I find anything to do with gossip, celebrities, or violence tends to work well. My best article ever was a criminal psychology piece on what to consider when committing the perfect murder, so people tend to be curious when it comes to the strange and macabre. I'd say sex sells as well, but hubpages are a bunch of puritans about that stuff.
Truthfully, just write often. Most non-fiction is just regurgitating old information in new and differently worded ways anyway. So as long as you update regularly and comment on other people's work (constructively, mind.
Someone suggesting a change or addition always catches the writer's attention more than a poorly worded platitude) you'll do fine. Word of warning though. I'm trying to become a novelist and used to post my award-winning short fiction here.
DON'T! This is where good stories come to die. No one seems to care and will never read it, though I wish it were otherwise.
Don't look at it as what they expect. Ask questions like this instead:-----------------------General-----------------------What do I want to write? What do I enjoy writing?
-----------------------Non-Fiction-----------------------What information can I take from my own life? What can I teach or wish I knew for my own interests/hobbies? What can I take from my job, other people maybe able to use?
What can I take from my life, other people maybe able to use? ------------------------Closing Notes------------------------Those were some examples. This question also brings to mind, a quote I often think of."Success follows what you want do.
There is no other way to be successful. " ~ Malcom S. ForbesDon't worry, about what others expect or desire from you.
Don't cage yourself in a mold. Write what you want to.
Think about your topic as if it were you needed the information that you are planning to provide.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.