Should You Become a Content Creator? ✏️
Shared reflections and life experiences after several years of content creation.
It has been several months since I joined forces with Luca from Refactoring. While I’m still actively writing and collaborating with the newsletter, I’ve managed to ease the pressure of weekly publishing. This shift has given me the opportunity to step back and reflect more deeply on my content creation journey.
My own path into content creation started as a personal challenge, but as my audience grew, I found myself caught in a spiral that nearly led to burnout.
However, I recognize that my experience is just one perspective. That’s why I asked Luca to join me in writing this article and to share his insights alongside mine.
While Luca and I are very aligned in what we write, our experiences as content creators differ. As I mentioned, I started writing to challenge myself, and this newsletter became a sort of side hustle. On the other hand, Luca had a more structured approach with Refactoring, turning it into a true business, which eventually became his full-time job.
In today’s article, I’m going to explore the pros and cons of content creation, discussing what it takes to succeed, and offering practical tips for those considering this path — from side-gig, to full-time work.
Here’s what we will cover:
🎭 What is a content creator — defining the role, the benefits and challenges.
🛠️ What it takes to succeed — essential skills and qualities.
🚀 Getting started as a creator — first steps and the required investment.
🔄 When to go full-time — recognizing the right moment to make the switch.
🎭 What is a Creator?
In today's digital landscape, a content creator is someone who regularly produces and shares content online, often building a community around their work.
Creators come in many forms: writers, podcasters, YouTubers, social media influencers, and more. They create value through their unique perspectives, skills, and experiences.
Nicola: "To me, content creation is a real job. You might start as a casual writer, but the moment you add consistency - which is the key ingredient in content creation - and you begin to see results, it quickly transforms into a job."
Luca: "To me, a content creator is someone who: 1) creates content regularly, and 2) has some business angle around the content — e.g. they upsell courses, subscriptions, or have sponsors. This definition makes sense to me when I try to go backwards: if you only do (1) e.g. you post a lot on Instagram, but there is nothing you sell or promote, are you a content creator? I would skew towards no. If you only do (2) e.g. you have a course on Udemy, but do not produce regular content, you are also not a content creator to me."
1) Benefits of Being a Creator 🌟
Being a content creator comes with several benefits that make it an appealing career path or side hustle:
🎨 Creative freedom — You have the autonomy to manage your time, choose your topics, style, and medium.
🏗️ Personal brand — Consistent content creation helps establish you as an authority in your niche, even helping your career.
🏖️ Flexible work — Enjoy the flexibility of working from anywhere, at times that suit you best.
📚 Continuous learning — Creating content often involves research, fostering personal growth and lifelong learning.
🍻 Networking — Interact directly with your audience, building a community and getting immediate feedback.
💰 Potential for financial independence — Monetize your work through sponsorships, affiliate marketing, or selling your own products/services.
Nicola: "For me, the best part is the connection I've built with my audience. It's incredibly rewarding to receive messages from readers telling me how my content has helped them in their careers or personal lives. This feedback fuels my motivation to keep creating and improving."
Luca: "For me there is a strong element of intrinsic motivation that comes from learning new things and clearing my thoughts about topics. These factors would stay relevant even if I had zero subscribers.
Now that Refactoring is larger, aside from the obvious business upsides, I am especially happy that the newsletter makes me connect with a lot of people, through emails and replies to articles.
It is really networking for introverts — it makes like-minded people reach out to you, instead of the opposite.”
2) Challenges of Being a Creator ⛈️
While being a creator can be rewarding, it's not without its challenges:
💸 Inconsistent income — Especially in the beginning, revenue can be unpredictable and unstable.
🏃♂️ Pressure to produce — Maintaining a regular publishing schedule can be stressful and lead to burnout.
🎭 Public scrutiny — Opening yourself up to feedback, both positive and negative, can be emotionally taxing.
🔀 Platform dependence — Changes in platform algorithms can dramatically affect your reach and income.
