Started A Gaming Blog - Tips Needed

A

ashbash159

Member
I have recently started my own gaming blog, to get more experience with maintaining a website, and because I enjoy writing about games. So far I don't think my writing is that great, but I'm working on improving that. It's only been on the internet for over a week and I'm not getting very many views yet, but I'm not expecting it after such a short period of time.

I was wondering about how random gaming blogs get the latest press releases, competition codes, review disks etc. (I'm not asking about review disks because I want free games, even though that is a bonus). I'm not expecting to get into many relationships with publishers this early in my websites life.

It doesn't seem that there's many guides or advice on the internet regarding this type of information.

I've signed up for Games Press and I'm awaiting confirmation. Their website seems to get a lot of press releases, although they are sometimes not uploaded straight away.

I would appreciate it if anyone visited my website, so please ask if you would like to see it. Although don't think I'm here to promote my website, it's more about getting great advice from you guys!

Thanks in advance.
 
write a few sentences
add silly headline
submit to n4g
???
profit


try to differentiate your site from the other news/review sites
e.g rockpapershotgun only focus on pc games
 
_dementia said:
Carve out your own niche. Do something no other game blog does and I'm sure the rest will come to you.
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So far I'm just starting of by posting recent news and the latest game reviews. I don't think I'll continue doing this forever, but so far it's just so that I try to improve my writing skills.
 
Hm, I don't know... but personally what I find really off putting is when blogs/general websites just copy-paste/do bullet points/reword things from other blogs/websites. Which happens a lot in gaming blogs/websites.
 
What's your goal with the site? If you're planning on posting mainly news and the latest reviews, and you've signed up for GamePress so you have easy access to press releases... well, sorry. Nobody will care about that site. There's thousands of sites doing that already, and it's likely they're doing it better too.

I wish you lots of luck, but if you want to succeed you'll likely want to try and find a niche. Anything that might make people want to visit your site over everyone else's site. Even if it's just 'I want to be the world's best site about Batman-games', or something else incredibly niche like that, it's likely to be more appealing than 'I'll do all the news, just like Kotaku, except I'll be slightly slower and less well-written than those guys'.
 
Thomper said:
What's your goal with the site? If you're planning on posting mainly news and the latest reviews, and you've signed up for GamePress so you have easy access to press releases... well, sorry. Nobody will care about that site. There's thousands of sites doing that already, and it's likely they're doing it better too.

I wish you lots of luck, but if you want to succeed you'll likely want to try and find a niche. Anything that might make people want to visit your site over everyone else's site. Even if it's just 'I want to be the world's best site about Batman-games', or something else incredibly niche like that, it's likely to be more appealing than 'I'll do all the news, just like Kotaku, except I'll be slightly slower and less well-written than those guys'.
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Yeah I realise I wont get many people to visit my site if it's just "one of those websites".

Like I said above, I think I'll start off doing "one of those websites" just so that I can improve on my writing skills and get into the groove of writing regularly.

I've already got a couple of ideas of what my website will focus on when I feel like my writing has improved.
 
What is your goal? When I had a blog going while I lived in Japan, it got a fair bit of interest, a regular readership, and links from a few big sites.

Here are a couple tips I can give based on my experience running a blog:

1) Set a regular schedule for yourself. Even if you only update once a week, set a day of the week and a time of day, and never stray. Readers need regularity.

2) Find a way to make your content unique. "My opinion about video games" is not good enough, unless you're already a known person. It needs to be something more niche. My blog became pretty popular because it was all opinion pieces around Japanese gaming, coming from the perspective of a western gamer living in Japan. Try to find something that niche and go with it.

3) Write short posts. As tempting as it may be to write 4 page diatribes, I found that people read and comment MORE when the post is short. Have a one sentence to one paragraph hook on the front page, and have maybe 3-4 paragraphs as the rest of the piece. Opinion pieces can be longer, but most people won't read the whole thing.

