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How to Become a Keyboard Content Creator Without Burning Out

HubertTheMad

283

Keyboard Club Member

Mar 4, 2025122 VIEWS

What DaVinci Resolve looks like usually when editing sound tests.

TL;DR

This article is geared towards beginning content creators or those interested in content creation. If you're a content creation veteran, this may not be useful for you.
These are just my opinions. What may work for me may not work for you!
This is NOT for someone who is focused solely on making money from being a keyboard content creator or to maximize views, likes, or subscriptions.
There is no foolproof strategy for success.
Create, create, create. Take the leap and put out content, even if it isn’t perfect.
Networking is key!
Take Breaks When Needed.

Article Sections (CTRL + F To Jump To These Sections)

Intro
Disclaimer
What IS a Keyboard Content Creator?
The Fear of Failure
How 1: Create, Create, Create
How 2: Find out what YOU enjoy
How 3: Networking
“Mistakes”
How 1 (Create, Create, Create) “Mistakes”
How 2 (Find out what YOU enjoy) “Mistakes”
How 3 (Networking) “Mistakes”
Not Taking Breaks/Having Balance
Conclusion

Intro

“The keyboard hobby is dead.”

Have you heard this recently? Especially for those who were in the hobby between 2019 and 2021, it does make sense why someone may tell you that the hobby is dead. When you compare the number of interest checks, group buys, items, and people in general during that time frame to today, there are drastically fewer of all four. Does this mean that the state of the hobby is worse than before? Well, that’s a topic for another time, but there’s an aspect of the hobby that is much different these days versus back then. Content creators (and content creation in general). With many keyboard content creators recently choosing to pursue other interests or quit content creation in general, if you’re an aspiring keyboard content creator, you may wonder if it’s “smart” to put yourself out there and try your hand at it. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking a break to focus on other things, whether it be voluntary or involuntary, and like Neil Young sang about, it may very well be better to burn out than fade away, but let me be the first to tell you that there’s never a better time to become a keyboard content creator. Yes, it’s just my opinion, and you may disagree with me (it is totally fine to disagree by the way), but if you ask me… the opportunities are endless, and if you have even a hint of curiosity about becoming a keyboard content creator, I'd say go for it.

Fantastic article by Cobertt touching on this subject. But Hubert, HOW do I get started? What do I have to do? What things should I avoid? Whether you’re trying to kill time at work, need to pretend to be reading something, or are genuinely interested, allow me some time to explain. Maybe you’re someone who’d rather listen instead of read! Well, have no fear, I’ll also be recording a video and uploading it to my YouTube channel talking about the same exact things I’ll be talking about here. Regardless of which form of content you enjoy, I do want to say that I appreciate all of you, first and foremost. Whether you spend 30 seconds or 30 minutes consuming my content, I truly am thankful. We all are busy and have more important things to do than read (or listen) to some dude going on about keyboard content creation, so I get it! No matter how much time you spend reading or listening to my content, I want to say THANK YOU. You all are the reason why I love creating content, and you all are what makes this community great! Without further ado, let’s get to the disclaimer portion of this article. Disclaimer Unless it’s absolutely not applicable, I usually have a disclaimer portion to my articles or videos. Why? Because I sometimes forget that when I’m consuming content, it’s just one person’s opinion. Sure, it may be very valuable information, and a lot of times, I learn something new, but I feel like when it comes to keyboard content, I sometimes tend to forget that for most things in our hobby, it’s all subjective and a matter of preference, and I think it can be very helpful to remind ourselves of this. Maybe it’s a video about the best budget endgame board that’s come out in 2025. Or the “Jane Killer” or the next best switch. At the end of the day, don’t forget that the most important thing in this hobby (besides making financially healthy decisions) is your enjoyment. If you enjoy a QK60, a Neo60 doesn’t mean that your QK60 is rendered obsolete. If you enjoy Cherry MX switches, you don’t have to stay up-to-date with the latest and greatest switch offerings. If someone says that a board or keycap set you like is absolute trash, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be enjoying that board or keycap set. Remember… you’re the one enjoying the hobby! We all have different opinions, and that’s what makes the hobby so great. When it comes to becoming a keyboard content creator without burning yourself out, do know that these are just my opinions. I feel as though my experiences definitely will help (or I wouldn’t be writing this article), but I also know that each of us has a different set of circumstances and experiences. What may be feasible or work for me may not be something that works for you. I have no doubt that you can do the complete opposite of what I say and still make it work because there are so many factors that go into content creation and so many metrics to use to determine what you, yourself consider to be indicative of success.

