Hello, Posterous (and everywhere else in social media land), I have been putting alot of things off, but since I am supposed to be known for my social media prowess(by my friends mostly) than I figure I should start practicing what I preach.  I am many places on the web, but I figure I would try out Posterous as  a place to post more casually about web development, SEO, content strategies and managing online presence.  So, to start, content is key. Alot of people say content is king, but I prefer the metaphor of a key.  It opens possibilities, it gives you access to the online community and what others are thinking.  Now, using online content to learn is wonderful, you follow the relevant sources out there and you are bound to pick something up, but really, where does that get you?  I don't care what business you are in, having a website is crucial in this day and age to reach your audience.  Now, you don't have to be a web guru to get your point across, you need to be able to convey your message clearly and easily.  You are an expert.  It is true.  You know about things and see the world as no other individual.  You need to get these ideas out into the world, you need to show others that you are a valuable stop on the information super-highway.  Seriously.  Every business can benefit from a website, but having an "About Us" page and an email address is not going to cut it any more.  you need to have pages and pages of content and these pages need to be updated or added to on a regular basis.  You need to have a blog up where you can post ideas on a regular basis.  People want to know you are there and care about what you are speaking on.  Content leads in to leads, content adds substance to your website, in short: content builds credibility.  Here are some ideas to help you get started on building content for your site:

1. Get someone to interview you.  Sound crazy? Well, it's not, think about it.  You are the expert and it is often too difficult to look from an outsiders perspective, have someone ask you questions about your line of work.  Recently I was helping a realtor with their website and they were out of blog ideas, so I thought about it and said, "Alright, what is the first step in buying a home?" They looked at me like I was stupid and they are right, I don't know about buying a home and that is kind of the point, by me just thinking about real estate I just thought of questions I would like answered. It's hard for a realtor to think like that.  Just sit down for a chat with a friend or relative, buy them lunch or coffee and have them ask you questions.  Make sure to bring a pad with you.
2. Always jot down ideas.  When I sit in front of a computer ready to blog my mind will inevitably go blank.  After dealing with this phenomenon long enough I realized your brain doesn't have ideas when you want it to, they just come naturally.  Have a notepad or scrap of paper and pen on you at all times to capture these little thoughts.  You may think they are easy to remember but they are often hard to recall, always write them down.  I keep a text file on my computer called "notes", any time I have an idea I write it in there regardless on what it pertains to, don't try and organize it just keep throwing little notions in there.  After a month or so, go through it and clean it out.
3. Paginate your business.  I recently worked on a flower shop website and in the process of developing their web presence had to organize their business into categories.  This later helped me organize their website into specific pages.  Every site will have atleast these three pages: Home, About, and Contact.  But after that what is there?  You do not want to load these pages down with topics or ideas that may not fit exactly.  The home page is to give a brief summary about yourself or your business, the about page goes into more detail about the history of your business or how and why you got started doing what you are doing.  The contact page should just be the info to get in touch with you(phone number, business address, email, etc...)  Visitors are going to want to see what your services are and are going to want to know that they are at the right place.  For that flower shop I spoke of earlier, part of how they make an income is through weddings, I did a little analytics and keyword research and found this was big business, so I created a page devoted solely to weddings, I interviewed them to find out the relevant content and then expounded upon it.  I found out the process from beginning to end, all the different aspects that are involved, and then added images of wedding that they had done.  That way, when someone comes to their site looking for wedding info, they can go right to the relevant page.