"I'm writing for everyone." I'm chagrined whenever I hear a young 
writer say that. I remember what it was like when I was starting 
out and felt my writing had to work for the broadest possible 
audience. Then I spent long painful hours struggling to sort 
through the endless sands of potential without a sieve, without 
an easy-to-use measure of what would work.

It was hard for me to accept that even the best writer can't help 
everyone at once. Years later, I heard my friend Kim Castle 
express the lesson best: "A point in every direction is no point 
at all."

Fortunately, I learned to address the universal through the 
specific; that the secret path to everyone's heart is to help the 
neediest person.

Remember in the 1970's when no one used wheeled luggage? Those 
who needed it most were pilots and stewardesses who had to carry 
their bags down the long access ramps to the gates. Someone 
kindly devised the perfect solution to their problem, and soon 
travelers from the eldest sophisticate to the wobbliest toddler 
were rolling their own carry-ons. Hikers with wheels on their 
backpacks, musicians with wheels on their amplifiers-suddenly 
everyone needed that edge to make their flights on time.

The secret to making your topic universal is to find the person 
who needs it most-the one who can benefit the most from your 
solution-and write to that person. This gives those who have the 
same problem to a lesser degree the chance to identify with the 
need. They'll see their own problem within the extreme case and 
want to share in the solution.

Feeling the Reader's Pain

The ideal reader is the person who needs your solution the most-
the person who is most affected by the problem and will receive 
the most benefit from the solution your content provides.

When you build a picture of this person in your mind, you can see 
the need for your solution more clearly. So spend time studying 
your reader. In this I agree with traditional marketers: find out 
the unique age, sex, location, interests, or other demographics 
that make this person most suitable for your solution.

But most important, you must discover your own feelings. Do you 
have a heart for this reader? Do you truly care about the pain 
the reader suffers? If not, you're going to have trouble getting 
the reader to care about your content or your solution. As 
Theodore Roosevelt said, "Nobody cares how much you know until 
they know how much you care."

The way to show the reader that you care is to sympathize with 
the pain they're experiencing. So study their pain. What are the 
consequences of not having the information or solution your 
content offers? Don't stop with just the physical results. 
Investigate the emotional burdens, the time and effort wasted, 
and the illogic of suffering with this problem any longer.

You must know these hidden costs intimately before you can truly 
understand the value of your material.

Managing Your Own Needs

When you know the problem's effect on a person in its most 
extreme case, you know the greatest value your solution can 
offer. Study what your solution is worth so that you don't 
undervalue your content.

Knowing your ideal reader also simplifies marketing your content. 
When you're aiming at a small niche, it is easier to communicate 
with prospects and find ways to connect.

You might be tempted to skip all this research because you 
believe you are writing for a person "just like you."

I hope not! I hope that you've solved the problem for yourself 
and are now offering the solution to others. Perhaps your 
solution is something you discovered that made a tremendous 
difference in your life, but the truth is you are no longer the 
person with the problem. You are the person with the solution! 
You are not the ideal reader.

When you identify too much with your reader, the reader can't 
tell how much you care about him or her. Your content begins to 
seem self-serving. Don't assume the reader will identify with 
your problems. Instead, show you care about the reader's 
problems.

To Build the Path, Show You Care

To show your reader how much you care, paint a picture of the 
problem your content solves. Sometimes the need is so strong, it 
doesn't take much to get the reader to identify with the problem. 
When the problem is subtle or insidious, you'll need to use 
stories of people who have experienced it. You'll want to include 
examples of the extreme case, but examples of those who are only 
subtly affected can help too. Go ahead and use autobiographical 
material as examples, but don't make personal stories your focus. 
It seems selfish. It's like talking about yourself all the time 
on a date!

Remember, you want another date; you want your reader to keep 
reading. So you have to show how much you care every moment 
you're writing. The reader-writer relationship makes an odd night 
out because the writer does all the talking. The only way you can 
show you care about your date is to show you listened carefully 
and understood deeply before you started to write.

So start today to listen for people who have the problem your 
content can solve. Empathize with their pain. Remember their 
stories. Learn to show you care and help them in the real world. 
Remember the results. Then roll all your experiences up into one 
ideal reader and keep that person in mind as you write. You'll 
find it's the magic sieve that tells you almost instantly what 
belongs in your content and what you can leave out-your best 
defense against writing mistakes. 

Award-winning writer Susan Raab is the creative force behind 
hundreds of business titles, bringing the Power of Clear to 
corporations and small publishers. For FR*EE articles and 
writing tips, visit http://www.ContentWheel.com