Hey you! Yes, you. Name one or two topics you love talking about.

If your goal is to come up with content ideas to promote your idea, business or cause to the right people, could you incorporate those hot topics?

I happen to love moderating panel discussions. I find the experience (from start to finish) to be a thrilling combination of learning, planning, meeting people, live theater, improv, fun, plus a bit of terror all mixed together.

So when a friend challenged me to write an eBook, that's the first topic that leapt to mind. I've since turned similar content into a 30-minute webinar (audio and slides) and a SlideShare presentation (no audio, just Powerpoint slides).

Results to date: At least one big client and some interesting prospects, plus several gigs for you guessed it, moderating panel discussions.

You, too, can create and convert your content into multiple formats. Here are 5 secrets to keep in mind:

1) Passion: What are you passionate about? Work that into your topic and you'll have energy and spark to spare.

2) One word: Audience, audience, audience. Always create with your audience in mind. What do they want to know? What's essential? For each format I tweaked the content a bit to engage its audience. (In the webinar, I had a section and slide where I roleplayed "live" with another person to illustrate how to handle a panelist who goes off-topic. However, I deleted that section in the SlideShare presentation because it wouldn't have made  sense.)

3) Don't scrimp on looks! If you're not a great designer, by all means hire someone. It could be a college student or a professional designer (I've used both).

4) Social media is more than hype: If you share a version of your material with people on Twitter or Facebook, you're bound to get some good feedback that you can incorporate into your next version.

5) Be bold about promoting your content. Someone out there might really need it, enjoy it, find it useful or inspiring. So tweet about it, mention it on LinkedIn, talk about it on Facebook, put it on your blog. (And if you need help with any of these tools, let me know!)

Good luck, and happy creating.