Video Game Niche Breakdown
So many people love video games, it would be a pity if your own love of video games wasn't turned into a niche website.
The trouble is, I know a lot of "gamers" just like killing time playing games, and haven't really considered what it takes to turn that casual interest into a business. I'll just let you know right off the bat that playing a couple of games and giving them a "rating" is not going to earn you any money.
So I wanted to write a post today on how to turn your love of video games into a business, according to me, and by using Wealthy Affiliate's training of course.
PROVIDE UNIQUE VALUE
One concept that you need to think about as you're building your website is "What value an I'm providing to the visitor?". It's easy to get caught up in the "I just want to make money" mentality but you really need to think about whether or not you would want to visit your own website.
Is your information valuable?
Doing a Minecraft review is not valuable. No one cares what you think of Minecraft.
That's a tough concept to learn, so if you aren't 100% sure, that's OK. It's just something to keep in the back of your mind.
ADDITION: One thing to think about is how you can help people increase their enjoyment of a game. People play games for pleasure, so if you can help them play better, or have more fun, or even just understand more about the game, you are definitely providing some kind of value to them!
FIND A NICHE AUDIENCE
"Video Games" is not a niche!
Gamers are as diverse as any other group of people, so you need to think about WHO you are making your website for.
Will a 13 year old girl enjoy the same games as a 45 year old man? Maybe, but probably not. Will a indie game developer be looking for the same information as someone looking for PS4 cheat codes? Nope. Find an audience!
Here are some cool ideas to start with
- vintage console repair
- rare NES and SNES game reviews
- creating computer game mods
- genre game reviews (racing, horror, indie)
- gaming chair reviews
- gamer gear reviews
- computer gaming headset reviews
- easter eggs
- arcade games and MAME
- Minecraft tutorials
- MMO (can also be broken down further)
- DOTA
- WOW
- COD
- how to start a letsplay channel on YouTube
- virtual reality
- portable gaming consoles
- browser based games
- games where you can make money
- family friendly video games
- video games for kids under [age of your choice]
- imported video games
- rare video games
Yes, I did list a few games in there, but not all games will be good for website topics. Things like DOTA and WOW are big and intricate enough that there's a lot to say about them, and a large following dedicated to these games.
Making money with a video game website is absolutely possible! If you are passionate enough about the games you play, there is a vast and connected community of gamers online that can help grow your site if the content is good enough
What are some other possible video game related niches you can think of?
Recent Comments
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So here is another thought. What if you were to host a gamers forum similar to something like archerytalk.com although that one is geared to the sport of archery my husband and I utlized that site frequently. There are brand specific threads, style threads, even a classifieds to buy sell and trade. It is very popular among the archery world and I think a "gamerstalk" forum would be equally as popular. Unless, of course, there is already one out there.
Hi Nath,
This is what I've been thinking a lot lately.
I'm not sure if any kind of game reviews is viable anymore - at least not in a sense most of us (gamers) are used to think. Especially gamers with a couple of decades behind their backs. I mean, there are tons of this stuff, you can read hundreds of reviews created by users on Steam or whatever platform you play on.
Even choosing a sub-sub-sub-genre probably isn't going to be a niche. You need to pinpoint a very narrow audience looking for very specific things, and/or wanting to find them in one place which they'd love to visit over and over again.
Also, I believe doing something - anything - with such popular titles as WoW, CoD, LoL, Hearthstone, etc. is going to be VERY difficult to work on in terms of getting profit from it. You really need to provide unique, one of a kind experience for your audience here.
I have a gaming website, and I've lost count of how many times I've changed the "direction" of its content. Sadly, this affects the working process in a very negative way.
Right now I'm even thinking of giving it up for some time and creating a review site focusing only on merchandise related to only ONE gaming franchise. I've also been thinking about portable gaming devices niche - not only consoles, but tablets as well.
Would be nice to know your opinion on these two, btw - as well as others' who have already put their comments here.