4) If you do reviews, review games no one has touched. Review niche games, or retro games no one can get their hands on. I had the benefit of having access to JP-only games, but you may not have that. Don't just review whatever is coming out. People can go elsewhere for that contact.

5) Post each new post to Technorati and digg. It may seem like shameless promotion, but there's no other way to drive traffic to your site, unless you know people that can just link to you for free.

I'm happy to chat more about it if you wanna PM me. It's a fun undertaking, but don't give up when it feels like work. That's when it's going to matter most that you dedicate yourself to it. It could become something huge if you put the time and effort into it, and promote it intelligently.
 
MrNyarlathotep said:
Is... Is that even possible?
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...yeah, I picked the wrong example. But still, at least Kotaku provides original content beyond just the press release stuff, and they're usually relatively timely. I just wanted to name a gaming site that isn't GAF, because GAF is usually first anyway. Either way, whether it's GAF, Kotaku, Joystiq or whatever, those sites have all-the-news-and-reviews-quickly covered already, so it's relatively impossible to attract any visitors at all if that's what you're doing.
 
Polish your writing skills, my gaming blog got really popular because people appreciate a blog that doesn't treat them like idiots.

Find your niche, my focus is basically Japanese games, manga, animation, conventions. I focus on these five core issues and I delve into them very deeply.

Find your market, post your blog to a market that is willing to accept it. Plug it on your Facebook and build relationships with larger sites to have them promote your blog.
 
I'm fucked.

I'm not going to give up, but I'm going to be honest with you and say I hadn't put much thought into the blog.

My dad wanted me to have my own website (he's partly funding it), so I though "oh my friend has a gaming website that I've wrote a couple of reviews for, why don't I just write reviews for my own website?"

I also wanted a website on the internet. I've been having a lot of interviews recently to do with level 3 web design apprenticeships and I wanted to prove I could design a website and put it on the internet. The level 2 apprenticeship I'm currently doing (and have nearly finished) was kind of crap. All they taught me was how to use the Adobe Creative Suite and how to code in HTML and CSS. They didn't even teach us PHP or JavaScript! I've been learning that in my own time recently, as it's another important step to helping me get a Level 3 apprenticeship.

I quite enjoy writing about games, but to be honest, with everyone saying you need to write to a niche audience, I don't think I can't think of any niche subjects apart from Valve news, and that's already being done very well by people like those at Lambda Generation.

I hope not a lot of people read this because I think most people wont care, but I need to tell the truth about this otherwise people will continually respond with "write to a niche audience," and "don't be another Kotaku, but slower."
 
ashbash159 said:
I'm fucked.

I'm not going to give up, but I'm going to be honest with you and say I hadn't put much thought into the blog.

My dad wanted me to have my own website (he's partly funding it), so I though "oh my friend has a gaming website that I've wrote a couple of reviews for, why don't I just write reviews for my own website?"

I also wanted a website on the internet. I've been having a lot of interviews recently to do with level 3 web design apprenticeships and I wanted to prove I could design a website and put it on the internet. The level 2 apprenticeship I'm currently doing (and have nearly finished) was kind of crap. All they taught me was how to use the Adobe Creative Suite and how to code in HTML and CSS. They didn't even teach us PHP or JavaScript! I've been learning that in my own time recently, as it's another important step to helping me get a Level 3 apprenticeship.

I quite enjoy writing about games, but to be honest, with everyone saying you need to write to a niche audience, I don't think I can't think of any niche subjects apart from Valve news, and that's already being done very well by people like those at Lambda Generation.

I hope not a lot of people read this because I think most people wont care, but I need to tell the truth about this otherwise people will continually respond with "write to a niche audience," and "don't be another Kotaku, but slower."
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Don't let us discourage you too much. It's best to get harsh advice early on, when you can adapt relatively quickly.

You don't have to be a wizard at coding to have a popular/great website, either. Stuff like RockPaperShotgun is beloved, but is essentially just a WordPress-site with a custom template. Don't worry too much about design just yet. As long as it looks decent enough, people will care more about the articles than the design.

