Gaming is a niche where you can make a living doing what you love if you’re good at it. Of course, there are several ways to make money as a gamer, but the two most popular are winning tournaments and competitions, having a YouTube or Twitch account with advertisements, and becoming an influencer. The influencer marketing industry has exploded in recent years. If you’re a gamer, don’t ignore these numbers and the potential of making thousands of dollars from live streams and other videos.
Of course, to become a successful gaming content creator, you must collaborate with brands and individuals willing to send you money to talk about their products and services. Luckily, the brands you work with don’t have to be gaming-related.
When you’re ready to take your love of gaming to the next level and make a career out of it, follow these steps:
Have a Live Streaming Strategy
Your ultimate goal should be to be attractive to various brands by developing a following and getting thousands of likes and comments on your videos. Therefore, you need a strategy that lists your objectives and how to achieve them. A process or an action plan can help you grow your followers and get more views on videos to make brands want to work with you. Whether you’re doing video game reviews for a software development company, streaming your favorite game, or doing a chat-room-style stream while you play a VR game, find your strategy and hone in on it.
You’ll need to continuously measure your performance throughout your career to ensure you’re growing your channel. If you aren’t tracking your metrics, you won’t know how well you’re doing or whether to tweak your strategy.
Have a Niche
Having a niche is crucial in gaming because it allows you to become an expert. This might mean choosing a particular game to follow throughout your career or a different type of game that you share with your followers. For example, some creators may focus their niche on VR games, while others may be focused on the Nintendo Switch or a specific game featured on the platform. Your niche can also focus on the types of videos you create, such as reviews, tutorials, walkthroughs, and more.
Build a Brand
Influencers are brands; if you want to work with companies like a mobile app development company or get sponsored to play competitively to earn money, you need to turn yourself into a brand. Consider how you can differentiate yourself from other influencers by defining who you are as a gamer. You can do this by figuring out what you do better than anyone else or finding another way to separate yourself from the competition. Of course, this doesn’t mean you must be the best at what you do. Many gaming influencers have followers because of their personalities rather than their skills at the game.
Build Your Following
Brands typically pay influencers based on their audience count and engagement rate. Therefore, your audience is crucial to helping you earn more. Ultimately, the more people watch your videos, the more you can earn as an influencer. Growing your audience will be challenging because of the sheer volume of videos online. You’re not the first to record your gaming experience, and you certainly won’t be the last. However, getting followers early is crucial because it’s how you can attract business.
Luckily, there are several ways to grow your audience. YouTube SEO is a type of search engine optimization geared toward YouTube that can help people searching for keywords on the site or app find your videos. Writing catchy titles with keywords and using relevant hashtags is one way to get found. You should also invest in marketing your channel online using social media websites and networking with other gamers and brands.
Once you’ve built up your followers, the next step is finding ways to keep them coming back for your videos. Luckily, engaging with others on streaming platforms is fairly easy. Responding to their messages can help them stay interested in your brand and give them a reason to keep watching your videos.
Network
Many influencers grow their audience by networking and collaborating with other influencers. For example, if a famous influencer shares your video, you can earn millions of views on your channel. Networking and collaborating with other gamers won’t hurt your brand; it can elevate it.
Find Brands to Work With
If you’ve built your following, brands might come to you and send you a direct message about an influencer marketing campaign they want you to be a part of. Marketing agencies and businesses search for influencers using social media platforms and influencer marketing platforms, so building your followers is crucial if you want to be chosen and start electronically signing big deals down the road. Of course, you’ll need to start small when you’re first starting. For example, you might be considered a micro-influencer if you only have a few thousand followers but get hundreds of thousands of views on your videos. Typically, brands work with micro-influencers when they’re on a strict budget, so while you might get paid less, it’s a good place to start.
Unfortunately, you can’t always expect brands to find you online, so you’ll need to reach out to them to get them interested in working with you. One of the easiest ways to do this is to find brands you want to work with, send an email about who you are, and let them know you’re interested in a partnership.
You can also use influencer marketing agencies with a large Rolodex of influencers brands pay to work with. Working with an influencer agency can help you grow your business and brand while putting in less effort. These agencies connect you and brands easily and make it easier for brands to find the right influencers. Joining an agency means getting found by brands, but you may have to share a chunk of your profits with the agency in exchange. However, it might be worth it if you’re struggling to find brands to work with despite your large audience.
Collaborating with Brands as a Gamer
Gaming content creators don’t have to be the best at their chosen game. Instead, they have to build a brand that makes people want to watch their videos. If you enjoy gaming and others enjoy watching you play, you can turn your hobby into a full-time career, and with these tips, you can build a brand and start earning money as an influencer. For example, you may not be the best at a VR game like Beat Saber, but if your personality shines through, you can still build an audience of thousands. Build your brand, be authentic, and stay consistent, and eventually the money will start flowing.
