Gaming has become a more and more popular activity to indulge in over the recent decades but some are arguing that it is a useless passion that just wastes someone’s time. If you do have a passion for gaming and are wondering if it could potentially lead to a way of you making a living then here are a few options that will hopefully interest you.
Video Game Coaching
If you have quite a good understanding of a game as well as a passion and love for it then coaching may well be a good option for you to think about taking up.
It is very easy to do if you’re good at the game you’re coaching of course because essentially all you’ll need to be able to do is instruct other gamers through tutorials and walkthroughs which they can screen share with you so you can do everything online as well. So you’re getting paid to share your tips and tricks with another player trying to get into the game.
It’s typically pretty easy to sign up as a coach on different coaching sites, and set your own coaching rate, such as Gamer Sensei and Fiverr. These platforms are a huge help in regards to finding clients especially and to help them find you however they can still be quite discouraging as there are many people on these platforms who have already made a name for themselves so it might take some time to build a network of clients who are willing to pay for your help over someone else’s.
Some advice for someone who is looking to begin coaching would be to imagine yourself in the clients shoes when advertising yourself. So try and stick out, why should someone hire you over someone else and what credentials do you have that make you so special.
Most people charge by the hour and earn around $20 dollars when starting out but can work up to over $100 dollars an hour once you start building a large client base and start gaining experience. So remember to be humble when starting out.
Get paid to live stream
A way of making money while playing video games which has gotten extremely popular over the recent years is live streaming. This means that people will be able to tune in and watch you play video games in real time.
To start earning money this way you’ll need to build a large audience so you can monetize your videos with ads or you could rely on your audience to send you donations or subscribe to you. The biggest platform to start building your platform is Twitch right now but YouTube is another place which is very popular to stream games as well. But there are more options out there.
Streaming is something that is extremely hard to break into. Most of the top streamers right now had to stream for a long time not even breaking 100 or even concurrent viewers. The reality of streaming is that if you aren’t lucky enough to get that big breakthrough, which not that many people are, then you won’t be able to earn that much through this because you’d need thousands of viewers watching you regularly to make a living from it.
Although this is a very rewarding field to get into it is hard to get to that level because it is so oversaturated right now, why should someone watch just you instead of another popular streamer they already watch? It’s these questions that you have to answer before you make a big commitment into any type of streaming field.
Try gaming journalism
This is something that could be interesting to someone who is maybe more talented at writing. You could begin by trying to launch your own site, or join an existing one if you have that possibility, and write gaming news, reviews, interviews on games, genres or the different industries within gaming, the list goes on.
Earning money from this will vary, depending on whether or not you choose to go the solo route or join a site. If you choose to go and become a freelancer then you’ll be able to work in your own time and get paid per article or word you produce for someone. Then if you start your own site you’ll be able to monetize your site with ads, Patreon subscriptions or similar things.
If you choose to work for a site it may take a while to actually get to a point where you’re happy with what you are earning for your work because you’ll have to build up your portfolio to prove your skills for the site you’re working with. Then a downside for starting your own site would be having to find the traffic for your site which you need to start earning money, which may take years if you want to live off of it.
Launching a game journalism site would not be the best for someone who doesn’t already have a few years of experience or a very good portfolio. Trying to journal everyday is hard enough and when someone who isn’t experienced with it also needs to manage a whole website, it all becomes just too much for one person.
Create game tutorials
You can get quite creative when it comes to creating guides or tutorials in games for the public. You could decide to go the written route and write all the information and guides on a website you’ve created, you could upload videos of you explaining everything to youtube or you could go ahead and publish whole books containing your guides and tutorials. The first two options, where you give out the information through youtube or on a website, will likely only see a cash inflow from monetization with ads or donations whereas the book will be sold so you’ll earn your money through sales.
Guides have increased in popularity and there are alot of them out there in the world and on the internet so to actually make a successful one in this day and age will be quite hard. To start you’ll need to find a game that is already very popular, to make guides on, because these guides will see the most traffic. Once you’ve found what you want to write about you’ll need to take it one step further than many other guides out there and give even more information or detail as to stand out from the others that already exist so that people will choose your guide over anyone else’s.
To write a good guide you’ll need to be very good at writing. Providing a comprehensive guide is not enough because it needs to be entertaining and comprehensible for someone to read so that it doesn’t become too overwhelming for someone to read but instead find an in between so that they stay and continue reading.
The most popular types of guides which players need, mainly in MMORPGs (multiplayer online role-playing games), are gold guides, levelling guides or raid guides. For other PvP games try to write build guides and mechanics guides. Then finally for single player games the most popular guides would be on certain achievements.
Start a gaming youtube channel or podcast
If you are a more vocal person and feel like you have a lot to say about a game then you could try creating a podcast solo or even with friends if they’re as interested in the games as you are. This may be harder for someone who gets shy in front of the camera or who doesn’t have that many opinions about games.
There are still options like creating videos with no voice or face so it’ll just be pure game play. Although many people may think this won’t gain as much traction because you aren’t adding anything to the game there are other ways to make it interesting such as editing montages of your game play to keep it engaging for viewers while not having to reveal your personal identity.
Podcasts and youtube videos bring in money through monetization mainly with ads, sponsors etc. just like streaming you’ll need to bring in quite a large audience consistently to even think about doing it as a living. So you’ll have to make sure your podcast or videos are entertaining enough to attract people to watch you.
The positives with youtube videos and podcasts is that you don’t have to go into as much detail as you’d need to in guides or tutorials and you won’t have to be as engaging or have a distinct personality as if you were to become a streamer because you won’t need to hold someone’s attention for hours on end.
Although you may feel like you absolutely love video games and playing video games, you’ll need to think carefully before changing it into a full time job because that ‘escape from reality’ feeling you normally get from it might disappear once it becomes your job.