Don't feel like you have to make hours of sound test content if you don't want to! Just know that it’s okay to go about things a different way if, at the end of the day, you’re enjoying your content creation journey and you haven’t burnt yourself out! If something I say is helpful, I’m glad. If not, I still appreciate the time you spent reading this article or listening to my video. Also, I may seem like a broken record, but I want to remind everyone that I’m not sponsored by any brand, I don’t get paid to talk about any specific item, and I don’t get any sort of kickback from products that I do mention. My words are my own, no one’s told me what to say, and this is truly what I believe. But enough of me. Let’s go over what I mean about being a content creator! What IS a Keyboard Content Creator? Simply put, a keyboard content creator is someone who makes keyboard content (duh, I know)! Expressing yourself through some sort of medium by sharing keyboard-related topics or items with the world. Articles like these, YouTube videos, pictures, you name it, if you’re sharing something keyboard-related, you’re a keyboard content creator! I used to think of content creation the same way as I thought about social media (to this day, I try to have zero social media presence when it comes to my personal life. My “brand” of HubertTheMad has some social media presence, but that’s about it), which was to look down on it. I didn’t look down on others who were content creators (my father always used to say that for the most part, if someone puts forth effort, they deserve at least some sort of respect), I just didn’t think that I’d have any interest in the concept at that time. I still don’t really consider myself a content creator, but then I stopped to think about what it meant, at least to me. Keyboard content creation was a way that I could help my friends who were in the hobby (designers specifically) to get their name out there. It was also a way to give back to the community that had been (and continues to be) so great to me. When I was young, I wondered why someone would want to be a teacher. I remember being a brat when I was in Kindergarten, and my teacher at that time (Mrs. Houmand) probably had her hands full with trying to corral a bunch of unruly kids while simultaneously trying to impart some sort of wisdom to make us better people. Teachers all have their reasons why they became one of course, but I realized that it was a way of giving back and helping the future generation. What better way to say thank you to someone or an institution like a school than to give back? Especially with time and effort. Yeah, money is all well and good, but the most valuable commodity we have in life is time. I was taught at a young age that the biggest way to say thank you or to show love was to spend time passing on knowledge or trying to make the world a better place than you left it, regardless of scale. Who knows? You could be changing the world one act at a time.

I absolutely love making guide videos. So when it comes to being a keyboard content creator, I don’t care about views, subscriptions, making money, or any accolades that may come from it. I simply want to help my friends and the community as a whole. Yes, views can help grow your platform in order to help or get the word out at a larger scale, but I firmly believe that if you’re genuine and truly passionate about what you do and how you do it, helping even one other person or getting the word out about a project that a designer’s working on so it reaches someone that may be curious about it will lead to growth. If you want to help a hundred people, you gotta always start with one. Could you determine whether you’re a “successful” content creator purely by views, subs, or how much money you make? Sure. But remember, we all have different metrics and what I may consider as being successful may not be what someone else considers being successful. Is there anything wrong with wanting to sustain yourself financially through keyboard content creation? Of course not! But there’s a reason why the article that I’m writing and that you’re reading is not titled “How to Make a Living as a Keyboard Content Creator” and is about avoiding burning yourself out. The Fear of Failure

“Why not you?”

Now, there are some people who absolutely despise motivational speakers or motivational talk. There is not one foolproof method or mantra that will work every single time or may be helpful to every single person because we all look at things differently and what resonates with me may not resonate with you. I’m going to be very careful here because the last thing I want to do is to have this end up as some kind of self-help article or make it seem like I have all the answers for all the problems you may encounter as a keyboard content creator. But, again, this is what helped me and what I experienced, and if they can be somewhat helpful to you, or you end up being able to mold what I say into your own words or your own strategies, then I’ve done what I set out to do, which is help you become a keyboard content creator without burning yourself out. Something that I’ve personally experienced and have seen end a person’s journey in a hobby before they’ve even started is a lack of confidence and the fear of failure. I grew up playing many sports. Some were somewhat “forced” upon me by my parents to keep me out of trouble (or so they didn’t go crazy with having to deal with kids 24/7), and some I forced upon myself. Football (or soccer as it’s known in the US), American Football, basketball, baseball, tennis, wrestling, boxing, track and field, you name it, I probably played or participated in it. But for the sports or activities that my parents didn’t sign me up for, I always had this barrier that I had to overcome first.