Valve is totally a good niche. You could link people to your favorite Valve-related mods, quickly post the daily deals, point people to interesting hidden content on Steam, tell about the history of Valve, etc., etc. Lambda Generation is pretty good, but they don't cover everything about Valve ever. Within Valve there's plenty of niches to write about. Don't be discouraged just yet. :P
 
Thomper said:
Don't let us discourage you too much. It's best to get harsh advice early on, when you can adapt relatively quickly.

You don't have to be a wizard at coding to have a popular/great website, either. Stuff like RockPaperShotgun is beloved, but is essentially just a WordPress-site with a custom template. Don't worry too much about design just yet. As long as it looks decent enough, people will care more about the articles than the design.

Valve is totally a good niche. You could link people to your favorite Valve-related mods, quickly post the daily deals, point people to interesting hidden content on Steam, tell about the history of Valve, etc., etc. Lambda Generation is pretty good, but they don't cover everything about Valve ever. Within Valve there's plenty of niches to write about. Don't be discouraged just yet. :P
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Like I've said I've not given up. I just wanted people to realise that I hadn't put much thought into it.

I kind of wish I never wrote any of this now. Especially on NeoGAF of all places!
 
I created a successful Madden blog in 2009 because while the information was out there about the game, it was scattered around forums with strict rules and difficulty to find information (OS). I also just did good SEO with my stories and breaks, most of which came from forum information... I'd source it back to the forum/etc, but because a good blog will always have better SEO than a random forum thread or post, it jacked my page listing way up. My Madden blog was higher ranked in Google than any of EA's blogs.

But, really, I just found a niche. I noticed that Madden info was out there, but it was spread thin and difficult to find and people kept asking the same questions about Madden 10... On forums, mods would scream at people and ban people for asking questions and tell them "do a search," but clearly, that was failing if these questions persisted. So... I created the site. It took off, I made good ad money on it for the amount of time I put into it.

*edit*
If you're just doing a website to show to an internship that you can do a website, then just do it, go out there and start a videogame blog. You don't have to have a niche if experience is what you're looking for, instead of... say... success, profitability, etc. Also, starting a website is as close to "free" as you can get, so you don't need to worry about funding really. You can get solid hosting for your personal site for barely anything a year, plus $8-$10/year for a domain.
 
Have some confidence in yourself! It took 14 posts to go from "super-excited about my new blog" to "I'm not doing this".
 
I wouldn't expect freebies out of the blue. You might get lucky but for now just review what you buy, preview what betas you can get into, even if everyone else can too, etc. Do older games too. What is your dad funding though? You should be able to cover your early needs with free service stuff outside buying a given domain which is dirt cheap (like bucks per year). Or get hosted on some friend's server to start with. You'll eventually land the occasional exclusive like say, landing an e-mail Q&A with someone known and get mentioned on other sites which you kindly just notified etc. It's not hard at all to start up if you actually want it and are passionate about it, I run a mods website for years and eventually landed interviews with Valve & Ritual, got a Steam press account (when Lombardi was handily basically giving them away, I think he later got in trouble for it though), got in the DoD: Source press preview (Christ, I guess it's been a LONG time), etc. I've tried to restart after I had to quit for (quite) a while but there's little that excites me nowadays as much as being in the modding circles did at the time. You may feel different. If you're going for a very particular niche, like mods, choose wisely. You don't wanna end up doing a ton of "work" only for others to take ten minutes to go over your website (after they find out of it) to fill their own more established website with the latest news...
 
Make it a video blog on youtube, recording gameplay videos with your doing a voice over, and have a channel instead of a site, get money with advertisements from Google.
 
If haven't or aren't seeking to take some non-fiction writing classes, I'll strongly recommend Will Zinsser's On Writing Well.
 
Start a rumour stating that Sony and Microsoft are joining to make a super console to retail at $1099 to be revealed E3 2020.

Current-gen will be 14 years old.
 
No offense but you should quit until you can do something besides just repost news/press releases.

There are already websites/forums for that.

