How To Start A Successful Gaming Blog (& Make Money) In 2024

If you love gaming and you’re looking for a practical guide on how to start a gaming blog, you’re at the right place.

I’ll walk you through the exact step-by-step process for starting a gaming blog, show you how to get readers and give you free blogging tools and resources that’ll put you on the path to success.

You’ll follow the 7 simple steps, create your own blog and start making money as a gaming blogger.

Sound good?

And here’s a downloadable Blog Launch checklist if you want to check tasks off as you go.

Let’s dive in.

How To Start A Video Gaming Blog In 7 Steps

Step 1: Brainstorm Gaming Niches
Step 2: Come Up With A Catchy Blog Name
Step 3: Get Web Hosting & Secure Your Domain
Step 4: Customise Your Blog’s Design
Step 5: Start Blogging
Step 6: Monetise With Ads & Affiliate Marketing
Step 7: Let The World Know About Your Gaming Blog!

Step 1: Brainstorm Gaming Blogging Niches

There are 3.32 billion active video gamers and over 600 million blogs on this little planet of ours.

You need to find a way to stand out from the crowd.

And that’s where choosing a blogging niche and a strong name for your gaming blog comes in.

Gaming is your blogging niche but it’s super broad and you want to nail down a more specific audience.

The gaming industry is massive!

So instead of starting a blog for anyone into gaming, choose a specific type of gaming you can totally dominate.

Here are some possible gaming subniche ideas you could exploit:

So start brainstorming!

Choosing a more specific gaming niche is really going to help you to attract the right kind of readers, create the right kind of content and monetise your blog.

Never think your niche is too specific either – to somebody out there it’s exactly what they’re looking for.

Step 2: Come Up With A Catchy Blog Name

Once you’ve done that you’re ready to pick a blog name.

Let’s run through some easy ways to land the right name for your gaming blog in the next few minutes.

Use Your Name

A lot of gaming bloggers simply name their blogs after themselves.

You can use your name, nickname or a memorable pseudonym to establish yourself as the face and voice of your blog from the get-go.

Make Up A Word

Twitter. Facebook. Volvo. Xerox. Kodak. Google.

What do all these names have in common?

They’re completely made-up words!

So why not make up your own word for your blog?

A unique, made-up word sticks in your head and chances are, the domain will be available for it.

Combine Words

Look at gaming blogs like Gamezebo, Unigamesity and Twinfinite.

See what they did there?

They’ve just put two words together to come up with their own name.

Use Alliteration

Alliteration is when words have the same sound at the beginning.

Think Best Buy, Krispy Kreme, M&Ms, Coca-Cola and PayPal.

Using alliteration can make your gaming blog name stand out and easy to remember.

You could try these handy tools too:

• Nameboy or Panabee – free blog name generators
• Thesaurus – useful for finding synonyms related to your specific niche
• Dictionary – use this to come up with words related to gaming

Now you’ve chosen a name, I’ll show you how to get a free domain when you sign up for a hosting plan (see next step)

Step 3: Get Web Hosting & Secure Your Domain

A web host is a company who will save your blog on its servers. A domain name is what points people to it.

I’ve used many web hosts and domain registrars over the years but the one I recommend when you’re starting out is Wealthy Affiliate.

You can read my super in-depth Wealthy Affiliate review to get the full details, but you get:

• A free .com domain
• Fast, beginner-friendly setup
• 5,500+ themes to choose from
• Lightning fast servers
• 24/7 technical support (a real lifeline!)
• WordPress already installed
• SSL as standard
• Full training on how to monetise your gaming blog

Go to WealthyAffiliate.com to get started and enter your name, email and password to create your account.

From the member’s area, select Websites from the top menu and click Build a Website and select the Register a Domain option:

You’ll be asked to choose a Premium pricing plan. You can pay monthly or yearly so pick the one that best fits your budget.

Once you’ve done that you can secure your domain and choose a WordPress theme.

A WordPress theme is a pre-designed template that will determine the appearance and layout of your gaming blog.

GeneratePress is a brilliant option but browse through them and pick one you like – the simpler, the better.

Once you’ve done that, hit the big green Build My Website button and your blog will be live on the web in less than 30 seconds!

Congratulations -you have now officially started your very own gaming blog! 😎

Step 4: Customise Your Blog’s Design

Now that your gaming blog is live, your next step is to tweak the design.

If you look at your blog now with the GeneratePress WordPress theme (or whatever theme you chose) it looks kinda basic “out of the box” and there are a few things you can to personalise it and make it your own.