I had the chance to meet Scott Kelly, and he told me that he also had to fight against the fear of failure throughout his life. It’s natural to be afraid to participate in something or to create something - especially if it’s a new experience! I remember when I first started boxing in high school, I tried to come up with excuses or reasons not to go to training. I was scared! What if someone knocked me out? What if I looked like an idiot? What if I didn’t like it? I immobilized myself with “What ifs,” and the fear of failing was a daily struggle. But then, a good friend told me that what I was feeling was normal! He felt the same way when he first started. Everyone feels afraid or thinks that they’re going to embarrass themselves when they first start out. However… if we gave up before we even gave it a go, especially if it was something we were interested in versus being somewhat “forced” to do, we’d never get anywhere in life. Fear of failure may result in you never end up asking out the girl (or guy) that you had a crush on, you’d never try new things, you’d never travel to new places, you’d never learn new skills, you’d never apply to the colleges you’ve been wanting to go to, you’d never apply for the job that you’ve wanted, the list goes on. You know those sayings like, “The first step is the hardest?” Yeah, I thought that was a bunch of nonsense. And maybe every step is the hardest! For me, however, realizing that I was the type of person who would always have to fight against my fear of failure and that the first step really was the hardest when it came to new experiences really helped me and my mindset when it came to new things. I realized that “failure” didn’t necessarily mean being turned down (girlfriend, school, job, team) for me. For me, “failure” meant not giving it a go or trying in the first place. I could live with being rejected, but what gnawed at me was whenever I was scared to try something or to do something. Cue that meme about “The worst she can say is no” Hahaha. But seriously, if you’re like me, don’t be scared of “failing” when it comes to keyboard content creation! Why not you? If you’ve got the drive and the willingness to learn and make mistakes over and over again, if you understand that you’ll constantly be learning and improving and not rush things, the opportunities are out there. If you have even an ounce of interest when it comes to creating keeb content, stoke that flame! Does that mean you have to stick with it if you end up not liking it? Nope. But even if you stop, that doesn’t mean that you’ve failed, because you’ve done something that’s to be commended. My son read Teddy Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech for speech class last year, and in that speech, there’s a very famous excerpt that I’ll share here.

I don’t know what he actually meant to say, and maybe there’s a deeper meaning behind this part of the speech, but what I got out of it was that it takes guts to put yourself out there. Whether someone makes fun of you, applauds your effort, or doesn’t care, the fact that you decided to participate versus the fear of failure stop you from attempting to create keyboard content should give you immense satisfaction, and I for one respect you for taking that leap if you do so! So don’t let the fear of failure stop you from becoming a keyboard content creator. If you want to give it a go, if you feel strongly about it, or if curiosity gets the best of you, full steam ahead! Why not you? How 1: Create, Create, Create Alright, let’s actually get into the meat and potatoes of creating content. Now, I again want to emphasize that this may not be what you, yourself may want to do in terms of starting the process. This is just what I realized would be a good way to start based on what I wanted to do and what skills (or lack thereof) I had. Regardless of what you actually create in terms of content, you need to keep creating. Whether it’s the same type of content or other categories of content, create, create, create! I’m someone that learns by doing, and since I was young, I loved making crappy home videos and recording funny skits. During school, whenever we had an assignment where we had an option of making a video, my friends and I would always choose the video option, making complete fools of ourselves and looking like idiots for the majority of videos, but having a blast doing so. Even though I wouldn’t consider myself a videographer by any means, I learned at a young age that I actually enjoyed making videos and editing them. Maybe you love taking photos or interviewing people. Maybe you like writing articles. Maybe you want to dabble in everything! It doesn’t matter what medium of keyboard content you create, what matters when starting off is the act of actually creating said content. Continuously improve your skills, learn and find out more about what you’re doing, and put in that consistent effort day in and day out. When you hear someone say, “The hobby is dead,” you should instead be hearing, “There’s opportunity out there to create content,” and then go to work. Consistency, consistency, consistency. Look at some of my first videos. They’re absolutely awful. Not just in a “sound test” video sense, but just in a video sense. They were just sound test videos with a broken Blue Snowball mic that I had since 2014, and I had no idea how to set it up. Did that stop me? Nope! Did I think that it was ever going to amount to anything? Nope! You’ll get some comments that are either constructive criticism or just criticism in general, but as long as you keep at it and continue to improve, that’s all that matters.

