If you have a natural love for gaming and you’d like to make money on the side or full-time, one of the things you could do is start a blog. It’s not that complex, and you could have a blog up and running in under a day for a few dollars. If you want to make the blog successful, however, you have to be ready to work hard and do everything you can to get visibility. Let’s take a look at how you can build a gaming blog step by step and how to make it work.
Choose Your Niche
You’re going to have a hard time competing with the thousands and thousands of other blogs out there if you go with a generic gaming blog, so, you may have to find a narrower niche. You could focus on one specific type of game, like JRPG games or retro platformers. Online gambling could also be a good option as it would be pretty simple to monetize.
You could build a blog and have some reviews for online casinos, for instance, or do what sites like Gamble Online are doing and make the reviews front and center. Or maybe you could focus on one aspect of gaming, like gaming history, gaming development, or competitive gaming? The more specific the niche is, the greater chance you’ll have of standing out, so look at different possible niches and make sure that there is some baseline demand for that type of content.
Look at Different Monetization Methods
We’ve just discussed monetization, but you’ll have to do more than reviews if you want to make good money. Most successful blogs use all sorts of methods to bring revenue. You may need a mix of affiliate marketing, display advertising, and PPC ads for your blog to be profitable. There are other methods like donations and exclusive content that could work.
Find a Hosting Service and Install WordPress
The next thing you have to do is find a good domain and hosting package. Domains are cheap and who you register with doesn’t make that big of a difference as long as it’s a reputable company. However, it would help to go with a registrar that also offers great hosting packages. BlueHost and Namecheap are two names that come to mind.
You will then need to install WordPress on your server. Many hosting services have a one-click install option, so check if they have it before you sign up if you think a manual install would be too complex. Also, make sure that you go with dedicated hosting of some kind so that you won’t have to share your connection with other sites. A virtual private server would be the best option for the price.
Start Posting and Build an Audience
The next step is to start posting content and building an audience. The more presence you have in the community and the more value you bring, the more chance there is that people will want to learn more about you and your blog.
We also suggest that you extend your online footprint by setting up a YouTube channel, a community page on Facebook, and a Twitch streamer account. Also, try to outreach to other blogs in the gaming or tech niche for a collab or a guest poster spot.
Building a gaming blog is extremely simple but building a successful one will take a mix of good strategy, effort, and consistency. You’ll need to learn as much as you can about blogging and online marketing as well.