How to Start a Gaming Blog to Make Money in 2020

When my brother Max first asked me about how to create a gaming blog I didn’t even know where to begin. I already started a couple of gaming blogs in the past: Blogs about Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, League of Legends and Counter-Strike. They never really took off. With new upcoming games like Overwatch we wanted to work on something we really cared about: Getting good at video games. From that point on we took months of our valuable nights and weekends to create a gaming blog that is now growing every day. It is now not only paying us a decent amount of pocket money but the start of a gaming blog has also grown into something incredibly interesting and fun: A project we can share as brothers.

With this article I want to walk you through the whole journey of how to make a successful video game blog. I’ll show you how we planned the site, structured the articles and made some decent money on the side. I want to promise you: It is much easier than it looks. So, how do you create a gaming blog?

Gaming Blog Planning phase

I consider this one of the most important steps in creating a gaming blog. First we set up a Google Docs Sheet and gathered all our ideas in a structured manner. We quickly found out what we really wanted to do. I suggest you do the same and gather some ideas about:

  • Which games do you want to blog about? (e.g.: competitive, casual, mobile, PC, PS4, Xbox etc.)
  • What type of articles do you want to provide? What is the purpose of the site? (e.g.: news, guides, commentary, reviews, curation, etc. etc.)
  • How do you want your site to look? Which hosting will you use?
  • What is example content for you? Do you have any article, blog, or review ideas?
  • How do you want to make money with your website?
  • What is the name of the website?

Most people just throw ideas at the wall and see what sticks. What we did was a little different. Try to rank and grade your answers to these questions. There is always options and by ranking them you might find the best one.

We took a solid weekend and thought about all these questions so let me walk you through the decision-making process and maybe it helps you to get going.

Gaming Blog Game Selection

I personally don’t have a particular bias towards any type of game but thinking about your target audience can help you make better decisions when starting a gaming blog. For us, competitive games were the main focus so we picked everything we liked. This includes Counter-Strike, Overwatch, Hearthstone and Dota 2.

Our target audience is mostly between 12 and 29 years old and male. Most of our users are PC desktop users. We wanted our site to be targeting this audience in design, layout, content and monetization options.

A website for a casual mobile game about a restaurant might have a completely different target audience so think about this while making your decisions about your first gaming blog. You may need to focus on your mobile website design or monetize with different ads or affiliate products.

Gaming Blog Articles

Since we did not want to provide regular news updates or gaming reviews we focused on providing quality content about competitive games. We are passionate about learning about new multiplayer games and we like to get good at these games quickly. This passion is what drove us to write quality guides and helpful information about these games.

Try to find something you love and it makes blogging a great hobby that can even get you paid. Let’s say you like to play all the latest and greatest of the Playstation 4. You might want to start a review gaming blog. Do you like to read reviews? Then try to imitate the writing style of your favorite reviewers. Try to research your subject and niche a little bit. Try to scout the competition, and learn from them.

There is lots of information out there that that can help you write better, too. My personal recommendation for this would be Ann Handley’s – Everybody writes. Her book is not only applicable to pretty much all types of writing but is a funny read as well.

After all this research you can now make a very important decision. What is the name of the website? Try to gather as many options as possible before deciding and chose the one that feels the best.

Gaming Blog Hosting

Now that you have a general idea about where you want your website to go and decided on a website name you can think of hosting options. For Max and I it was important that we commit to a ‘real’ website. We did not want a small blog on tumblr or blogspot. We wanted to take this seriously and try to channel our passion for games into making money. That’s why we chose a hosting option that costs money but provides us with a .com domain and a platform to host our website. The most important aspects for us were an easy installation of WordPress (our system to manage our blog – more on that later), a decent price and a money-back guarantee (let’s be honest – we did not know if we were still doing this after 30 days). The hosting partner that fits our needs perfectly is bluehost.
bluehost-blackfriday

Bluehost is one of the largest hosting providers in the world and offers exactly what we needs. Especially the 24/7 support came in handy multiple times. Their prices start from $3,49 per month so are very affordable. Personally, I would even pay much more for their service. Eventual down times or issues with our hosting provider can cost us real money quick so a speedy customer service is important. If you are an advanced user and don’t need need a money-back guarantee, one-click WordPress installation or the 24 hour customer support, feel free to use other options as well. Most information in this article is still applicable to your gaming blog.

Gaming Blog Setup

If you are using Bluehost this is as easy as it gets. After chosing your domain name and ordering the package you are ready to install WordPress, our content management system for the blog. Just login to your account and follow this short and simple video.

That wasn’t too bad right? Now you can start blogging. Work on your first articles, reviews or commentary. WordPress is very intuitive and for most people you can start blogging right away. For beginners you can have a look at their excellent introduction and tutorial articles on Learn WordPress. Take our advice to heart and work on quality content. You might even want to play around with different designs and layouts you can download for free right from WordPress. All this is covered in their excellent documentation. Feel free to check it out. Keep all the things we said about your target audience in mind. This is where you pick a design or writing style that fights the people you want to target. We did exactly the same and this site you are reading on right now is built on WordPress with a free theme.