Even though I cringe a bit when looking back at previous videos, we all start somewhere! I may have enjoyed making videos when I was young, but it had been a good decade since I even touched a camera or camcorder, let alone editing software, so, of course, my first pieces of content were janky. And people definitely let me know! However, as I was saying in the previous section, my biggest hurdle was starting. Once I started, I no longer had a fear of failure, and it was full steam ahead. Sometimes, you have to make those mistakes, even if you’ve researched what to do and what not to do, in order to not only grow as a person, but as a content creator, and what better way to grow than by doing? Especially if you can do so with little or no money spent. For the first few years, I use a cheap 14-year-old camcorder that I borrowed from my dad (up until very recently, when I bought him a new Sony camera and bought his old one), I still use the free version of DaVinci Resolve to edit, and I used Audacity until I decided to pay for a Reaper, and I still use Paint and GIMP along with a bunch of other free software (OBS) when it comes to videos and editing.

DaVinci Resolve's free software is powerful! You don't have to go out and buy the latest and greatest pieces of equipment to get started. I think that’s a HUGE mistake that many of us make whenever we’re learning something new or experiencing something for the first time. I still remember getting made fun of during middle school basketball practice for wearing Wal-Mart Shaq shoes when everyone else had Jordans or the latest and greatest basketball shoes. The same goes for making keyboard content as well. If you’ve got a smartphone, you can take pictures or video! Then pick free software to edit said picture or video if you need to edit and then go to town. Get as much out of as little as you can, and if/once you do upgrade, the skills you learned using equipment that may have been suboptimal will carry over.

And, like Muhammad Ali said, “The will must be stronger than the skill."

In the event that you realize that content creation may not be for you, there won’t be a massive bill looming over your head either if you start with budget equipment. Get started making content using the skills and equipment you have, enjoy and have fun making that content, and keep at it. If you’ve got the desire or the interest to keep creating, ride that drive and keep creating content at your own pace. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes! It’s also more difficult to get burnt out when you’re enjoying things and learning at your own pace and learning what you want to learn versus feeling like you’re “forced” to. Some people may only see the end result. They won’t know how much time and effort you’ve put in, but that’s okay! Take it one step at a time, slowly improve, and add more and more skills to your repertoire, and don’t feel like just because you may not be able to make the “best” content with the “best” equipment, you shouldn’t create content. In this day and age, you can do a lot with less! And if you enjoy creating content, the chances of burning yourself out lessen. How 2: Find out what YOU enjoy

Enjoying and learning about stuff you enjoy makes the hobby so fun! I learned to desolder partly to mod my G710+. For me, motivation comes and goes. I’m not going to be motivated every single day or have the same level of energy or excitement every second of every day. It’s normal to not want to work on your next article or video, or to have a break from creating content and just enjoy the hobby at your own pace! Remember… This article isn’t about how to make money or sustain yourself from the content you create. It’s a marathon and not a sprint. Unless you have specific deadlines to meet or people depending on you, don’t feel like you have to do something that you don’t want to do. Now, when you DO land that first opportunity to review something with a deadline, obviously you’ll have to be professional and stick to the dates, but starting from scratch, unless you already have a foot in the community or know someone (or are coming from another hobby/you have a fan base already), you won’t have to worry about deadlines or people waiting on you. Take this time to find out what YOU enjoy! Be creative, try new things, and add more tools to your toolbox. The more you learn and the more skills you pick up, the less burnout you may encounter since everything’s so new and it’s just a blast to learn things. Maybe you realize you absolutely love taking pictures. That’s great! Continue to do that. Then, maybe you decide that you want to see what all the fuss is about when it comes to reviewing items. Give that a go as well. Then, perhaps, you can put it all together by reviewing items and taking fantastic pictures in various environments, creating a beautiful and valuable album for others to look at. Then, maybe you want to try and create videos and even learn about mic etiquette and the pros and cons of sound tests. And you know what? You gotta edit everything in order to create an end product that you’re happy to share! Do you know why some people tend to burn out when it comes to content creation? One aspect is because they end up having to create content in order to sustain themselves financially or they’re obligated to do this or that. Sometimes, they may end up having to do something or create content they may not necessarily want to (if someone doesn’t want to cover an item, yet they feel like they’re obligated to for whatever reason versus someone that’s passionate about covering an item on their own time). Again, there’s nothing wrong with making money or ending up turning your content creation hobby into your job (the definition of a hobby is something you do on the side compared to your job, so it’s no longer going to be a hobby). The trap is when you have to do things that you don’t want to because you have no choice due to depending on content creation being your job. It’s like when you were young. If you were told to clean up your room, you probably didn’t want to do it, but if you came to that idea organically and by yourself, you’ll enjoy it more. Or, at least, that’s what I was like as a kid, and it drove my parents crazy!

