A gaming website is one of the best businesses you can start in 2023.
People are abandoning entertainment sites like Spotify, Netflix, and iTunes as they can’t afford the subscription fees.
But if you can offer an alternative source of entertainment that is either free or very cheap, you can generate some passive income.
A gaming website is one of the best ways to do this, as you can have a free website that you monetize with ads or offer a premium subscription for a few dollars.
It could also be something you build to sell quickly, like Wordle.
So, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to start a successful gaming website in 2023.
Do The Research
The key to a successful gaming website or any business is to know what your audience wants.
So, before you create your website, go out there and find out what sort of games your target audience is currently playing and what they’d like to play.
Also, find out what features they’d like your website to have. This will give you some website design tips.
You might also want to find out how they discovered these gaming sites, as this will give you a better promotion strategy.
You can start this research with something simple like surveys and then do some extensive interviews.
It’s a time-consuming process, but it can play a massive role in your success. It’s one of the reasons why top-tier gaming entrepreneurs don’t ignore it.
Most people miss this step and end up developing games and gaming websites no one wants to use.
Stick To A Niche
Another critical factor that can determine your success is the niche. Most people have the mindset of attracting everyone.
So, they create games and gaming websites that try to appeal to every single person in the world, and in the process, they mess up their messaging, and no one wants to play the games.
When you stick to a niche, you can create games that appeal to a specific audience so much that they get addicted to it and return for more.
They will also tell all their friends about it. So, stick to a niche like Puzzles, Solitaire, or Word games.
You can start with one simple game and then add other games in the niche. Once you have a big audience, you can survey and interview them and introduce games in other industries. Your credibility will make it easy to attract these new gamers.
An example of a site that gets this is Solitaired.
It started off as a Solitaire gaming website and gradually introduced other card games.
But to make it easy for people to find Solitaire, it displays it right on the home page.
Set Up A Minimal Website
Once you know what games people want to play, and you choose a niche, you can set up a website.
This doesn’t have to be a sophisticated website with all the fancy features. Initially, something simple that will provide a decent gaming experience will suffice.
The aim of this website should be just to validate the idea that people will be interested in the game.
If they are interested in the game and new people keep joining and keep returning for more, you can improve the website.
Otherwise, you can make changes and abandon the idea and experiment with a different game.
Build On It
Once you have a game that an audience loves, you can build on it.
This will include things like making the game better, improving the website’s design, and creating a sign-in option so people can sign up to get some features like the ability to save games or view their past scores.
While improving the site, you might want to survey and interview the existing users, as the website needs to appeal to them.
Drive Traffic
After you have a website that attracts people and keeps them coming back for more, you can drive traffic. There are so many strategies you can use for this. They include…
Outreach
Reach out to bloggers in the gaming niche and ask them to write about your game on their website.
This will not only help you generate direct traffic, but will also improve your credibility.
You might also want to try and reach out to some gaming influencers, as they, too, can get the word out.
SEO
SEO is a free way to generate quality traffic. Use the data from your research to figure out the keywords people use to find gaming websites like yours, and then optimize your websites for these keywords and rank for them.
Encourage Social Sharing
You can make it easy for people to share your website on social media and generate quality traffic.
Run Ads
Ads are a great way to generate traffic quickly. You might have noticed ads from several gaming sites on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube because they work.
Monetize
In the beginning, it will be best to run your site for free because the absence of any form of monetization will provide a wonderful experience.
But after a while, it will be essential to monetize the site, especially if you want to keep the site running long-term and generate some good revenue.
So, place ads and create a premium version of the gaming site to generate revenue.
You could also explore other strategies, such as affiliate marketing, to make money.
But try to emphasize selling a premium version of your game as that will have the highest profit margin.
Conclusion
This is the step-by-step process you can use to start a successful gaming website in 2023.
It takes a lot of work, but it is worth it as there’s a demand for affordable entertainment right now, and gaming websites have a high-profit margin.
