Hi, Professionally I am a webmaster and also am connected with internet marketing for almost 3 years. Today I would like your precious opinions/suggestions regarding a new "business" I am thinking to enter pretty seriously. I have a gaming domain and I am very interested to start my own gaming portal/website. It would be a complete gaming website with a variety of games. So what I need to know is: - Is this a good idea to launch a gaming site or is gaming niche wide enough to give me some pace? - Is it OK if the site contains a variety of games, either going for only 1/arcade games? - What would be the resources where I can get my site filled with games (and variety of games)? Are the resources going to be free or do they cost? I hope I am clear to all as gaming isn't really my niche but now I am really looking forward to enter. Your suggestions would be really appreciated. Thanks, Ovais
Unless you already have 60 to 200 dedicated friends who are willing to use the site regularly and spread the word don't bother to do it. There are too many as it is.
Thanks @Laceygirl, for your suggestion. Please tell me if I would only like to develop the domain as I have it for more than a year now, where can I get free games and resources to be added in my site/domain? OR do I have to spend some $$ for these? Thanks,
Gaming is a very low priced niche (in regards to PTC such as adsense). If you branch too much, you face having a wide area of interest to cover and keep up to date with, but too little and you could limit the lifetime of your site quite radically. Remember, gaming news is happening around the clock, so it's a good idea to keep checking the news feeds of developers and publishers on a regular basis. It can be a lot of effort to get off the ground, but again, you get a real sense of achievement if you succeed. I used to run some gaming forums, and they have the ability to just die within a short space of time...
I am a gamer, and one idea that would work as far as marketing itself is through contests... like highest points over a month wins an iPad or something that people will really compete for. Competitive gaming = hours of dedication. Use that as leverage!
Thanks for all the replies, but still, I haven't got any response about whether I can go for domain development only (not putting much efforts but little). I mean, I simply want to do something with the domain rather than keeping it hanged for another year. Please suggest me what you would recommend. Regards,
If you want to develop the domain alone, there is only one option. Develop a site which will increase the value of the domain. You could alternatively write some articles related to gaming and put it up on a blog on the domain. Then sell it off later
Thanks @smallbusinessguy. Developing a domain with only articles in it might not do the trick, as it would only be a "website". Whereas I am willing to go for a "proper website". Having articles is good but there should be something relevant to the domain, like games and everything!. Thanks anyway mate... Looking forward for more helpful suggestions.
Yeah.. Why I mentioned to just write articles and leave it alone is that it does not appear as a parked page. Having some relevant articles related to gaming might help sustain the value of the domain. Later when someone has huge budget for these games sites, sell it to them. It all depends on the domain also. I wouldn't recommend going the normal games website mode as it is too saturated. if you can find a niche and take advantage then great
Yes, I got your point mate. And I think the easiest way to develop a domain into a live website is to get quality content up to the site. But what I was trying to clear is that not only I need a developed domain, but I also am aiming for targeted traffic/visitors. I know the niche is pretty competitive but still, I am willing to work "naturally" with things. Hope I made my point clear. Thanks,
If you can build it up to become an authority site, then you stand a chance. Not many people have the patience to wait. In the games market, unless you narrow down to a particular niche, it's hard to stand out.
I think that you should start the website with a variety of games and not with only one, leaving no options for the visitors. What I can help is that I can suggest you to also start a section of gaming site which deals with the cheats of various types of games available in the market. This section would also help in gathering the crowd to your site. You provide games, you also provide cheats, I believe this will increase your number of visitors and if you need someone to give you the list of cheats or upload them on your site, I am there to help you.
The problem is that hosting a games site can be resource intensive and you might need a high end VPS or a dedicated server depending on the bandwidth and CPU resources utilized. Go and look at sites like bored.com and then see how you can make your site unique and stand out
Currently, what I am aiming for is to develop a proper site, get traffic (reasonable). Flipping is an option but not in near future. My primary focus is to get the site developed.
Thanks for the suggestion mate, but please let me know how to "narrow down to a particular niche" as I am totally new to gaming niche.
Hi mate, Thanks for the help but I am not aiming for Adsense initially, may be in future when the site becomes a little authoritative.
The only way I would do ANYTHING game related is to build a facebook game and sell in game tokens for real money... I know you are not looking to do it, but game sites are so competitive I don't think it's really even worth it.