Start reviewing games you don't need any contacts for. Like flash games. Check out jayisgames.com for some ideas.

If you want a blog, try out something like gamerswithjobs.com
 
I've recently set up my own site (like, about 2 weeks ago). Supposed to be working on it with a friend but he is swamped with Uni work now.

I've mainly done it so I've got experience. I'd like to do this sort of thing as a job and wrote some things for a friends site/blog thing a while back.
Our main thing is going to be Let's Play like things and Quick Look like things. Video of us playing games with voice over. We had planned to do a bit on TERA but the EU sneak peek ended up flopping and I didn't spend much on it when it opened up earlier today (did get some of the character creator).

I welcome any feedback on the site and suggestions (it's in my profile, you don't have to go there, I'm not hijacking this thread/promoting the site) in PMs or sent to the sites email.
 
Thanks for all the advice on here. I really shouldn't have posted this on NeoGAF, but, well it's too late now.

I'm going to have a long hard think about what I want to do with this website.
 
What I would do is go after a specific niche.
-Game series.
-Subgenre of game.
-Style of gamer (casual, core, hc, "weekend warrior", MMOnly etc).
-Perhaps memorabilia/collecting for x system/series.
-Go video focused opening up lets pays of x genre/coop stuff/etc.

Then do reviews, news, editorials, videos, engage people w/ twitter & facebook etc. You pretty much wanna become a well know source for the niche. Then monetize :P
 
I went through this same thing with my game site like 4 years ago. I learned that nobody wants more of the same press release shit, and whatever you've thought of, somebody else has been doing already.

That said, we do our podcast and have fun with that, and when we feel like it, we'll do reviews and editorials and stuff for kicks. Like this: NSFW Soul Calibur V gallery or this: Halo Anniversary - You can go home again

We mostly just do that stuff for our own small audience. The people who like our podcast enjoy reading the things we put together. Who knew? We don't try to be IGN or GameSpot and I think that works for us.

Site is a bit of a mess right now (trying to clean it up in my free time and make some changes here and there, kind of half-baked at the moment) but again, our audience doesn't really care as long as we keep cranking out the podcast and the odd funny article/review.

Good luck, dude.
 
ashbash159 said:
Thanks for all the advice on here. I really shouldn't have posted this on NeoGAF, but, well it's too late now.

I'm going to have a long hard think about what I want to do with this website.
Click to expand...

Feel free to PM me if you have some ideas you'd like to bounce off someone.

Also, if you're interested in getting some inspiration for individual posts, I don't have my blog up anymore (looking to start a new one), but I do have some of my syndicated posts on Gamasutra still:

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/1706...Focal_Interest_and_Contextual_Sensitivity.php

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/20836/Opinion_NeoRetro__Movement_Or_Passing_Fad.php

These are in no way "perfect" (or really all that good in my opinion), but I find one of the best ways to get a handle of your own writing style is to read others.
 
You should focus on writing about lesser-known games that don't get enough attention on mainstream game sites, such as indie games or something. That would give viewers more incentive to checking back on your site often.
 
I had the idea of basically picking holes in all the gaming media and just being a general bastard to Matt Castlevania and Co, but then I realised that required reading those websites so I gave up with that idea.
 
I actually still blog on 1up and I've entertained the idea of at least striking out on a Wordpress blog or something. I get a decent amount of views and comments just by posting my own viewpoint on games and gaming news. I just wouldn't know how to transplant that audience away from 1up.

I know quite a few people who up and started their own blogs just to keep busy and they seem to hold up on their own. A lot of it is just individual columns on games - a lot of the time niche games, and some of the time it's commentary on the life of a freelance writer. You just have to find something fairly unique to you within gaming that you can write about. Oh, and honing up your writing skill definitely makes a difference.
 
While we're here, I was hoping I could get some input on an idea for a website I had.

So I use backloggery.com a lot, but I've always been disappointed with the lack of meta-information about games. You manually type in a the name of games, so there is no real way for the site developers to gauge how many people own said game, or how many people have completed it. There's no cover art, no detailed achievement information, etc.

