There's a whole range of different sound characters you can get out of the instrument by varying where you strike the string. None of them are right or wrong; they're all just part of the guitar's capabilities.
The closer to the middle of the string you are, the mellower the tone will be. If you pluck at the 12th fret, which is the middle of an open string, you'll get a round, pure tone almost reminiscent of a clarinet. If you want those pure tones, pick or strum as many frets down from the 12th as your chord is from the nut; e.g. if you're playing an open A, which is two frets down from the nut, you'd pick/strum at the 14th fret (or 13th if you want to strike an average with the open strings).
The closer you move to the bridge, the more the note becomes twangy and trebly. I make use of this when doing instrumental breaks in songs. I strum/pluck near the sound hole while I'm singing, and move down closer to the bridge for the instrumental break, causing the high strings to "cut through" more, and sound more like a solo.
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