⚖️ Work-Life balance — The flexible schedule can easily lead to overworking.
🏝️ Loneliness — Content creation can be a solitary pursuit, especially when starting out.
Nicola: "My biggest challenge has been maintaining consistency while working a full-time job. There were times when I felt overwhelmed trying to balance my day job, content creation, and personal life. It taught me the importance of setting realistic goals and managing my energy effectively."
Luca: "Inconsistent income has been painful at the beginning, because I was 100% reliant on sponsorships and I didn’t have a good process to bring them onboard. It became less of an issue as I 1) added paid subscriptions and 2) I invested on the sponsorship workflow so that even that area became more predictable.
Dealing with criticism was also tough at the beginning — I remember feeling super bad after an article got trending on Hacker News and comments were nasty. But it does get easier. Today I accept feedback but I always frame it as a point of view: I have my own and it’s fine.
Instead, the pressure to consistently produce content never goes away. So the main challenge to me right now is probably to stay motivated and keep the writing fresh and vital, as opposed to treating it as business as usual. As engineers we want to operationalize everything, but writing thrives on creativity."
🛠️ What it takes to succeed
Success as a content creator requires a unique blend of skills and qualities.
While creativity and subject matter expertise are crucial, they're just the starting point. Here are the key attributes that set successful creators apart:
💪 Consistency and discipline — Regular content production is essential for building and maintaining an audience.
🔮 Long-term vision — Content creation can become a big deal, but you won’t build your audience in a couple of weeks. It’s a long term game.
😍 Love your content — It’s not enough to be an expert on a certain topic (and sometimes it’s not even required), you have to love it, otherwise it will be easy to give up.
🦎 Adaptability — The ability to pivot and evolve with changing trends and audience preferences is vital.
Nicola: "For me, the most crucial skill has been consistency. It's not just about writing, but also about consistently taking care of your audience and your network. In fact, while writing every single week is of course challenging and requires discipline, answering comments, handling criticism, talking to your audience, and building support are very energy-demanding tasks that require you to be consistent."
Luca: "I would say most important skills are discipline + managing my energy. It's a long long game. You are basically guaranteed to win if you play well for a long time, but it's very easy to burn yourself out. If you asked me a couple of years ago I would have probably said just discipline, but I have learned that knowing yourself, taking care of your wellbeing and recognizing signs of stress is super important. Probably in any job, but especially in content creation, as you do all by yourself and it is easy to mess with your own head."
🚀 Getting started as a creator
Both me and Luca already wrote a lot about creating content and working on side projects, so I won’t go into details and I suggest you read the following articles.
While these articles mainly focus on writing and engineering, most of the concepts can be applied to any kind of content creation journey.
In general, if you're considering becoming a content creator, here are five steps that, based on my experience, you will have to follow:
🎯 Choose your niche — As I already mentioned, it's important to focus on topics you're passionate about, not necessarily the ones you are most expert in. Your enthusiasm will fuel your consistency and drive you to learn more.
🌱 Build an initial audience — Start by sharing your content with your network. Join other communities related to your niche and engage authentically. Partner with other creators for collaborations or guest content. Remember, it's about quality connections, not just numbers.
💎 Create value — Focus on producing content that solves problems or fulfills needs for your audience. This could be educational content, entertainment, or inspiration. Always ask yourself: "How does this benefit my audience?" Consistently delivering value will keep your audience coming back and growing.
💰 Monetize — Once you've built a solid foundation, explore monetization options. This could include sponsorships, affiliate marketing, selling digital products, or offering services. Choose methods that align with your content and audience preferences. Remember, monetization should enhance, not compromise, the value you provide.
🚀 Sustain, grow, innovate — Maintain your consistency while always looking for ways to improve and expand. This might mean upgrading your production quality, exploring new content formats, or branching into new but related topics. Stay connected with your audience's evolving needs and interests. Don't be afraid to experiment, but always keep your core value proposition in mind.
