Paradoxes, antinomies, and other contradictory phenomena aptly express these intuitors’ amusement at those whom they feel may be taking a particular view of reality too seriously. INTJs enjoy developing unique solutions to complex problems.

Aaron states on his biography that he has experimented with several areas of technology and the Web, presumably because that fits the classic INTJ curiosity factor. That comes through in his writings, which tend to span a variety of interests.

Conclusions

While this is a terribly unscientific test, the results do give us a bit of insight into our participants:

• The most frequent posters are predominately Extroverts
• The most sporadic posters are predominately Introverts
• Introverts, on average, spread the link love more
• Extroverts predominately focus on general observations and commentary (you’ll see more of their personal lives slipping into posts)
• Introverts predominately focus on specific solutions to specific problems (seems you’ll see more “how-to” from these people)

How is this helpful?

1. New bloggers can work out a lot of blog details based on their personality. For example, an INTP or INTJ would likely be excellent at technical, systematic topics, such as search engine optimization or arbitrage. More Extroverted personality types would likely be better at forming communities and teaching people how to network.

2. Current bloggers can revitalize a languishing blog by bringing it more inline with their true personality. Are you losing interest in your blog? Is your posting frequency plummeting? You’re likely putting on a facade that clashes with your personality.

3. Finally, this is just neat stuff. In fact, just reading through the material and writing this post has given me several potential new post ideas. Maybe it’s done the same for you.

Thanks to everyone who participated. Anyone else, feel free to post your test results in the comments. (By the way, if you’ve read this far, please link to this post. I’ve put many hours into this, and I could use some link love.)