After you have finished your first article we need to find a way to monetize the site. Keep in mind though that quality content comes first.

Gaming Blog Monetization

In general, the first thing that people think about when talking about blog monetization is ads. Banner ads and their cousins are a decent source of income for most sites. One of the services you can use is Google Adsense. This would be the banner at the top of this web page. We use banner ads very sparingly because they can be everything from interesting to obnoxious. This is also why we don’t make a lot of money from these ads. We want to keep the user experience first and keep the site interesting, readable without blinking distractions.

Our main source of income is affiliate marketing. Have you noticed the links to Amazon or Bluehost that we have used in this article? These are our form of advertisement. Every time someone uses these linked products and services we get a small commission. There are lots of affiliate marketing programs out there. We recommend you start with Amazon Associates since they sell a variety of products you can promote. We feel that telling you about a quality hosting provider and a fantastic book is much more honest than annoying banner ads.

For your personal blog, try to do the same. Only recommend products that you can really get behind and you will make some pocket money as well.

We want to leave you with our progress over the last 3 months. We have made some incredible leaps and this is mostly because a quiet majority of people has been visiting this blog so frequently. I hope with this article we could share a little bit of what we learned and you can profit from this as well. This is how our earnings have developed, so don’t give up and you can do the same.
screenshot
Feel free to contact us in the comments of this post after you started a website. We are always happy to give some critique and help newcomers out in general.

Thank you for reading.

Kai

My mom said my eyes would turn into rectangles from playing too much PC. Joke's on her though, they are in glorious 16:9 now.

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83 Responses

  1. Joshua Cole says:

    This is a great article about staying true to your nature when starting a blog or website. I recently started mine, but I’m off to a rocky start and I’d love some critiquing. Most of my views are from myself sadly so I hope you’ll take the time to view it at least. Cheers!

  2. Blake says:

    Thank you for this advice!

    I’m struggling to decide what I want to blog about, and gaming is on my niche list. I love to write, and I follow a bunch of blogs that make money via their blogs and marketing. So, naturally, if I can write and earn money doing it…and make it about games?

  3. tinamichele says:

    Great article! I am passing along to my son. I would love to see him doing something loves and make money at it.

    • Kai says:

      Appreciate it! Starting your own website is something to put on a resume as well. I love that you support your son in this.

  4. Glory says:

    I’m in the beginning stages of starting my gaming blog, very good article. Thanks for the advice!!

  5. RequiestaGaming says:

    I run a gaming blog myself and I’ve personally found that my most popular posts feature older games. If you constantly chase the newer trends, you’ll be under constant stress to keep reviewing those new games. It does well for traffic but it means that you have to keep pouring time and resources into it at all hours of the day.

    On the other hand, if you choose to review games that feed into people’s nostalgia, you create a piece of evergreen content. People will keep coming back to check your review so they can relive those moments that they had with the game. This is especially true for games that are no longer available for purchase or don’t work with newer machines.

    I agree with a lot of what you say in this post, I just felt like dropping my own story on yah. Your post helped me even in 2018 so thank you!

    • Gaming-Fuchs says:

      Hi RequiestaGaming,

      The idea with the reviews to old games is so great. I also want to start a gaming blog. Main topic should be streaming. I think the idea with the old games and the nostalgia memory is great. I’ll certainly do something there too. Is also a great idea for streaming. Why not one day in month oder week a Duke Nukem Stream or something 🙂 I think the idea is great, I’m 35 years old and could often write something of the games from my youth.
      Thank you for the inspiration!
      Greetings Timo

      • RequiestaGaming says:

        I’d definitely recommend streaming, though you’ll probably have to advertise like crazy for it on other mediums. People don’t necessarily go to Twitch for nostalgia, but if you cross-stream to YouTube live and promote both on Twitter, you’ll probably catch at least a few nostalgia biters!

  6. areseia says:

    Very nice article. I am in the process of starting up a blog myself. Just looking around for advice and also what’s out there. I am really liking the content on this blog, and at the same time learning a lot from you guys. Keep up the good work!

  7. minu khatun says:

    in your inspiration i also start a gaming blog..!!

  8. May says:

    Thank you so much for your advice! Sometimes I find it hard to create high quality gaming blog content that people love to read and share.

  9. Emily says:

    We are planning to start a blog section for one of our websites and I am clueless on what topics to start with.
    And you have mentioned some great tips which are really helpful and now I will work on something similar I hope that works!
    Thanks for the help

  10. emma says:

    Hello,

    Very nice and informative post, well I have a blog on software and games free download. Some of my posts on BlueStacks is getting 1000 daily page views, how could I monetize this page views? I already have bluestacks affiliate but it is not making a single dollar.

