How to earn money as gamer?
Well, to be completely honest, this is an incredibly difficult task.
It is more different than any today’s paying job. Additionally, it is a little abstract.
Reality to the side, this is the dream come true for every strict gamer. And, while it might be too challenging endeavor, it is not impossible for those with the persistent and ambitious spirit. The path is very rough and sometimes quite discouraging, but the end results are those that matter the most.
We have compiled a list of tips and tricks and united them into a methodical guide. Should you ever believe you have what it takes to be a part of the commercial department of the gaming industry, you should definitely read about the ways how to earn money as gamer.
How to earn money as gamer? – Start writing a blog
If writing and reading interesting things is something you are fond of apart from gaming, this is the first thing that you should consider. Are you able to talk in a casual yet informational voice? Do you sound friendly to your surroundings? More importantly, can people resonate with your thinking and can you stimulate people to learn?
These are all the characteristics of a writer. You don’t have to be born with the talent to write in order to pursue writing a gaming-related blog. The ideas are infinite. You can be versatile as long as you stick with your favorite genre, or genres. You can also write the tips and tricks to do in certain games.
What is important to mention is the ability to efficiently transfer the information upon your readers. Your readers need to trust you. In case something differs from their style of playing, you should provide the constructive answers and show the reason behind your capability.
It is recommended to purchase your own domain and hosting in order to have a complete grip of your earnings. The free hosting services usually don’t support the advertising the way the purchasing hosting does.
It is all the laughs and giggles until the part where this gets extremely difficult. The competition in this field is incredible. Why? Because whoever lived with this idea for a while, he already started doing this at least five to six years ago. This means that you will have to make your own breakthrough.
Find your sub-niche inside the gaming. Aiming for the more popular titles will result in more chances of success. That also means that your competition won’t sit with arms crossed, waiting for the miracle. On the contrary, they are probably one or two steps ahead from you. They already played the games. Furthermore, they already wrote the guides.
You will have to be more than good. You will have to invest a lot of hard work. Additionally, the researching process in mandatory step to success. Cherishing your writing skills by reading and practicing and developing the teaching way of thinking, is almost as important as expressing yourself as an expert in this field. If you think you can live up to the challenge, good luck!
How to earn money as gamer? – Write gaming reviews and news
The reason I brought these two closely is because there is not much difference between two. The most common skillset contained in both gaming journalist and blogger is that they require the vast writing talent and practicing.
Now, let’s start with the gaming reviews and news. It starts, again, with, preferably, purchasing your own domain and hosting where you can write your content. The content can vary anywhere from reviewing the latest console and PC games, to writing the first hand news about the latest happenings in the gaming industry (For instance, releasing of Assassin’s creed Empire).
You can earn money on two ways. By getting the money from advertisements to the advertised content by writing the reviews. There are infinite possibilities when it comes to this. However, just like the above -mentioned method, it is far from being easy.
The competition is vast. It is not a secret that Google is full of the newly developed websites with the same intention. Just like the previous method suggest, you need to have your own breakthrough. If you are inexperienced with the concept of web design and SEO, it would be the best to seek the assistance of some savvy friends in order to improve the visibility of your website.
This process can take some time. Only lucky people will succeed in the first months or even weeks. However, the average development process to your website and post can take at least six months to a year. You can use this time to do a side-job, or even lead a social media account which will direct your friends, and your friends’ friends to the website.
In the end it is again the cherishing on the skills that is important, and patience, of course.
How to earn money as gamer? – Create gaming oriented podcasts or videos
Saying that videos are not efficient would be an understatement. Nowadays, videos are one of the most efficient ways to grab the attention of your audience, even on social media sites, such as Instagram or Facebook. Indeed, they are. Even the restaurants, shopping centers, and retails create videos to tackle the audience and bring them aboard. Why wouldn’t you do the same?
Podcasts are something new in today’s world. However, they often occur to be even more popular than the regular videos you can find on Facebook or even YouTube.
Your job is to come up with avant-garde ideas, not usually seen on the web and transform it into a compelling, audience-gathering, and more importantly, original content, which you will present in a video or a podcast. Some podcasts are broadcasted on daily and weekly basis. On the other side, if you have a respectable traffic and you own a blog, you can submit the content on monthly basis.