I had a pretty ambitious idea for a backlog website, which had individual pages for each game, and when logged in, you can simply click an "I own it" icon on the game's page to add it to your library. I wanted each page to have some good information about the game, that wasn't already readily available on Wikipedia, like 'What is the best platform/way to play the game' (e.g: Emulated with filters, Modded S.T.A.L.K.E.R., etc), and commonly used mods, things like that.

Also, I usually like to check 'Games of the Year' lists, and play through some of the great stuff I missed. I'd want to grab some of the major lists from the bigger websites, and have them as a sort of checklist for users, and for example beating the top 20 games in NeoGAF's game of the year 2011 list would get you a badge or something similar on your profile.

All insanely ambitious stuff. I've been messing around with the Wordpress backend (A lot of people probably just groaned), and found it easy enough to add custom databases, and add/pull information and display it on pages. I built a quick mockup of the 'I own it button' and got working, adding information to a table, displaying it in my library.
 
It's actually pretty easy to get review copies, especially for downloadable games.



I'd say the way you present yourself in you emails to PR is more important than your traffic stats. A well-written form letter, explaining what your website is about and what your goals are, is important.

Do something to differentiate yourself from the myriad websites that are out there.

Be warned: Playing games for review is the least fun way to play. I burned myself out in a little over a year after I started my website.
 
davonaytor said:
While we're here, I was hoping I could get some input on an idea for a website I had.

So I use backloggery.com a lot, but I've always been disappointed with the lack of meta-information about games. You manually type in a the name of games, so there is no real way for the site developers to gauge how many people own said game, or how many people have completed it. There's no cover art, no detailed achievement information, etc.

I had a pretty ambitious idea for a backlog website, which had individual pages for each game, and when logged in, you can simply click an "I own it" icon on the game's page to add it to your library. I wanted each page to have some good information about the game, that wasn't already readily available on Wikipedia, like 'What is the best platform/way to play the game' (e.g: Emulated with filters, Modded S.T.A.L.K.E.R., etc), and commonly used mods, things like that.

Also, I usually like to check 'Games of the Year' lists, and play through some of the great stuff I missed. I'd want to grab some of the major lists from the bigger websites, and have them as a sort of checklist for users, and for example beating the top 20 games in NeoGAF's game of the year 2011 list would get you a badge or something similar on your profile.

All insanely ambitious stuff. I've been messing around with the Wordpress backend (A lot of people probably just groaned), and found it easy enough to add custom databases, and add/pull information and display it on pages. I built a quick mockup of the 'I own it button' and got working, adding information to a table, displaying it in my library.
Click to expand...

A very ambitious idea, but a good one. My opinion would be that you'd quickly outgrow wordpress' functionality for something like that, but someone else could give better input. I use wordpress.org for work, and it's great, but we're just doing a video tutorial archive.
 
ashbash159 said:
I have recently started my own gaming blog, to get more experience with maintaining a website, and because I enjoy writing about games. So far I don't think my writing is that great, but I'm working on improving that. It's only been on the internet for over a week and I'm not getting very many views yet, but I'm not expecting it after such a short period of time.

I was wondering about how random gaming blogs get the latest press releases, competition codes, review disks etc. (I'm not asking about review disks because I want free games, even though that is a bonus). I'm not expecting to get into many relationships with publishers this early in my websites life.
Click to expand...

It's not likely you're going to be sent review disks. Game companies are wary of Web sites, and don't send out advance software to every Joe Sixpack who has a game site. Beyond that, most review disks require debug units to play and Microsoft, Sony, etc., don't just give out debugs, either.

It's not impossible to get that stuff, mind. You have to prove your site has an audience, and a substantial one at that.

My advice to you is to skip the news. You're not going to be doing yourself any favors reposting news stories everyone else has. Instead, think about original content you can bring to your site. Maybe it's interviews with game developers. Maybe it's some bit of commentary on a game you're playing. Whatever it is, it should be personal. And something you really can't see elsewhere.

