Apparently, all you need is a high school education. At least that’s what the Blog Readability Test says. Type in your blog’s URL and it tells you what level of education is required to understand your blog.
I don’t know if this is good or bad. Does that mean I write clearly and succinctly enough that a high schooler could understand? Or does it mean that, despite four years of college, two years of grad school, and 25 years in the workforce, I can still only write at the high school level?
On the other hand, I did type in the URLs of a few of the blogs I read. At least one of them (I won’t say who, so as not to spoil the surprise for that blogger, since he might read this) has a Genius reading level. So, since I read that blog — and um, comprehend what I’m reading — I must be a genius, right?
UPDATE: Be careful here. As Keith Sibson points out, there’s a link to cashadvance1500.com (a Payday Loan site) in the HTML fragment that the site generates for copy and pasting. If you post the HTML on your blog without modification, you’re giving free advertising to a high interest lender.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, Blog Readability Test
What I wouldn’t give to be at High school level. I’m stuck at Junior High School level. Ouch!
And, I’m unhappy that I’m at the College Level. I think that means that ours is too complicated or hard to read. Yikes.
Thanks for sharing this site, Ron. Another good one is http://www.websitegrader.com
It also rates your blog in terms of reading level, but it also does a bunch of other stuff. And, it’s free
I’ll just respond with the same comment I made on a local blog: mini-treatise on readability. I spent some time working on this sort of thing on my current & previous jobs. (Also, I think it can get pretty badly skewed on pages w/out much text. My blog’s homepage rates Genius, but my most recent longish entry rates High School.)
I’m now wondering if throwing in a few vocabulary words will move mine up. Then again, my father is an English prof, and I have to be in the mood to have my mind expanded by his profundity… and that’s just in his regular correspondance.
@Suzanne
Thanks for the link to websitegrader…that’s a great resource and thank goodness it puts my blog at 1 year of college. I want to be as close to Ron’s score as possible!
Simply ridiculous that my blog full of mind-numbingly silly videos is rated “Genius.”
“If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius.”
— Larry Leissner
LOL – CU Communicator is likewise written at a HS level (hey, how come Ron is so much smarter than I am … ???!!!!).
Team Little Guy is written at an elementary school level, and is about 100 times more popular than CU Communicator.
Oh well, Happy Thanksgiving!
I’ve used this tool to rate my personal blog and several others I read and I don’t think it works!! I am a big fan of simple when it comes to reading online, but I don’t mind reading something difficult if it’s a hard copy. I think it’s because I’m never really all that comfortable when I read on my computer screen, plus there are too many distractions.
I’m sure glad I went to high school! My site got a College (Postgrad) rating, so now I feel very smart. Did you notice the html that was generated so you can display the rating on your website? Mine has a link to a cash advance/loan site (http://www.cashadvance1500.com). Makes you wonder if this is just some kind of gimmick.
@John: Now I’m bummed. I read your site, and I thought I was a genius for being able to do so. But you’re right — it’s probably just a gimmick. But it sure has a lot of bloggers running their URLs through it!
Day 1: My blog was ranked at a HS reading level.
Day 2: It was downgraded to JHS reading level.
The difference? Between day 1 and day 2, I used the word “perfunctory.”
Go figure.
@Cam: Maybe it’s the other guys you write with bringing you down.
Crap – since my blog got “Genius”, that means it’s unreadable. Looks like I need to work to bring the score down.
Beware, there’s a link to cashadvance1500.com (a Payday Loan site) in the HTML fragment that the site generates for copy and pasting. If you post the HTML on your blog without modification, you’ll be giving free advertising to a high interest lender.
@Keith: Thanks for that heads-up. I’m going to update the post to include that warning. It’s funny how many people have put their blog URL thru that “test” and taken the results to heart. As Terrell suspects, it’s probably just a bunch of BS.
Elementary School level and proud of it!
Not proud enough to post their little logo though……
I checked both Skybox and Nexus and was pleased to be in the high school ranks. Great resource! Thanks!