    Thanks in advance,

  11. Jon Muller says:

    With everyone staying at home, I think we are thinking of ways how to make money online. I agree that online gaming is one alternative. Other things you can do are online selling, article writing or offering online services such as tutorial and consultation. Whatever you decide to pursue in front of your computer, never forget about prioritizing your health. Have a healthy schedule and choose comfortable pc table and chairs.

  12. ketan survase says:

    very good way to earn money

  13. sharon shah says:

    Hi, Thanks this is Useful

  14. vasu says:

    Hey there,
    First of all, a huge thanks! I always have been a huge fan of your articles whether it be cs: go or more general topics related to FAQ queries. After reading your article, I felt very confident in starting my blog. Also, it has been three months and I am very happy that I saw this article. Finally, My article is on google. Appreciate the work you are doing.

    regards,
    Vasu Samnotra

  15. Prince says:

    Nice keep up the good work, thanks for being honest

  16. Daniel CA says:

    Nice idea for passive income. I like to create gaming blog and write info article and gaming product affiliate like gaming chair and more. Thanks

  17. Sorax says:

    Great article! It was very informative. Question about your affiliate links. Did you integrate them right away into you posts? Or did you wait for a steady audience? Thanks for the article!

  18. enriqueluise says:

    All of the gaming blog concept material is covered here. The article addresses the moving cause and functions as such. You wrote it in a layman way, so that everyone might appreciate it. Depending on its content, it’s an article worth applauding.

  19. ashvini talgeri says:

    Great content that you have given us. It is very helpful for us. Make this kind of content more shareable

  20. Bhagyashree says:

    Hello, Nice Article very useful information.

  21. Sharden says:

    Well… this is bookmarked for future reading. Definitely could be knowledge for me as I have one gaming blog and will likely be starting another site soon.

  22. Kassey says:

    So I’m ready to get to work on my own blog. I’m really excited about it and I’m ready to pour so much effort in that I canquit my 9 to 5 and stay at home with my kid. I had an idea to include actual gameplay of me doing awesome stuff with my characters. How do I cite that kind of thing? What would that require for legal purposes? And, is that something bluehost or Word Press is able to do ? Much thanks for your article and any help thereafter

  23. neverdie232 says:

    Excellent work! I am impressed and good luck to you at all times. Would love to see your article to be continued.
    Best wishes from:
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  24. Brad Lohhy says:

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  25. This is excellent advice for those who are interested in starting a niche video game blog. Even in 2020 there is still room for new bloggers who share quality content in return for ad revenue. And it’s promising to see that you’ve made progress yourselves. Thanks for the encouragement.

  26. Jon says:

    Thanks for the article. need to remember that blog needs a lot of work and it takes time to see results.

  27. Daily Insyder says:

    Very informative articles.
    Thanks for sharing.

  28. Another very informative post. Thanks for sharing.

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  30. Pro MB Gaming says:

    Some great points shared here. Thank you

  31. Philip says:

    Hi,

    Kudos for the article….

    Cheers!

  32. Filehippo says:

    Thank you so much for sharin g with us about game blogging.

  33. Hamza says:

    very nice of you to share this information.
    i have just one question that what are the initial costs & other costs after starting the gaming blog?
    Thanks

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  37. BztGame says:

    Good Article

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  38. unicvv says:

    I recently started mine, but I’m off to a rocky start and I’d love some critiquing. Most of my views are from myself sadly so I hope you’ll take the time to view it at least

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  40. Leona Felder says:

    Hello,
    Hope you are doing well…!!!
    Can you allow me to publish my article on on-winning
    There are some queries about our content publication. How much do you charge for a sponsor article?
    We publish an article that contains a do-follow link. Will it be fine?
    The post required no sponsored tag, do you agree with that ?Is it possible for the post to come on the home page and how long will it stay?
    We are working on different industries such as Forex/Finance, Casino, Travel, and Gaming, will you allow such links in the normal/general post?
    We can pay via PayPal
    Waiting for your reply.

    • Chris says:

      There is a growing video game culture not only in the States but all over the world, and there are gaming brands and affiliates that are willing to sponsor a gamer in order to get their product out in front of thousands of fellow gamers.

      A good example website to check out is https://gamerinquirer.com/, a gaming blog that features games for adults. Check out and let me know what you think

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  42. RJ says:

    Thanks for this I also have a gaming blog https://www.allaboutgames.net/. My main source of traffic is organic traffic because I am an SEO specialist but yes you are right Adsense doesn’t make much money. I’ve been doing some affiliate marketing on my other websites but I think it’s still too soon for this one. Combining my 2 passions feel so good though. Keep up the good work 🙂

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  45. MentalNerd says:

    Thank you so much for this! This information, especially the monetization section is super helpful. I’ve been looking at potentially monetizing my own video gaming blog and was wondering–when you start earning revenue, do you have to be careful about any specific copyright issues other than using royalty free images? I’ve heard certain gaming companies are really picky about in-game screenshots. I could be wrong?

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