Talk to game PR people. They won't mind putting you on a mailing list. You can probably get screen shots from Gamespress, although you'll have to pay. And, most importantly, have fun.
 
Well just go ahead with it what can go wrong ? If it doesn't succeed it's nothing at least u try and u learned some new stuff on the way.
 
MC Safety said:
It's not likely you're going to be sent review disks. Game companies are wary of Web sites, and don't send out advance software to every Joe Sixpack who has a game site. Beyond that, most review disks require debug units to play and Microsoft, Sony, etc., don't just give out debugs, either.

It's not impossible to get that stuff, mind. You have to prove your site has an audience, and a substantial one at that.
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I disagree with this sentiment. My personal experience was different.

After a few months of having a site, I was able to get review copies of games. Not for a debug unit, but retail copies close to or on release days.

To be clear, I didn't get every game I asked for. Certain companies didn't want anything to do with me, while others were very generous.
 
Have fun with it. It shouldn't feel like a job, and like one of the earlier posters said, try to do something others haven't (which is difficult given the medium's maturity/age). Me, I just 'blog' on Facebook. Everyone I know or care about is on there, so I'm hitting the audience I want, and I get good conversations and feedback as a result. Also turned a lot of folks onto games that they probably wouldn't have tried otherwise, like Mother 3, Ghost Trick, Persona 3, Dragon Quest, and even more mainstream stuff like the SMG series, which some of my friends wrote off as just for kids, but changed their opinion after seeing how much I enjoyed them and trying them out for themselves. That's always a good feeling. :)
 
I wrote a news blog like that for awhile, with my niche being handheld gaming but even then I felt like I was just regurgitating news you could find elsewhere, so after awhile I just dropped off news posting and turned it into a regular tumblr. But if its something you really want to do, you'll find a way.

I've been wanting to make another "proper" blog again, but haven't really decided where I want to go with it. Leaning towards it just being my commentary on games/the industry/gaming culture, with some reviews thrown in when I feel like it, but I'm not sure. Though my only big worry with that is frequency of posts.
 
Here's an idea for a supplementary to whatever you like niche: treating gog releases as if they're brand new stuff, starting with tongue in cheek lines like how Black Isle or whoever have finally launched the hotly anticipated Baldur's Gate II, comparing what the games offer to modern releases in the genre (or same series in some cases), etc. Eh, I might do that too.
 
Top ten lists
Present press releases with quaint title
"What if Mario was in Halo" articles. Must be at least 5 pages.


Honestly, create a niche on a game you know/are good at. Create/inform your audience with new content every week.
 
Shurs said:
I disagree with this sentiment. My personal experience was different.

After a few months of having a site, I was able to get review copies of games. Not for a debug unit, but retail copies close to or on release days.

To be clear, I didn't get every game I asked for. Certain companies didn't want anything to do with me, while others were very generous.
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I can't speak on your personal experience.

I do know, as a former game magazine editor and writer, I've had many discussions with PR people about this very topic. Most game companies have junior PR people to deal with the near-endless requests from Web sites for free stuff.
 
MC Safety said:
I can't speak on your personal experience.
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Right, but I can. What I'm saying is that I can personally attest to getting review copies without big traffic.


MC Safety said:
I do know, as a former game magazine editor and writer, I've had many discussions with PR people about this very topic. Most game companies have junior PR people to deal with the near-endless requests from Web sites for free stuff.
Click to expand...

This probably falls back to my advice to the OP that he should have a well-written form letter to send to PR people.

I get what you're saying, but I think everyone is overly discouraging to newcomers.
 
Personally, if you just were that 'one or two genre guy' then you would probably get alot more backing than if you swing and start pitching fastballs at random, seeing which games net you the most action.

Personally, I would love an RPG/Adventure guy, that actually knows what he's talking about, and is consistent. This is what I like. Consistency all the time.

If you hate a certain type of element in a game, don't bash one and praise another. That drives me crazy.
 
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