In my technical blogging book, which is very similar in intent to Justin's upcoming book, I wrote the following which might be helpful to someone here interested in the concept of tailoring personas.

>> MEET LAURA <<

Before you tailor content to your customers and answer their needs with your
expert voice, you must first understand who your prospective customers
really are.

Most marketers will tell you to think in terms of demographics. Your customers
are in such and such an age group, are of this gender, and earn within a given
salary range. All that info may be useful to know, but it’s not the way
to penetrate the minds of your customers.

To really feel empathy and understand what your customers want, what
confuses them, and what inspires them, you need to get personal. You can’t
put yourself into the shoes of a whole demographic, but is possible to imagine
one typical prospective customer and get to know that person better.

Let’s say that your company sells educational iPad applications that are
designed for young children. Who is your prospective customer? Well, let’s
see. She is a mom; let’s call her Laura. How old is she? Let’s say 33. OK, how
many children does Laura have? Probably two. What ages? Hmm, a three-year-old
daughter and a five-year-old son. What’s her profession? She used
to be an accountant, but now she does bookkeeping for small businesses
from home so that she can spend more time raising her kids.

You get the idea. You can use this thought process to create a detailed profile
of a possible customer and ask yourself questions in your head to get to know
your target users better. Now assume that Laura doesn’t know about your
iPad applications and you want to reach her through your blog.

Will Laura find you when researching Objective-C vs. JavaScript-based mobile
apps? Well, based on Laura’s profession, that’s very unlikely. What does
Laura, a concerned parent who wants the best for her children, care about?
What worries Laura? What is Laura’s main objective? What’s her problem in
relation to the solution that you have to offer?

It’s easier now to understand your customer because you can imagine how
this person would react to what you write. You can also better assess what
kind of questions your customer has and answer them. If you are an iPad
developer, you may take many of your customers’ questions for granted.

What is obvious to you may not be to Laura. When you think about Laura, you can
come up with all sort of questions that your posts should answer:

• Are iPads safe for young children to use?

• Is the iPad a good educational tool for children ages three to six?

• Can you use a pen to write on the iPad screen?

• What are some clever ways to use mobile devices to encourage children to learn?

• Are there fun iPad games aimed at young children?

• Is an iPad or an Android tablet better for educational purposes?

• Should parents buy their children an iPad?

• What can children learn through the iPad?

• What are the best iPad apps for young kids to use?

• Should children spend their time on the iPad?

• How do I teach mathematics to preschool kids?

• What software can teach young children how to read?

• Is software beneficial for the development of your child’s brain?

• How can you assess and improve your child’s IQ?

• How can you prepare your children for elementary school?

• How can parents and children use the iPad together to learn and bond?

• What’s the difference between the iPad Wi-Fi and the iPad Wi-Fi + 3G?

These are just a few random examples of questions your posts could answer.
Notice that some of these questions aren’t even iPad specific. Laura is interested
in her kids’ education first and the iPad is just a tool that can help her
with that goal. Talk about the iPad by all means, but focus on what the
customer really wants to know.

Though this exercise may appear silly, you really need to connect with your
customers at this depth in order to help them find your blog and, in turn,
your products. Put yourself into their shoes, and if you have access to early
customers, listen to what they tell you so as to better gauge what you can do
to address their questions.