In August 2021 I decided to build a video game blog. This was after reading about how to become a video game journalist. This is the first calendar year in review. Its been a steep learning curve with many changes and things I have had to learn.
Video Game Stats
So let’s start with some numbers. In total this blog received 7,630 page views. I created 47 blog posts in 4 months. Which is an average of 12 posts a month and 3 posts a week. Pretty efficient considering this isn’t my full time job and it’s only me creating the content.
My aim is to do 60 posts by the 6 month mark, and as of 19/01/2021 I am only 2 posts away. My mot popular post so far is my Halo Timeline.
What the Numbers Don’t Show
The website has gone through multiple redesigns and a couple of name changes. It started as McBean29 Gaming blog and has finally evolved into GAMESmix.
The final name came from my love of gaming and that I like all genres. It can encompass all games that I’m playing such as sim racing or strategy games. It also gives me complete freedom on what type of content I can post.
Website Woes
I’ve been through multiple domain names. Losing one of them due to the domain register website not being clear. Which wasn’t a major blow since I’ve settled on a different name.
I also went through three hosts. The first two were very slow at loading and for the next package it was a huge jump in price. The final hosting I settled on was the same price but the speed of the website was sped up. And should I want to upgrade its not a huge jump in price.
Learning
So recently I have subscribed to Income School on YouTube. They produce really helpful videos that actually have helped. One of the key points that I have learnt is that its better to invest time and money into the content rather than into marketing.
The Outcome
I have spent a lot of money on hosting and even ads to get the website where it is today. If there was one area I wish I hadn’t spent money on is ads. They are just not effective for how much you pay. It’s more efficient to post more content or even pay someone to write content. I spent £20 on ads and got an extra £20 free yet saw little traffic. I’ve roughy spent £200 on the website so far which is crazy money considering none to little returns.
I’ve roughy spent £200 on the website so far
Which brings me to the profit. So far I have made under £1 in revenue which means this website has yet to profit. But I don’t consider this a failure. I had a blog in 2020 which wasn’t as focused as this one. In one month of running GAMESmix I got more views than a whole year on the other site. And the other site had double the content.
2022 and Beyond
In 2022 I’m going to keep the expenses down to a minimum I still need to buy one more domain name before I’m happy. But other than that my expenditure should only be £12 a month. Plus with everything I have learnt I may start expanding into different blog categories.
Anyway I hope you have a happy new year and keep gaming!