Good article, but only one problem.

What you think is valuable might not be what others think is valuable.

For example, I spent a lot of years going to school researching and writing about economics, politics and history. Those seem like important topics that I would think, (mistakenly), that others would find value in learning about.

Nope.

The first article I wrote for Medium was about weight loss. People loved it! That was two years ago and it’s still my top article, generating about $10 a month, almost every month.

But weight loss is not something I can write easily about. I’m not really interested in it. I have little background knowledge about it. I can pound out copy about important things — the labor market, or chances of another recession, or how the Democratic party is in crisis — but something banal and prosaic like weight loss takes a lot of motivation and research.

But that’s not the essence of the problem. I guess I just can’t see what other people find valuable. The thing that attracts people to weight loss articles, at least mine, is not insights about how to lose weight, but a need to talk bout food — the sight, smell, taste; I get more requests for recipes than you can imagine.

The recipe that works for me is to eat less and exercise more. Fewer calories in, more calories out. There is some additional nuance, but not much.

There are some interesting social and psychological angles, that’s not really what people seem to be looking for.

So my questions is, how do you find out what people value, and how do you write to satisfy that value without feeling like a mercenary?