See, after the discussions of SEO and Wordpress vs. Posterous vs. Tumblr are all concluded, after you've fiddled with all the plugins and argued over Thesis vs. ThemeForest, at some point you have to sit your ass down in the chair and come up with something to say. Now, this might terrify a few of you, but I'm willing to bet that most of you are looking forward to actually creating something instead of farting around with PHP.

Unfortunately, this kind of approach will just keep people guessing as to what the hell it is you're up to. And quite honestly, the entire "blogging as a way to keep people updated" is now pretty passe now that we have Facebook and Twitter and any number of other annoying little services that provide easier status updates.

So at some point you'll want to get a bit more serious about what your blog is about, which means you'll need to think about content strategy, which some people don't want to think about because they don't even know what underwear they're gonna put on right after they shower. Oops, did I forget to shower again? So many details in life. I digress.

Never fear, I'm going to break this thing down for you old school, and with any luck you'll be able to use this information to go kick some content ass during and after Blogathon.

Anyone who has been in the writing game for any amount of time knows that most (but not necessarily all) content emerges from three areas:

1. Your audience.

2. Your own expertise or interests.

3. Your point of view or opinion.

In other words, if I'm a crackerjack gardener, or if I have a certain political bent, or if I know my audience really wants to understand how to create web sites with PHP, then it's very easy for me to start creating content for them. Or at least, it's easier than if I don't know any of that and I just sit in my little coffee shop trying to figure out what I should say next on my Posterous. 

Let's look at each of these areas one at a time before we look at other stuff.

Sad to say, but if you don't have an audience, or if you don't know who your audience is, then you're not really a writer. Period, end of story, full stop. I started as a freelance journalist, and believe me, we learned this lesson early and often, and it's a shame that a lot of the bloggers I meet don't even have a concept of who their audience is. Yes, sure, they have "conversations" with people who leave comments and such, but they don't understand why their audience is visiting, what they want out of the blog, what they want to accomplish, and so on.

You've got to get a strong grip on your audience. You have to understand as much as possible about who they are, why they're reading your stuff, what they want out of your stuff, in what formats they like to digest content (audio, video, text, whatever), how often is often enough for updates, all that stuff. 

Just as important is having a sense of relating to your audience, an idea that doesn't seem all that important, but it is. For example, I'm an atheist and would find it very hard to sympathize or even try to fake my way through some religious content. Same goes for sports--most sporting events (except the Summer Olympics maybe) bore the ever loving crap out of me, so blogging about sports would probably be a no go. This isn't to say that I haven't covered religion or sports as a writer (because I most certainly have) it's just that I really couldn't get into the audience that much. The occasional baseball piece is probably okay, but devoting a whole blog to sports would be suicide.

The bottom line here? Any audience is okay. If you are religious, I'm not saying that you're a dumbass. What I am saying is, if you're religious and don't know that your audience is religious or whatever, then by God (see, irony!) you'd better find out or you're gonna be in trouble. There you'll be, blogging happily away about something and just totally lose your audience, or attract the wrong audience.

Someone once said that to be a successful writer, you must "write what you know." It seems like reasonable advice, except upon closer examination it's pretty chowderheaded to either say it or believe it. Look, at the end of the day, you gotta "know what you write" which is the exact opposite of the overused aphorism. If all you did was write what you know then we'd all be boring each other to tears before the day is out.

All that being said, yes, it certainly does help to gin up content ideas from your line of work, your hobbies, your interests, and what not, but don't limit yourself to stuff you've already mastered. If you're just learning about photography, it's quite all right to start blogging about your learning curve. The experts don't need this content, but there are plenty of other people out there who may want to follow along because you're going through the same kinds of things they are. In fact, in many ways, they'll appreciate your content all the more because they aren't ready to throw down f-stops and HDR techniques with the big boys (see? audience?).

So take an inventory of your skills and hobbies. Are you a rower? Are you training for a triathlon? Did you use your bricklaying skills to build a shed out back? Are you a gardener? Do you know a lot about camping and outdoors life? Are you a crafty person who can make their own clothes? Are you a marvelous cook? Do you moonlight as a magician? Have you written a book about snails? Do you enjoy American history and take tours of Civil War battlefields? Are you the world's leading expert in encryption standards and would benefit from more exposure on a blog? You get the picture.

If you've got a certain point of view, opinion, or way of looking at the world, then you can probably turn that talent on just about any topic space you want. For example, let's take atheism. Why not start a history blog that features famous atheists in history? Time each blog post to that person's birthday. Or how about a travel blog for atheists? Feature all the non-religious stuff in different cities that atheists might want to go visit. Or build a blog around atheist dating? You get the picture. 

Take any viewpoint or opinion and find your voice, because then you can use that voice to attract an audience. It works for the big magazines, and it'll work for you. If you don't believe me, just pick up any major magazine at random and you'll pick up their point of view almost immediately. I know if I want urbane and witty, I can go to GQ. If I want the straight dope on fitness with a bit of jock humor, I can read Men's Health. And so on.

Audience, expertise, point of view. If you can zero in on any one of those elements, you'll go a long way toward building a better blog. If you can nail two or three then you're going to have a runaway success because people will know exactly what it is you're going to deliver and be attracted to that. Think blog for outdoorsy atheists who want to escape annoying social media conversations about their atheism. Yeah, huge!

In all seriousness, this kind of thing takes a bit of homework and introspection, but once you've triangulated a bit, you can start drilling down into all kinds of neat areas, for example:

* Newbie content. The world is renewed every day with noobs who need guidance.

* Profiles and interviews. People love to read stories about other people. Especially if they're doing something those people are obsessing about.

* Reviews or stories about places. People love to know about places, especially if they relate to their skills and interests.

* Current events and news. Is something moving and shaking in your area of expertise? Tell us about it.

* React to someone else's content. Disagree, agree, whatever. Jump in there!

* Take up a controversial position in an argument. Not just for argument's sake (okay, do that if you want) but because you truly believe it.

* Explain how to do something. How-to material is always popular.

* Create a reference post. Do your homework, create content that readers can use for years to come.

* Create a roadmap or intro to your niche. Write the kind of blog post that everyone in your niche points to and says, "okay, read that first then come talk to me."

* Answer some frequently asked questions you receive. If you get the same question more than twice, it's time to blog about it.

* Do a liveblog or report from an event. 

* Write a series of posts that explain something complicated. You can't just fill your blog with 500-word pieces. If you are showing someone how to plant a garden, it may take 3-4 posts.

* Write a why-to piece. Similar to a how-to piece, except this explains why someone would want to take a certain approach over other approaches.

Okay, that's enough for now. See you at Blogathon!