O'm really considering creating a game cheat review site on ps3 games. I was curious what you guys thought the start up prices would be, and other expenses. Also, how to market and advertise, and make money from it. Thanks, Zach p.s. I know its a vague question, I just need some guidance.
costs will be your hosting and design if you don't make it yourself, it will be harder to market it since there won't be much profit and you'll just be making money on ads so you'll need to spend a lot of time to advertise it manually and by word of mouth, i'd suggest a cms like joomla, drupal or wordpress and start with the newest games first
For income some affiliates will work, for example, if you review "GTA IV" have some affiliate links to merchants who sells "GTA IV"
It's a saturated market. Every Teen who lives at home with his mom, and time on his hands has a video game blog. Just go to the review section and 1 out of 10 are gaming blogs. Bottom line is, there are some very big players in the market and they have every resource available, because they actually make the games. Everyone else is just rehashing stuff from the main sites. How do I know? I have one , with a kid writing for me, and it's tough goings. I do make sales, but not because of the blog, which is on a subdomain of the actual retail site that sells Used consoles. I make sales through advertising the site itself. OMHO music, video game, cars, and video blogs are a waste of time, however, niche gaming forums that are well run seem to do O.K. Just a general gaming site has too much ground to cover, and if you were in position to shake up the industry, you wouldn't be here asking us, you would be doing it.
i would think any site that can bring in traffic can "work" to make you money, just about putting the right offer in front of a targeted person!
While they can work (more so review than cheat sites) it will be a long struggle to get to a point where you have the traffic to make it worthwhile. Honestly if your deadset on games I would suggest going into the gaming niche instead of video games themselves. There are 1000's of gaming items out there (fan products and/or accessories) over the games themselves. If your patient, and have someone (or a few people) writing with you it's possible to make one work. My suggestion though. Find a sub-niche in games and specialize in that.
Yes, I think Video Game Cheat, Reviews, Previews, News... work very well, but you need great unique articles if you want it to monetize a lot.
I think saturation is always in every corner online but then the real deal here is how outrank and beat the competition. It is red ocean out there not unless you can think of any blue ocean strategy to create your own niche.
The gaming market is huge though...I say you give it a try and keep it updated daily to keep gamers coming back. Long live the PS3 haha
Ill be starting mine in a while too...got a truck load of ideas that I want to test. But right now its exam time so no messing around