Remember, these steps aren't strictly linear — you'll often find yourself working on multiple aspects simultaneously.
While many believe that content creation is a zero-risk game, but, especially if you are looking to make a job out of it, it requires a progressive investment that touches multiple key areas:
⏳ Time investment — Regular content creation, research on the topics you want to talk about, audience engagement, are all activities that take time.
💸 Financial investment — While at least initially you will have to invest zero or little money, depending on the type of content creation, you will have to start investing in tools, hardware, marketing activities and collaborators.
🫶 Emotional investment — This is something just a few wannabe creators consider, but interacting with your audience, dealing with feedback, managing stress, easily becomes one of the major investments in terms of energy and personal well-being.
Nicola: “Without a doubt, time has been my biggest investment. However, from the start, I also made significant investments in tools and courses. For instance, I took a drawing course to make my newsletters more visually appealing. Overall, I believe it’s important to invest in things where you can clearly measure the value they bring.”
Luca: "It's mostly time investment, money is basically zero (except when I acquired HH 🙃). Initial collaborators were hired with very small retainer and mostly performance. Still today, Matteo, who works on sponsorships, is mostly compensated through a share of Refactoring revenues. These are the healthiest deals as long as you can draw a direct connection between people's work and revenues."
🔄 When to go full-time
So you've found a good niche and started your content creation journey. You've built your audience and you're even seeing the first money flowing in.
I still remember the first paid subscriber I got.
This is where, at least for me, everything changed. When you realize there are people willing to pay you to share your experience and indirectly help them in their journeys, this is when you also start asking yourself:
"Can I make a job out of this?"
And the more money you see flowing, the more this question will hammer your head.
But transitioning from a stable, traditional job to full-time content creation is a big call. While I didn't take this path, I went through all the reasoning behind it.
Based on my experience and what I've heard from other creators, here's a list of questions you should ask yourself to decide if it's worth it:
❓ Do you like your current job? — For me, this was crucial. I'm lucky enough to still have big challenges to solve in my job and even after a couple of decades. I still love what I do.
❓ How does your creator income compare to your day job income? — This is a very pragmatic question you have to ask yourself, and the answer might vary considering your personal situation, lifestyle, age, etc. Your creator income doesn't necessarily have to equal your day job income, but you have to be comfortable with it based on your situation and growth estimates.
❓ Do you have a Plan B? — Going all-in with content creation might be the only way to be 100% sure that it works. On the other hand, it could also fail. That's why it's crucial to have an alternative plan.
❓ How is your content creation journey growing? — Do you have an engaged audience? Are your numbers constantly growing? What about competition? Creating content is like building a product, and you should treat it as such.
❓ Are you passionate enough about your content? — You might be an expert in your niche, but creating content about it regularly is a different game. Try to imagine yourself for the next 5-7 years creating content about your niche. Would you still be happy?
There are many other questions you should probably ask yourself, but in my opinion, having these five answered already gives you a taste of whether becoming a full-time content creator is something for you or not.
Nicola: "For me, the decision to merge with Refactoring came from a desire to create a more sustainable balance. While The Hybrid Hacker was growing, I realized that going all-in wasn't the right path for me at this stage. Merging allowed me to continue creating content I'm passionate about while reducing the pressure and leveraging Luca's experience and audience."
Luca: "For me it was a combination of factors:
I was earning something from sponsorships already that was around 50% my normal salary.
I could transition to 20% consultancy with my former employer (which I kept doing for ~1 year).
Newsletter was growing fast and I had good hopes about creating a paid plan.
I am a former entrepreneur so I am probably more comfortable with this kind of risk."
And that’s it for today! See you next week! 👋
Sincerely
Nicola
loved to read both perspectives Luca and Nicola! there's no single "right answer" 🙌
happy weekend 😊
Great insights on the creator's journey, thanks for sharing your perspectives, Luka and Nicola!
For me, the turning point in my perception was when I saw a newsletter launched on Product Hunt. That’s when I first thought of it as a product.