One of my favorite things to do is to solder! So do know that while you may end up being able to turn your hobby into a job, remember that there’s something to be said about still having full creative control and being able to set your own deadlines without worrying that you have to “sell out” or change the type of content you create in order to meet some sort of quota or make someone else happy. If you truly are happy creating content, you obviously can take breaks here and there, but the chances of burning out from enjoying a hobby is far less than being obligated to enjoy a hobby in a specific way that isn’t your ideal way of enjoying it. Having to feel like you have to stream for hours every week, needing your videos to hit a specific number of views, or being told to cover a product in a specific way that prevents you from actually giving your opinion. When you feel like you have to create content in a specific way or cover an item in a specific way, you may burn yourself out faster compared to having full creative control and doing what you, yourself enjoy. How 3: Networking

Never forget how much time and effort you put into your first big "break," and you'll stay humble! There’s something magical about being in the keyboard community and being friends with someone, then finding out that they want to start designing. I talked about this in my “Why I Love Prototype Runs and Helping Keyboard Designers” article, but it’s like the hobby comes full circle for them. At first, they’re just hobbyists. Learning about whatever parts of the hobby interest them, slowly figuring out what their preferences are, and even getting to a point where they’re able to pass on knowledge to the new generation like those who helped them when they got into the hobby did. Then, they realize that they want to try their hand at designing keyboards or keycaps. They learn about Blender or some other graphics software and soon enough, your friends end up creating ICs and GBs themselves (or selling items/designing items)! Just like creating content, it takes a lot of gumption to actually put yourself out there and design, especially publicly sharing what they’ve created, leaving themselves open to comments that are either positive, negative or a mix of both. I respect anyone who puts forth effort to design something, regardless of whether or not it even gets to a point where the item is offered for sale. But, of course, not every friend you meet becomes a designer, or every designer you meet becomes your friend. Just like in the real world, however, if you’re someone who’s able to network and make connections, it can go a long way when it comes to content creation. Does that mean you always need to have an ulterior motive when talking to someone or befriending someone? Do you have to form deep relationships with everyone who sends you items to review or create content on? No. However, there’s something to be said about befriending people in the hobby and ending up in networking opportunities with either they, themselves, or someone else. I didn’t become friends with James or Bloody because I wanted to review their products or create content for their products. I became friends with them because I genuinely liked them as people. They’ve never asked me to review their products, and I never feel obligated to buy every single project they work on.

My relationship with Hoff started with me sending him a Discord message saying thanks. The same goes for Hoff! I knew about him even before he started working for Drop, and I reached out to him before I even knew that he was someone who was in charge of many different content creator initiatives. I simply wanted to express my gratitude for all the things that he’s done for the hobby, and then slowly became friends with him. Did I know that he would eventually offer me an opportunity to not only review Drop items (which I buy with my own money, of course) but to also write these articles? Absolutely not! There was no ulterior motive there. Our relationship started with me thanking him, and then talking with him as a friend. I’ve been in sales for most of my life, and I realized that you essentially “sell yourself” in many ways. Job interviews, college applications, when making friends, and even meeting your eventual spouse! So being a salesman isn’t necessarily a negative even though it may have negative connotations. Selling yourself or self-improvement is essentially having confidence and belief in yourself and continuously bettering yourself. You don’t necessarily have to “get anything out of it” other than becoming mentally and emotionally healthy and strong just like you don’t necessarily have to “get anything out of” befriending someone in the keyboard community. Saying thanks to a designer, vendor, content creator, or anyone in general who’s made an impact in your life or created something you enjoy can seem like a very small gesture, but most of the time, it can make a really big impact. I’m not saying that you should be fake, but kindness in general can open up opportunities, even if the actual reason that you reached out was to genuinely say thank you or that they did a good job.