Change Colours, Fonts & Layout

If you completed step 3 (above) then you’ll have access to your WordPress logins so you can access your blog’s WordPress dashboard.

It’s from here you can customise your blog, add posts, reply to comments, upload images and plugins and pretty much anything else related to running your blog.

From the left-side menu go to Appearance then Customise and you’ll see all of your blog’s customisation options

Add A Logo

When it comes to a logo for your gaming blog you’ve got two options:

You can make one yourself easy enough – here’s a step-by-step.

Or if you prefer, you can get a designer to come up with a professional design for you.

To upload your logo go to Appearance > Customise > Site Identity.

You might also want to add a Site Title (the name of your blog) and a catchy tagline:

When it comes to designing your gaming blog, I’d recommend not getting overly obsessed with trying to make it “just right”…

Just because you have a ton of customisation options doesn’t mean you have to use all of them!

As a general rule, always go with black text on a white background for easier reading, keep your header and menus small and make your content the main focus.

At the end of the day, it’s your content that’s going to attract traffic and generate revenue, so invest your time and energy into creating super helpful blog posts and nobody will care too much about how your gaming blog looks.

Step 5: Start Blogging

Speaking of content, now we get to the exciting part of actually blogging!

When it comes to publishing on your blog with WordPress there are two types of content: posts and pages.

Pages are static pages on your blog created for a specific purpose. Posts are what you’ll be creating most of the time.

Here’s a handy guide if you want to learn more about the difference between posts and pages.

Creating Pages

When you’re starting your gaming blog, there are a few essential pages you’ll need to add:

• About Page – Tell people who you are and what they’ll get out of reading your blog
• Contact Page – Give readers a way to contact and show where they can connect with you online
• Affiliate Disclosure – Let visitors know you’ll be compensated when they click your affiliate links
• Privacy Policy – States how you gather and use people’s personal data

Publishing Blog Posts

You’ve started a gaming blog, but what are you going to write about?

You could post:

• Gaming reviews
• News updates and product releases
• Response posts where you answer specific questions about gaming
• Helpful how-to guides
• Top 10 best roundups

I like the organised approach to blogging, which means creating a content strategy months and even a year ahead of time.

That way you have a list of future blog post ideas and you’re never stuck with what to write.

It also means that rather than just blogging about whatever you feel like that day, you’ll write about topics people actually want to learn about and you’ll get readers finding your blog on Google.

For this, you need Mangools – a great keyword tool for coming up with gaming blog post ideas.

Type in any term and it’ll bring up a whole host of possible keywords you could write about and tell you exactly how many times each month a certain term is searched:

So take some time to research some keywords and make a list of future blog post ideas.

And that’s it – you’ve got your plan of attack!

All you need to do now is execute, so take a realistic look at your weekly schedule and block out specific time for focusing solely on your gaming blog.

To write and publish blog posts, go to your WordPress dashboard, hit Posts on the left-hand side and click Add New.

That’ll bring up a new post page that should look something like this:

Start with the blog post title, add an intro and use short paragraphs, subheadings and images to break up the text.

Here are the best sites to find royalty-free images for your blog posts.

Since the release of WordPress Gutenberg, formatting your blog posts is super easy. Simply select a block type and you’re done.

The main blocks you’ll be using are:

• Paragraph
• Heading
• Image
• Bullet or numbered list
• Youtube (if you want to embed a video)
• Buttons

Here’s a tutorial that’ll walk you through the WordPress Block Editor:

Other than that, when it comes to being a gaming blogger and writing content, don’t fall for the trap of thinking you have to write like an Encyclopedia Britannica.

You know your audience best and how to connect with them. So just write like you talk, forget about trying to make a blog post “perfect” (whatever that means) and you’ll do just fine.

Step 6: Monetise With Ads & Affiliate Marketing

OK, so you’re all set up and you’re creating content so the next step now is to figure out how to make money as a gaming blogger.

The two best and most lucrative ways to monetise a gaming blog are ads and affiliate marketing.

Let’s go through each one.

Ezoic Ads

Display ads are a great way to earn a passive income from your new blog.

You join an ads network, they put ads on your blog and you get paid per 1,000 views – simple!

You could sign up to Google Adsense but the downside with them is they pay peanuts.

Ezoic is a much better option as they pay a pretty decent rate of around $10-$20 per 1,000 views.

