Do you have a passion for gaming? If so, you should start your own gaming blog. If you are an avid gamer, you should be aware that there is news every single day in this ever-growing industry, and gamers are always looking for an entertaining and reliable source of information.
Today, I will share with you how to start a gaming website from scratch.
It’s A Crowded Environment
Gaming is the biggest entertainment industry out there and as you can probably imagine, there is a lot of competition. As such, you need to formulate a battle plan to differentiate yourself from the competition.
What type of content will you cover? How will you cover it? How is it different from other gaming blogs? These are just some of the things you need to decide before you begin building a website.
Consider what type of content you will have. For example, will you have a lot of video content? After all, it’s very common to have video content on a gaming blog. Thus, you are probably going to need some tools to display them exactly how you want them to appear.
Once you have a clear image of the website you want to build, your ready to start getting into web development.
Pick A Great Web Host and A Catchy Domain Name
Just like how every game starts off with a tutorial, every website begins by picking out a web host. This is the company that rents out a web server. The web server is where your website will be stored, and just like games, they’re not created equal.
Thus, you need a great web host.
At GreenGeeks, we strive to be the best by offering lightning-fast speeds, strong security, a well-trained support team available 24/7, and most importantly optimized WordPress servers. And all of this comes at a very affordable price.
However, we differentiate ourselves from the competition with our commitment to the environment. All websites hosted with us are carbon-reducing. This is accomplished by carefully calculating how much energy we use and purchasing 3 times that amount in wind energy.
We then pump this energy into the electric grid to help reduce the energy that comes from less desirable sources.
You will also need to select a domain name. This is the URL of your website and as such, should be short, easy to remember, and reflect your website. when you sign up with us today, you get your domain name for free for the first year.
Why WordPress is the Perfect Platform for Your Gaming Blog
The platform you build your website on can make a huge difference, just like the platform you play on. Thus, you are going to need to choose the best one. But unlike consoles, there are far more choices when it comes to CMS.
However, the choice becomes clear when you are creating a gaming blog.
WordPress is hands down the best platform for the job, and as proof, it powers over one-third of the internet. But how did it become so widespread?
First and foremost, the user interface is very intuitive. All of the settings and features are in areas that you would expect them to be. While this may sound basic, trust me, it isn’t. Many other CMS fail to make an intuitive design to help beginners.
Unlike other platforms that require some form of closing knowledge, WordPress doesn’t. You can build any kind of website without writing a single line of code. This is thanks to its huge library of plugins and themes that anyone can use.
Why Plugins and Themes Matter
So if your completely new to WordPress, you are probably wondering what exactly a plugin or a theme is?
A plugin is a piece of software that adds a specific feature to WordPress. Think of it as an add-on or DLC for a game.
A theme is a collection of templates that allows you to customize the appearance of your website. Kind of like a character editor in a video game.
Both of these come in free and paid forms. When you are just starting out as a video game blogger, money is going to be tight. Thus, the free options are usually your best friend. However, as your website grows and you begin to make money with your gaming blog, you may consider using more robust premium versions.
Here are a few that are great for gaming blogs:
Stream Status for Twitch
Live streaming is an excellent way to reach your audience and Twitch is one of the best ways to do it, especially with Mixer exiting the game. The Stream Status for Twitch allows you to show visitors if you are live or offline. If you are live, they can click on the link to view your stream.
If you plan on live streaming on other platforms consider looking for an equivalent plugin for that platform.
Lightweight Social Icons
Gaining followers on your social media accounts is crucial to your website’s success. As such, you need to make sure there is a simple way to do it. The Lightweight Social Icons plugin allows you to display social icons anywhere on your website. This makes it very easy to gain new followers on all of your accounts.
Just make sure you give visitors a reason to follow you.
Gaming Mag
The Gaming Mag theme was made for gaming blogs. It has an excellent modern design that is perfect for gaming and has plenty of room to show the daily news in the gaming world. And you are going to need that since there is something new every day, especially with the next generation kicking off.
Shop Entertainment
The Shop Entertainment theme is great for showing off epic thumbnails to viewers. The thumbnails take up most of the page space, which is great for helping visitors decide what they want to click on. It also has eCommerce support, which is a must-have for those sites that hope to sell merch one day.
Marketing Your Gaming Blog
If you’re planning to create a gaming website, there is no way that you don’t understand the importance of marketing. Every major gaming company works extremely hard to show off their product in the best possible way.
You need to do the same for your website.
Luckily, marketing has a lot of avenues you can explore. Some of them take more time than others, but here are a few of the most popular marketing methods for gaming:
- Social Media
- Livestreaming
- Participating in Forums (Reddit)
- Email Subscriptions
- Collaborations with Other Gaming Influencers
And many more exist that you can use to great effect. Just remember that most of these take time for the effects to be visible. For example, if you are building a YouTube channel or Twitter account, it’s going to take time to build subscribers and followers.
However, it will pay off in the long run.
Get Gaming
With an idea in mind, a website built, and a marketing plan in place, all that’s left is to create content for your visitors to enjoy. Make sure that your content is accurate, exciting, and most importantly well-written. If you do this, your website will undoubtedly find an audience eager to read.
Guess I’ve commented on similar topic just now, but would like to add a bit here: blog section is a great opportunity to show your expertise and skills. So, if you plan to be even more than just a gamer, you can pick up this tip to promote your gaming services.
I see that content marketing is a sure way to push trough a rough competition set by Google algorithms (perks of being a Contenteam member)
There are so many different ways you can take a gaming website, and I agree, content marketing can do wonders.