In-detail, you can talk about your favorite games and share your opinion with the audience, create fan-theories, and even guide them. If you are influent online and offline too, it is not rare that the high-end gamers are interviewed in these podcasts. Pretty much you are unlimited, because the videos you produce are monetized by YouTube advertisements
It all sounds relatively easy to achieve. But, there is a catch, just like with the other two ways we numbered.
To get paid by YouTube is an even more challenging task. Nobody will make you rich, just because someone else shares your opinion and you are right. Nowadays, anyone can bring a gamer or two, organize collabs, and so on. The conclusion behind this is, that in order to be successful you need the vast audience.
This approach demands a handy of investments. Quite frankly, nobody is going to focus on a poorly produced and edited video. Meaning, you need a good camera, even better microphone and a gaming-friendly environment.
Also, if you can’t keep the attention of your watchers high, it won’t be too long until they move away to the next, more interesting video. These situations are frequent, which also calls for a firm personality and nerves of steel. Perhaps, it sounds harsh, but just like the showbusiness, this business is cruel too.
Moreover, this all touches the area of a streamer (later to be discussed) and nearly interferes with it. Except that this unites a streamer and someone who is providing guides for the users. In shorts, you are making an online vlog oriented towards gaming.
There are positive sides to this too. When you are writing, you need to find the best way to express yourself in a more detailed way. When it comes to making a podcast, you don’t have to be so deeply strict about the language you choose. In the end of the day, it is definitely a more laid-back version of being a gaming blogger.
The best thing to do if you decide to distinguish yourself in the world of podcasts is to create the first podcast highlighting your personality. Introduce yourself to your audience, show them what are your interests, aspirations, and what makes you such a dedicated gamer that you are today. Let them know about your favorite genres. As result, they will stay loyal to you once when you really start making podcasts.
How to earn money as a gamer? – Start live streaming
This is the most popular way to monetize your gameplay. At the same time it is the most difficult one. Live streaming means broadcasting your gameplay in live. At the same time, you should have the audience which loyally follows every movement of yours and enjoys your gaming.
The world sees your gameplay, which monetizes your gameplay thanks to the ads. Additionally, another way to make use of your gameplay is through donations and subscriptions. The gamers with the greatest name hang around on Twitch, which is right now the most popular platform.
If you can’t get along with Twitch just yet, YouTube is an ideal replacement. Moreover, it doesn’t fall much behind. The other platforms might seem well-built. However, if you are trying to build yourself a name, you should try avoiding it.
A long time before it starts generating revenues should not surprise you. Streaming takes a while to take effect. Even months pass before you are able to exceed 10 to 50 players per session. Even after you manage to hit the spot between 100 and 500, it is still not enough to make a living. People with thousands often struggle, and it is not a secret that it takes much more than that to survive in this career.
But, in the end, it is not all that dark. Just to start is not hard. Let’s assume that as a gamer who wants to make a living by playing games is already owning a somewhat decent computer. Streaming is performed mainly by the PC gamers, though the community is not limited to the console gamers.
Pretty much, all you need to do is get a free recording software and be enough cheerful to emit a charismatic personality. Your viewers won’t trust you if you are a jerk!
How to earn money as gamer? – Test the games
Have you ever heard about Beta testing? This is how it works. The games near completion and the developers need to test it for bugs and other issues that could come across the players who purchase it. They need the person who will make sure that everything is in order. That person could be you.
But, the truth is that game testing isn’t all that great like we used to think. It requires an all-time engagement and dedication. Furthermore, it pays much less than it should. It is certainly one of the hardest way to respectably earn money for the living and taking an advantage in this cruel, money-revolving world.
The payment on the vast majority of companies and sites that favor game testing and playing isn’t much better than working for the minimal payment. I believe that you wouldn’t even have that much time, as you would constantly have to be involved with stressful situations and be capable of meeting the deadlines.
The good news is that you can get enormously lucky by landing a high-paying and respectable position. But, both of us know that you really need to be good at what you are doing. Preferably you have some knowledge from the development process and are capable of solving some in-game issues yourself.
If testing games is really something you want to put yourself into, we can only applaud you and suggest some intriguing and decent services such as PlaytestCloud, BetaFamily, and ErliBird. If you want to look for a full-time gig, you really need to be sure that you want to do this.
No matter what others tell you, there is way for you to succeed
Conclusion
Although this is not the easiest way to monetize your hard work. Tasting the success itself after a completed life goal is a feeling not many opportunities can relate to. How to earn money as gamer? Share your methods with us in the comments.
