Author Topic: Can you earn commission for designing keycaps?  (Read 3511 times)

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Offline urban24

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Can you earn commission for designing keycaps?
« on: Sun, 16 May 2021, 05:20:12 »
Hey!

I have some really good ideas for keycap sets, and I was wondering how does all of this works. After you design keycaps set and render it, where do you go on from here? Do you just post here to check the interest, and will online shops just reach back to you, or do you have to reach to them? Also, as in the title, can you earn any commission for designing the set (at least as much, so I don't have to pay for the keycaps set - I hope!)

Thanks to all who answered!

Offline MIGHTY CHICKEN

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Re: Can you earn commission for designing keycaps?
« Reply #1 on: Sun, 16 May 2021, 10:20:54 »
There will be an upfront investment in designing caps, after you have posted IC, you will have to reach out to vendors although some may reach out to you in the rare case. Your vendors will usually be the ones reaching out to manus for quotes and etc. In the end, there will be a profit split between you and the vendors, and most times you will be able to buy a set with the profits. If not, most vendors are usually nice enough to send you one.

Offline Sup

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Re: Can you earn commission for designing keycaps?
« Reply #2 on: Mon, 17 May 2021, 19:27:34 »
There will be an upfront investment in designing caps, after you have posted IC, you will have to reach out to vendors although some may reach out to you in the rare case. Your vendors will usually be the ones reaching out to manus for quotes and etc. In the end, there will be a profit split between you and the vendors, and most times you will be able to buy a set with the profits. If not, most vendors are usually nice enough to send you one.

Damn really that explains why there are 200000 IC a week. If you only have to put some colors together and let the other party do everything for you and you get profit for each set that is easy as fu. People looking to make easy bucks seeing how many ugly GMK sets i have seen
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Offline MIGHTY CHICKEN

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Re: Can you earn commission for designing keycaps?
« Reply #3 on: Mon, 17 May 2021, 20:24:00 »
Damn really that explains why there are 200000 IC a week. If you only have to put some colors together and let the other party do everything for you and you get profit for each set that is easy as fu. People looking to make easy bucks seeing how many ugly GMK sets i have seen
Pretty much, although I think its more of "I think I can put colors together and make name for myself", making good money from GMK and other sets is like.. not good. The availability of easy to put together templates(even though default template files have errors purposely put in for this reason and ****ty lighting etc.)

The upfront cost is also like pretty low, anyone can get a template or buy KRK for 30 bucks, color matching stuff for like 160(although many people just skip this pepew) and that's pretty much it. Although some people can commission novs and renders which all go like 15~30 each, pretty cheap. You can find people who basically commissioned everything and only chose 3 colors.

Offline Ranger_Trivette

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Re: Can you earn commission for designing keycaps?
« Reply #4 on: Tue, 18 May 2021, 03:31:50 »
In the end, there will be a profit split between you and the vendors, and most times you will be able to buy a set with the profits. If not, most vendors are usually nice enough to send you one.
MQO for keycap set are usually high. like 200-300 pcs.
assuming that every client will pay at least 150$, the total revenue will be 50'000$+

"most time you will be able to buy a set with the profit"
run a IC, define a design etc etc is a lot of time and work.
honestly i hope you gain more then a free set.

Offline iinko_mk

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Re: Can you earn commission for designing keycaps?
« Reply #5 on: Tue, 18 May 2021, 08:41:53 »
There will be an upfront investment in designing caps, after you have posted IC, you will have to reach out to vendors although some may reach out to you in the rare case. Your vendors will usually be the ones reaching out to manus for quotes and etc. In the end, there will be a profit split between you and the vendors, and most times you will be able to buy a set with the profits. If not, most vendors are usually nice enough to send you one.

Damn really that explains why there are 200000 IC a week. If you only have to put some colors together and let the other party do everything for you and you get profit for each set that is easy as fu. People looking to make easy bucks seeing how many ugly GMK sets i have seen

This is a very sad truth. People get enticed at the "easy" cash, so no effort to little effort if put in to get the end result as quickly as possible.