Saying thanks to Arq. The word “networking,” like being a salesman, also can have negative connotations, because it may seem like you want to get something out of every single relationship to put yourself over, but that’s not the case at all. At its core, networking is simply making connections and building relationships, which is what friendship is all about as well. You network when you date someone and you meet their friends or family. You network when you are in class with a teacher and classmates. You network by saying, “Thank you” and calling your lunch lady by her last name during elementary school. You’re making connections and building relationships without needing any other motives! When you think about networking in that sense, you won’t feel like it’s a chore, and you won’t get burnt out by trying to make those connections because you genuinely care about that person and want to make that connection instead of feeling like you’re forced to. “Mistakes” If I told you every single time my recording software or editing software crashed and I lost everything I was working on before I realized that I needed to be saving, you’d think that I was a masochist. Obviously, I’d rather not lose hours of work, but sometimes, that’s when you really learn and what really drives home the point of learning from your mistakes. You’re going to make mistakes just like in every other aspect of life. Maybe you accidentally recorded over some b-roll and you have to record again, even though you’ve put everything away. Maybe you realized that one or two of your mics were muted or had issues capturing audio, losing chunks of your sound test video. Maybe you’ve overextended yourself and ended up having to make content for three different keyboards over a span of two weeks. I’ve made every single one of these mistakes, and I’m sure I’ll make many more in the future, but apart from editing or time management issues, I wanted to talk about mistakes you may encounter. How 1 (Create, Create, Create) “Mistakes” I really want to drive home this point, even though I touched upon it above, but I thought I had to get everything perfect when I first started, which led me to not create as much content as I would’ve if I had listened to my future self writing this article. I’m not saying you can just be lazy when it comes to releasing content, but you really do learn a lot by doing, and there’s no better teacher than doing it yourself. I want to emphasize editing specifically. Yes, you may have a friend who will edit your videos or content for you, and maybe you end up outsourcing some of your work or paying someone to handle your content, but I truly believe that you should at least take a stab at the whole process a few times before you think about paying money or handing off the work to someone else.

Editing takes longer than the recording sometimes! DaVinci Resolve's free software is more than enough to get started with, but it can be extremely daunting to figure out how to use it, even if you read or watch tutorials. The best way I’ve found to learn DaVinci is actually by doing. Sure, I looked up how to do this or that every now and then, but I actually had to click here or drag there in order to fully understand how powerful the software was, and I’m not even scratching the surface! It’s not just editing either. Writing your own scripts or talking points, rehearsing, figuring out how to set up your sound recording equipment, how to take passable photos, lightning, it can be a lot, but you’ve got time! Starting off, you don’t have any deadlines or pressure to learn as quickly as possible, so go slow! Create content and slowly improve and learn new skills as you go. Secondly, you learn to appreciate the work that you have to put in when it comes to the entire process. Does that mean you have to go overboard like I do? Hundreds of hours of recording and editing? 9 to 12-hour sound test videos, long review videos, multiple mediums of content creation? No. Again, the focus here is to not burn yourself out, so create and enjoy as much as you can! And even if you decide to pass on some of that responsibility to a third party, at least you’ll have an understanding of how much work goes into content creation. Some things you may not have control over, but effort and the ability to continuously improve? It’s beautiful to see progression over time, especially if you, yourself can state that you did it all yourself. I also think there’s something special about doing everything yourself, especially if you don’t depend on content creation as a source of income. We’re our own bosses, and that’s so freeing. How 2 (Find out what YOU enjoy) “Mistakes” It really has to be worthwhile to you in order to push through. Not everything’s sunshine and rainbows, and an unshakeable belief that no matter what, you’ll create content the way you want to and enjoy it your way is crucial to avoid burnout. There are going to be some tedious aspects to making content, but if you can enjoy it the best you can, it won’t seem like such a hassle. For example, I love creating review videos, but I know that I have to capture some b-roll and find images that are relatable, which may end up taking longer than recording the actual review footage itself! But even though the editing process may be tedious, I love putting everything together and seeing the end result, so it’s always worth it for me at the end of the day. Reminding myself to take things little by little and not having to edit everything all at once is important to my enjoyment of creating content.

Looking back at the hundreds of video projects can also be humbling! Once you figure out what you enjoy, you can also hone in on those specific skills to work on and areas where you can improve. That’s not to say that you can’t continue to experiment and try new things, but for me, knowing what I enjoy makes the whole process more enjoyable and less stressful. If I were forced to cover a specific aspect of an item or create content in a medium in which I have no interest, that could lead to me not enjoying the process or burning out. I love the hobby, and I love the process as much if not more than the end result, and if you love what you’re doing, it’ll be tough to get burnt out. Even if you don’t see immediate results, keep at it! How 3 (Networking) “Mistakes” This does not necessarily impact me personally, because I don’t get things for free, and I’m not paid to create content for specific items, but I know that it’s an issue with content creation in general, and content creators make this mistake, so I wanted to touch on it. I’m going to talk about getting paid, and it’s kind of controversial. I have absolutely nothing against someone who gets free items to review, gets paid to create videos, or makes a living off of creating content. My issue, however, is when people automatically assume that they’ll be making money immediately.

