How I Chose My Business
For the past year I have been in the process of launching my video game centric website as a personal business, focusing on covering aspects such as walkthroughs and guides. There are many different types of game sites out there, some that focus solely on reviews, those that are more world event themed and those that directly offer supplemental files for games, otherwise known as mods. These are honestly just a few of the different types of sites out there, however I arrived at my choice of focusing on walkthroughs seeing as my personal aptitude has always revolved around the “how-to” type of content, besides having a strong love for video games of course. This is really the most important step, since the willpower to invest your heart and soul behind your company is what will make or break you in the long run.
What Started this Business?
The roots of where I began with this project can be traced back to my childhood. Besides playing video games all the time, I made it a habit to usually ignore the manual and try to figure things out for myself, progressing towards developing a natural intuition of the mechanics behind video games. Later on I would eventually become a modder, a person who creates custom content for use with another video game, often in the form of additional levels or in-game items. From there I took my passions to hosting a website completely dedicated to mod development and hosting, that ended up having an excellent run for 5 years, teaching myself about web design, content management systems like PHP Nuke and even interaction with a small community who frequented the site. Eventually I would even come to write articles here at Associated Content, which is where I developed my abilities in actual content creation.
5 Useful Tips I Learned Through Creating a Video Game Website
1. YouTube is a powerful promotion tool. Much of the success I achieved has resulted from creating a vast library of videos that correspond with the articles I write while cross promoting them with links. Although the end results of a video and text walkthrough of the same level may overlap, they can often offer two distinct forms of help, where video is far more descriptive with simple imagery, and text allows easier browsing towards specific topics the player needs help with, as opposed to watching a whole video through.
2. Be prepared to fully capitalize on your success, but do not overdo it. When I originally created my StarCraft 2 videos on YouTube, I was hesitant of the views it would bring given the likelihood I would be competing with the most video game guide creators than with any other game given SC2’s immense popularity. However I was shocked to find that while I did not achieve a top spot in video rankings, thanks to focusing on the niche of achievement completion in the game before anything else, I was able to secure myself a nice little chunk of still-to-this-day flowing views. However as the title suggests, I made a mistake. The videos had no audio-commentary, thus according to YouTube’s partnership agreement rules, were not eligible for the partnership (revenue share) program. Sadness.
3. If you can beat them to the door, just squeeze in beside them. Simply put, if you can’t dominate a search ranking for an entire game, then try to focus on some sub-set of that game that you can dominate. This closely relates again to my SC2 videos, where instead of the unlikely chance I could get the #1 spot for simple level walkthroughs, I focused on achievements instead while the other video creator’s were still focusing on the former. I may not have won the battle, but I still got a nice share for myself.
4. Make in-roads yourself, don’t rely on other people or companies to speak up on your behalf. As soon as I started having content I was proud to show off, after I moved my writing elsewhere, I began sending emails out to various game developers and publishers, requesting promotional copies of new games or just sending them links to the guides I wrote. The end result was incredibly powerful link-juice through the form of direct links to my content from the official game’s homepage while also receiving some free copies to continue my work on. It can seem intimidating to contact a company when you are just one person, however this is something you must shake off. Just approach them with a professional, business-like attitude but still converse as though talking to a regular human being, since after all, one person is going to read your mail, not the whole company as an entity in itself.
5. Get involved with the community and don’t shy away from new responsibilities, as long as you can manage them effectively. I always make a habit of responding to those who ask questions on my videos, as a video creator who still has the ability to associate with their viewer base has a higher chance of receiving likes or subscriptions, but besides just that, it’s friendly and decent, setting yourself apart from many of the “Silent creators” out there. If someone from the community approaches you to get involved with some web building or other projects, try to find some time to do so as long as you feel you have something to offer. New experiences are nothing to shy away from and a diverse resume is a powerful tool, even if you never plan on working under another company it will still open many doors for you.