I do hope this eventually gets mitigated either when the hobby dies down, or when vendors start getting more strict on who they let run.
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Offline Bub

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Re: Can you earn commission for designing keycaps?
« Reply #6 on: Tue, 18 May 2021, 09:49:26 »
This is a very sad truth. People get enticed at the "easy" cash, so no effort to little effort if put in to get the end result as quickly as possible.

I do hope this eventually gets mitigated either when the hobby dies down, or when vendors start getting more strict on who they let run.

Maybe I'm optimistic, but I don't really see the hobby dying down even with Covid getting under control. Its just too much fun! And even if i'm outside more on the weekends, i'm still clacking away at work.

Iinko is totally right about the "easy" cash aspect of it, but to combat that, the barrier to entry for ICs is rising daily, and the amount of available colors combinations is dwindling. With R2, R3, etc becoming the norm for popular keycap sets, designers really need to see what has and hasn't been done. This is forcing people to get creative.

Finally, I think the GH community in general does a good job notifying people when the amount of effort in a set is subpar (and usually in a pretty professional tone), and that's one thing i really like about GH.

Offline glibber

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Re: Can you earn commission for designing keycaps?
« Reply #7 on: Tue, 18 May 2021, 10:14:40 »
Isn't the best way to stop this just your own buying behaviour? Even as a relative novice in the hobby, I think it's not very hard to see the different amounts of work put into different ICs/GBs. Chances are, people who create such a quick and effortless IC won't care much about feedback either. The most reliable way to sort this out that I can see is just not buying such sets. Nobody wants to run to a GB that ends up getting cancelled, and if little effort leads to poor reception, this seems like something that would sort itself out.

On a side note, you often notice the lack of effort in the sets themselves too, so I wonder how they even appeal to enough people to run a successful GB to begin with.

Offline MIGHTY CHICKEN

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Re: Can you earn commission for designing keycaps?
« Reply #8 on: Tue, 18 May 2021, 10:54:13 »
Isn't the best way to stop this just your own buying behaviour? Even as a relative novice in the hobby, I think it's not very hard to see the different amounts of work put into different ICs/GBs. Chances are, people who create such a quick and effortless IC won't care much about feedback either. The most reliable way to sort this out that I can see is just not buying such sets. Nobody wants to run to a GB that ends up getting cancelled, and if little effort leads to poor reception, this seems like something that would sort itself out.

On a side note, you often notice the lack of effort in the sets themselves too, so I wonder how they even appeal to enough people to run a successful GB, to begin with.

Bad sets will always get past, look at jelly delights and matcha mocha, pretty recent sets that got cancelled. Both designers lined up all their collabs, ramas and whatnot, but couldn't take a clue that an IC on fire or an empty ic with all comments being himself wouldn't run well. Bad sets can always get past the barrier, and it's not just that it's good for it to be cancelled, it's that in the process of posting ic, getting vendors, getting quotes etc. it takes up the time of those parties slowing the queue for the rest of us.

Offline MIGHTY CHICKEN

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Re: Can you earn commission for designing keycaps?
« Reply #9 on: Tue, 18 May 2021, 10:58:30 »
"most time you will be able to buy a set with the profit"
run a IC, define a design etc etc is a lot of time and work.
honestly i hope you gain more then a free set.
Assuming you sell like 300 bases of gmk, you will get around 5-10 bucks per set/kit iirc, but with other manus it could be more or less. I know JTK is very hard to make any money from. Making sets aren't exactly worth the time and effort to make the money, but more so just bring an idea you and the community might like to life.

Offline urban24

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Re: Can you earn commission for designing keycaps?
« Reply #10 on: Tue, 18 May 2021, 11:47:57 »
honestly i hope you gain more then a free set.

I am willing to do it even for a free set... This also gives you the ability to create the set that matches your setup perfectly