Smart creators face this dilemma.

What kind of content should they create?

Based on a topic that is proven to work

Or one that they feel strongly about and one that will help them stand apart.

If you face the same dilemma at times, do this:

Start with one that people are already searching for in Google and YouTube.

To find the number of searches in Google you can use an app like Keyword Everywhere, and for YouTube you can simply see if there are existing videos on that topic with 10, 20 or 50k views.

With your content you can get a chunk of that audience 🙂

Then cover the topic you care for and about which you think you have a unique angle because it can establish you as someone who has different thoughts about ways things are done. This topic may get less organic views because people are not actively searching for it. So, give it a paid push to get it in front of people.

A great idea to explore this and other such topics will be to make an exploration queue and keep adding all such interesting ideas there.

Gather your initial thoughts about each topic, one after another whenever you get time. You can even schedule time every fortnight to tackle these. Either write or make a short video. And expand from there. After this initial exploration if you see that you have a lot of say on the topic you can convert it into a long form piece. If not you can definitely do a short video on each.

Later you can use the exploration video for social media. Once you build a big enough audience on social, you’ll be able to go to your audience there and ask them. “Hey, I am thinking of doing a video on ‘this topic’. Should I do it? What do you want to know about it?” That way you’ll be able to test ideas for engagement even before you do a lot about them.

In some cases, you’ll do some even when the audience does not engage a lot because that idea is important to you and you want to do it. And, because the audience doesn’t know what they need before they see it. Like nobody knew they wanted a car before Henry Ford and automobile pioneers gave them one. They just wanted a better horse cart 🙂 That said, respect the audience and do what they want and already searching for, most of the time.

Hope this helps in finding clarity.