Create a plan for your gaming site
Before you start making a gaming website, it’s smart to have a plan in place for what type of site you want to operate. There are a number of paths you can take:
- A gaming blog. Your gaming blog could cover a lot of ground – anything from industry news and game studio coverage to new releases of games and hardware. A blog is a fantastic way to drive traffic to a website, which opens the door for several monetization strategies. These include affiliate marketing, subscription-only content, and ad revenue.
- A game review site. Game reviews and comparisons can be invaluable for consumers who need help deciding where to spend their hard-earned money. As such, this type of site offers a lot of potential. There’s also a fair bit of overlap with a more generalized gaming blog, so you could combine the two if that better suits your audience.
- A website dedicated to professional gaming. Pro gaming (also known as e-sports) has experienced an explosion in popularity over the last few years. It’s now a billion-dollar industry with fans all over the world. A site focused on e-sports could cover matches and tournaments, player rankings, and upcoming special events, as well as offering commentary and opinions.
- A site that hosts a game server. Hosting a private server for your favorite game can be both a rewarding personal hobby and a potential revenue stream. These private setups avoid many of the pitfalls of public servers, such as overcrowding, performance bottlenecks, and rude individuals.
Sign up for the right hosting plan
Once you have your website planned out, it’s time to start building it. The first step in this process is to choose a web host and plan that fits your needs (and budget).
For a generalized gaming site, or one focused primarily on a blog, nearly any hosting plan can work (although some will naturally be better suited than others). However, if you’re going to host a gaming server, you’ll likely want to look into a more specialized package that offers better performance and more control than a typical plan.
For a gaming blog or news site, a shared hosting plan from a reputable provider should provide everything you need. Depending on the host and specific plan, you can pay as little as $2.75 per month, leaving plenty of funds to invest in other aspects of your website. Bluehost is recommended by WordPress.org, so you can expect top-notch support for the platform.
If you want to set up a game server on your site, you may need something more powerful and reliable than a basic shared hosting plan. Dedicated hosting or a virtual private server (VPS) are both solid options. Since you’ll be the only one using the server (whether it’s physical or virtual), you’ll generally get more control over it as well. This means you can optimize it for gaming traffic and potentially achieve better performance.
Choose and register your domain
Once your hosting plan is set up, you’ll need to choose and register a domain name in order to get your site online. Your domain name is your site’s permanent address on the internet and enables users to find and access it.
The domain you choose is largely up to preference, provided that it’s available. However, you’ll want to keep in mind a few things when making your selection:
- A unique and memorable domain helps users remember your site, which can encourage repeat visitors.
- Domain names have an impact on search engine optimization (SEO), so you’ll want to incorporate keywords if possible.
- Your domain also plays a part in branding and is often the first impression a potential visitor has of your site.
For these reasons, it’s worth putting some thought and research into choosing your domain name.
Customize your gaming website
The first step in building your website is to install WordPress. Many hosting providers either install WordPress for you during registration or offer a one-click install, which makes the process simple. You’ll usually find these options in your web host’s administration panel.
Once WordPress is set up, you can start customizing your site. That begins with choosing the right theme. Your theme controls how nearly every element on the site is displayed, so picking one carefully is important.
There are thousands of WordPress themes available, and many are free – you don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of money to get a great-looking site. While you can opt for a gaming-specific theme, a multipurpose theme is likely to be more flexible and offer a larger feature set.
Once you have a theme and know what you want your site to look like, you can start adding additional functionality. WordPress offers a massive selection of plugins to extend your site’s features.
Exactly what plugins you opt for will depend on the type of gaming site you’re building.
Make a game server
Finally, as we mentioned earlier, you may want to set up a game server for your website. This probably sounds difficult, but the process is actually relatively straightforward. Additionally, most games offer detailed instructions to walk you through it.
In a nutshell, once you have hosting in place for the server, you’ll need to install any dependencies the game requires, and then configure the server for the game you’re installing.
The exact process varies depending on the game and your specific goals for the server.
The process can be a bit involved, so it’s important to follow the instructions from the game developer carefully. Many games also have dedicated communities where you can find additional help if you need it.