Redacted info, but this shows that the willingness to do things for free doesn't put you at a disadvantage. Especially if you don't make keyboard content because of the money. You have to get your name out there, and that involves doing a lot of things for free. Reach out to said vendors or designers, show them examples of your work and make your pitch to them, and even tell them that you’d love the opportunity to cover their products for free, just so you can learn to make content and help them out and expecting nothing in return can be a huge boost when it comes to networking. Maybe you’ll get lucky and score a sponsorship at the beginning, or know people off the bat in order to get you set up with items to make content on, but that’s not common. You’re going to have to sacrifice a little at the beginning, you’ll have to continue perfecting your craft, sometimes for free, and you’ll have to work to grow those relationships and networks before you see any sort of benefit coming back at you if you’re interested in making money off of creating content or getting free things. You may also have to buy your own things to review to get your name out there, or possibly borrow from friends versus relying on someone sending you things to review. I had amazing neighbors and friends who allowed me to make content on the boards they bought at the beginning. You're going to have to make some sacrifices and do a lot of things for "free" and even buy your own items before you might even land a sponsor or be able to review items. Being willing to slowly build your brand and possibly not getting any sort of return for a while at the beginning may very well be a reality. Not Taking Breaks/Having Balance Remember that this is just a hobby and an aspect of your life and not your entire life! The best part of being your own boss and doing it for the love of the hobby versus being forced to make content in a specific way is that you are able to control how much or how little you work on your content every single day. Don't have the energy to edit a video after work and after spending time with your spouse and/or your kids? Relax! Have writer's block or can't seem to come up with a new idea for a video? Take your mind off of things and do something else! Realizing that you've put other hobbies on the backburner or that you need to focus on something else before coming back to a video or article? Go ahead. This article is for those of us that don't rely on content creation to make a living, so we have the privilege of being able to take breaks and focus on other aspects of what makes life worth living versus always having to burn the candle at both ends and spend time creating content when you should instead be creating memories with your friends and family. If you stay mentally, emotionally, physically, and financially healthy, the content you create will be of a higher quality compared to if you're stressed or feel like you have to always meet deadlines. Conclusion

My favorite part of the hobby. Meetups. 2023 Iowa meetup, picture taken by Jack/Pikatea. I’m not a “large” content creator by any means, and you may think, “He’s not qualified to give others advice because it’s not like he’s as big as an Alexotos, Blacksimon, or LightningXI,” and that’s totally valid. I hope that you were able to get some useful information out of this, and that was my goal like with all my other articles and videos. If, by sharing my experiences and opinions, I may be able to help someone, then I’m happy. After all, this is an absolute dream for me. I get to make content about a hobby that I love! What’s better than that? It’s easy to be excited and passionate when you’re given opportunities to be yourself, especially having this level of freedom. Remember, I’m doing this purely because I enjoy it, and not because I have a goal of sustaining myself financially from creating content or because I want to get something out of this journey other than helping you, the community. If you get the opportunity to live your dream, why wouldn’t you make the most of every chance you get? If any of you out there are interested in becoming content creators, please do not hesitate to do so, first of all, but secondly, reach out or comment if you have any questions! I’m always available to chat, whether it be in the comments section, or privately through Discord (HubertTheMad#0073). It’s okay to dream big, but you have to start small at times, and as long as you don’t wait for that “perfect” time to start, reach out for any and every opportunity that you find worthwhile, and put yourself out there, you’re going to amaze yourself at the end of the day. Opportunity is out there, whether the hobby is “dead” or not! If you want to become a keyboard content creator, I believe in you! Thanks for reading, I love you all, and catch you next time.

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HubertTheMad

Keyboard Tips & Tricks - Volume 1

CTRL + F to quickly skip to each tip/trick below: Tip #1 - Cheap Dust Cover (Shower Caps) Tip #2 - Upgrade Your Wire Keycap Puller to Plastic Tip #3 - Test Your PCB/QC Your Board Before Building Soldering-Specific: Tip #4 - Take Your Time. Set Yourself up for Soldering Success Tip #5 - Using the Right Size Soldering Tip Tip #6 - Soldering Loose Switches/Plateless Builds - Rubber Bands Tip #7 - Fixing Crooked Switches After Soldering Extra Tip - Test Your PCB After Soldering… BEFORE You Put Away Your Soldering Equipment Intro & Disclaimer A recent mistake. Mixed three sets of beige PBT keycap sets and spent a good while having to separate everything... “I wish I had known about this sooner…” I can’t tell you the amount of times that I’ve said those words out loud, or thought about them when it comes to the keyboard hobby. Whether it’s what someone in the community has told me, or something I found out myself, even things that may seem so simple as using...