Finding a way to provide unique value is definitely tough, especially with video games. Just keep in mind you don't have to be the "biggest and the best". You can just be an interesting website that some people visit or that specializes in a very specific segment of one video game.
Keep working on it, and you'll find something that clicks for you!
Nice post Nath :) specific game genres like fighting games, RPGs, or Visual Novel games is also a good niche. (I do one of them)
Another niche is brand specific niche, but existing brand usually has already several authority websites which will be very hard to beat if your website doesn't have unique value compared to the authority website.
Cheers,
Ferdinand
It's funny you mention video games because my website mainly targets a certain segment of video games that I love to play. You are right though that you want to provide something of value to an audience and sometimes that can be tough.
I target open world video games on a specific game console because those are my favorite ones to play. I've been posting consistently for quite awhile now of new updates to current open world games and future ones coming out, but I also post articles detailing different aspects of an open world game.
An example is a very large open world racing game with a representation of the United States (not completely accurate of course) and comparing the major cities in the game to their real life counterparts.
Something else I also started doing this past weekend to see if I can get interest is doing a YouTube video series that initially start out as live broadcasts where you can see me playing games such as GTA 5 and my online adventures while playing them. I posted my first one on my website that is followed by a detailed break down of what I'm doing in that video and my thinking of why I did some of the things I did in the video.
I'm also still trying to come up with other ideas too that will garner more interest. One of the things you've mentioned above, gamer gear review, I've done on my site before such as gaming headphones and a great gaming tv as well.
I'm also a big fan of open world games. I don't have the patience to play them, but I love the concept. I had no idea there were open world racing games...I'm more familiar with the zombie types!
I hope you keep working on this site. I think it's a unique type of person that enjoys that unnlimited possilbities of open world so you have a lot of room to help others discover new games and increase their enjoyment of the ones they already know!
Oh yes, I will definitely keep working on this site. As far as open world racing games, there are a nice amount of them. The Crew is probably one of the biggest open world racing games out there and then the Need For Speed series has been open world their last few games, then there's the Midnight Club series and Burnout.
I love open world games because I love to explore and do things at my leisure and since it is something I like doing in real life (traveling, exploring, driving) it makes sense that I would love to play games where I can do those kinds of things that I just can't do very often in real life.
I always look forward to new open world games that come out and as long as they are being made, my website will continue on.
This something my oldest son should think about. He is big into League of Legends. My other son prefers World of Warcraft and my daughter prefers Minecraft. So there are a wide variety of niches within the gaming niche. Peronally, I like Tetris and PacMan...sorry I'm a product of the 80's LOL. So quick question you might be able to answer. What would be a good software screen recording like game play or even just basic on screen tutorials?
Camtasia is great for screen recording. It costs money but it is worth every penny if you plan to use it.
80's video game nostalgia is definitely a great niche! There are tons of YouTube videos on it.
I am a fan of the pacman family as well. The kids have the x box and they said, look Dad its has pacman on this game. I was disappointed because not one thing was correct about the game. They changed the boards and so on. Guess I am getting old, HD TV does not even excite me, oh well.
Rob
Wow is something iv thought about, and all of what you listed has tons of potential. Yep, I'm coming out of the closet to say that I play Wow Haha Especially games that have frequent expansions that come out every so often. there is always something to talk about amongst a niche community, gaming Is massive. Great post! :)
Yeah, games with a cult following will always have things to share, especially if they are competitive and frequently in the news!
This very valuable information, for I thought about creating a website regarding RPG games. I like the part about "Doing a Minecraft review is not valuable. No one cares what you think of Minecraft", it made me chuckle.
There are so many JRPG related stuff out now you can have a field day with it. I am getting into JRPGs myself and it's like a different world.
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Yes Nath, will consider one. My son for one is addicted to the video games on the Internet and spent hours on it. He is in the IT and would be easy for him to set a few websites just for it. Guess he don't have the time for it.
Regards Sadie.