Here are some more Google Adsense alternatives.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is commission-based meaning you recommend relevant products and services to fellow gamers who read your blog and get paid a percentage every time they click your unique affiliate link and buy something.

And there are so many gaming affiliate programs out there you can join for free with a ton of different products you could promote, like:

• Games
• Controllers
• Headsets
• Keyboards
• Gaming chairs
• Gaming mouse
• Consoles
• GPUs
• Bluetooth headphones and speakers
• PC setups
• Boosting services
• Gamer dating services…

The list goes on and on!

Simply google “Gaming affiliate programs” and you’ll see 1,000s of results.

Let’s run through a few quick examples.

The 3 Best Gaming Affiliate Programs

1. Logitech

Equip readers with the best gaming equipment money can buy and earn commissions of up to 25% on every sale.

2. Twitch

Streaming and gaming go hand in hand, so why not get paid a 5% revenue share on all game sales?

Join the Twitch affiliate program and that’s exactly what will happen!

3. Amazon

Amazon is the biggest affiliate program of them all and they’ve got everything a gamer could ever wish for.

Though they only pay 2% commissions, you get credited for whatever your referrals buy through your link within a 24-hour period so earnings can really stack up.

These are just a few gaming affiliate program ideas but the possibilities really are endless!

See our beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing for a full walkthrough on how you get started.

Step 7: Let The World Know About Your Gaming Blog!

If you’ve followed the steps in this guide then Google is the main way people are going to find your blog.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t leverage social media sites to get boatloads more traffic and grow your reach!

Because remember: the more people come to your blog, the more money you will make.

You could create a Facebook page, share pins on Pinterest, start tweeting or better yet, you could start a gaming YouTube channel.

YouTube is great for gaming bloggers. All you need to do is live stream your gameplay or record your screen and upload them.

This is exactly what Jacksepticeye did and he’s now worth over $16 million and has 29 million subscribers:

Starting A Gaming Blog FAQs

Do Gaming Blogs Make Money?

Yes, gaming blogs can make money a lot of money via display ads and affiliate marketing. However, how much revenue your gaming blog generates depends on your traffic volume, your specific gaming niche, the quality of your content and what kind of products you promote.

According to Millenial Money, you can make $25,000-$50,000 from your blog in your first year, more than $100,000 in your second year and more than $250,000+ in your third year.

Just remember this isn’t some kind of “get-rich-quick”; you’re going to have to put in the work upfront and stick with it without earning a penny for the first few months.

Do that though and the sky is the limit.

Should I Start A Gaming Blog Or A YouTube Channel?

If I had to choose one I’d say start a gaming blog but the good news is you don’t have to pick one over the other:

You can start a gaming blog AND a YouTube channel.

That way you’ll get traffic from Google and Youtube. You can link to your blog posts from your YouTube videos and embed your YouTube videos within your blog posts to really help both gain traction.

Can You Build A Gaming Blog Without Hosting?

No, you can’t start a gaming blog without hosting as hosting is what allows your blog to be accessed online when people type in your blog’s domain name.

We always recommend Wealthy Affiliate because we use it ourselves and we love it.

How Do I Get Readers To My Gaming Blog?

By creating content. Every time you hit publish on a blog post you’re opening yourself up to more Google rankings and traffic.

Use a keyword tool like this one to ensure you’re blogging about what people actually want to read. Find the questions and phrases your target audience is googling and try and give the best answers possible to get the coveted top spot.

Target one keyword per post and as you build out your blog, you’ll see an increase in the number of clicks your blog gets from Google and other search engines.

The more posts you add over time, the more traffic you’ll get and ultimately, the more money you will make whether you’re monetising with display ads, affiliate marketing or both.

Can You Start A Gaming Blog For Free?

Yes you can. Simply go to Wealthy Affiliate and select the free domain option. That’ll give you free hosting

Though I’d say you need to get your own domain as soon as possible as this will mean you actually own and have complete control over your gaming blog and can monetise it however you want.

More Questions About Starting A Gaming Blog?

That’s it! You’ve finally started your gaming blog and it’s live on the web for the world to see!

I’ve tried to keep this guide as simple and as practical as possible, but if you have any questions about becoming a gaming blogger that we’ve not covered then don’t hesitate to reach out in the comments.

You can also join one of our Weekly Live Hangouts for instant feedback and support as you start your blogging journey.

And if you want step-by-step training on how to make money as a blogger, check out the free Commission Academy course.

Happy blogging! 🎮