Mar 11, 2025

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HubertTheMad

How to Become a Keyboard Content Creator Without Burning Out

What DaVinci Resolve looks like usually when editing sound tests. TL;DR This article is geared towards beginning content creators or those interested in content creation. If you're a content creation veteran, this may not be useful for you. These are just my opinions. What may work for me may not work for you! This is NOT for someone who is focused solely on making money from being a keyboard content creator or to maximize views, likes, or subscriptions. There is no foolproof strategy for success. Create, create, create. Take the leap and put out content, even if it isn’t perfect. Networking is key! Take Breaks When Needed. Article Sections (CTRL + F To Jump To These Sections) Intro Disclaimer What IS a Keyboard Content Creator? The Fear of Failure How 1: Create, Create, Create How 2: Find out what YOU enjoy How 3: Networking “Mistakes” How 1 (Create, Create, Create) “Mistakes” How 2 (Find out what YOU enjoy) “Mistakes” How 3 (Networking) “Mistakes” Not Taking...

Mar 4, 2025

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ThereminGoatMK

How To Know Too Much About Keyboards

Every now and then, one of the questions I’ll get from a reader of my articles circles around trying to figure out why I know seemingly way too much about mechanical keyboards. “Where did you learn all of this information, Goat?” While having been around as an active part of the community for several years now and talking with other people in various places has certainly helped me learn quite a bit, the simple answer that I usually toss to people who ask that question is that I read… a lot. Yes, that’s right, reading. Given that the modern mechanical keyboard scene started around 2007-2008, and with vintage enthusiasts having interests that stretch multiple decades backwards from there, a lot of the core, fundamental knowledge base of this keyboard community was carved into stone in the form of solo written articles, blog posts, and forum arguments. In fact, I’d go as far as to argue that a good majority of the history and foundational knowledge that makes up this hobby is in the...

Feb 19, 2025

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ThereminGoatMK

What Even Is An "Artisan" Keycap?

Wouldn’t the proper phrasing for these be “artisanal” keycaps and not “artisan” keycaps? As I was looking through the ‘Mech Keys Guide List’ here on Drop a couple of weeks ago, I was surprised to see that there were effectively no articles detailing arguably one of the most unique and interesting niches of the mechanical keyboard community – artisan keycaps. In fact with each passing day I find myself sinking further and further into the depths of artisan keycaps and have gained an appreciation of them that far surpasses any expectations I could have ever had after getting my very first one. Despite artisan keycaps being fairly ubiquitous in this day and age, and with beginner friendly storefronts like Drop selling alongside prebuilt, accessible mechanical keyboard kits, I still find that those freshly diving into the keyboard hobby have a very skewed (mis)understanding of these kinds of keycaps, why they are priced the way they are, and all of the variety that exist out there...

Jan 29, 2025

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HubertTheMad

O-Ring 60% Boards And Why I Love Them

Top Left: CustomNeko (Bakeneko With Through-Weight) With KKB BoW And Accents, Top Right: Cannonkeys Bakeneko60 With GMK Norse, Bottom Left: Ciel60 With KKB Abyss, Bottom Right: Jixte60 With GMK Analog Dreams “Simplicity is boring, but I still love it.” - Sukant Ratnakar. When I first got into the hobby back in 2017, there was no way that I would’ve thought that I’d enjoy a 60% layout keyboard. Sure, maybe a 75% (I didn’t use the nav cluster for non-work situations, and when I was at work, I needed a numpad) in order to retain the function row, or, at the very least, a 65% where I had dedicated arrows, but a 60%? Absolutely no way! I need dedicated arrows! I need a function row! It’s funny how preferences change, huh? For the next installment in my “Why I Love” series (the first was the “Why I Love Prototype Runs And Helping Keyboard Designers” article I wrote a few weeks back), please allow me a bit of your time to explain to you not only why I love 60% layout keyboards...

Jan 25, 2025

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HubertTheMad

Desoldering, Mill-Maxing, and Why You Might Want to Learn Both

Thanks to StoryboardTech’s fantastic article, you finally learned how to solder! Or at least, you’re committed to learning. So, what’s next? Well, if you’re brave enough, why not learn how to desolder as well? And when you feel confident with that, how about Mill-Max? You don’t necessarily have to know or learn how to solder before learning how to desolder or Mill-max, but in my opinion, getting comfortable with soldering is a great step towards learning how to do the other two, and if you know how to solder, you can practice desoldering and mill-maxing to your heart’s content since you’ll already have the tools from learning how to solder! Well, at least most of the tools. Let’s start off with the good ol’ disclaimer section first, however. Disclaimer These are my own opinions and my own thoughts, and if I’ve learned anything in life, it’s that we all do things in slightly different ways. Whether it be deadlifting, desoldering, Mill-Maxing or even baking...

Jan 13, 2025

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