Diego Argüello's Advice for Setting Up a Gaming Website | Winter Spectacular 2020
Writing about video games can be really fulfilling, but there’s a unique joy of starting your own publication that is unmatched by anything else. You get to light the spark of a brand new place and build an audience around it. Never in a million years I would have thought that my site, Into The Spine, would have come to where it is right now, and I know we’re only getting started. But, there’s a lot that happens in the background that isn’t talked about enough, I think, when it comes to managing your own site.
The following tips are based on my experience with Spine after almost three years, but also on the times I volunteered for sites when I started to build a portfolio in English, and several forums I created back when I was young. Don’t take this as a definitive list, of course, but I hope it can help to clear some questions and clarify what the current landscape might look like for those thinking about setting up their own publication.
It’s important to have a look.
Create a brand
Thinking of a name for your publication is as important as deciding what you want to do with your brand. At first, Spine was supposed to be a personal blog called “About Gaming” (yes, I was that naive) where I would just write short posts, mainly opinion pieces and stories that came from playing games. But I slowly remembered how hard it had been for me to break into the industry when I began trying to set foot in international sites, so that initial idea was maintained in a way, but the scope changed exponentially. Instead of being just me, I would seek for ideas from other people and pay for them, giving folks a byline and, over time, supporting them with freelancing in general.
As for the name, I’m a big fan of Supergiant Games, so I searched for keywords that stood out from quotes and songs. The Spine, from Transistor, made perfect sense. I hadn’t seen it anywhere else, and thought it was catchy. Sadly, as you will mostly likely find out when trying to come up with a name, there’s a lot of domains taken already. Both “Spine” and “The Spine” were, so I had to improvise. I had recently finished reading Into the Wild, and I liked the hook of getting into something, to try and dissect it in different ways. So I merged the two.
If you can, specialize your site
It was the sum of many things that led to the “mission” of Into The Spine. Not just the brand and what I wanted to evoke, but the desire for something different. I believe it’s vital to differentiate from the rest. There’s hundreds of game publications out there. We already have a Polygon and a Kotaku, so why not try something different? Look for what drives you or interests you, whether it comes from personal experiences, a trend that inspired you, or something that you would like to see more often, and build from there. Which is why I set up a site focusing on personal stories around video games from up and coming writers, allowing them to share their own visions through opinion and criticism pieces, and providing support via resources and editorial feedback about everything freelance related.
Feature creep is a real thing for websites too.
Don’t go for anything too fancy at first
You don’t have to borrow money from family or friends in order to purchase a host, a domain, register the site, or anything else. Go to WordPress and follow the steps there. You’ll have your own site in a matter of minutes (yeah, really!) without having to worry about any of that stuff. Start small. If this is your first time working in a CMS (which stands for content management system, or to put it simply, the place where you’ll be creating posts, managing users, and customizing your site), you’ll quickly learn the ropes - it’s very intuitive, and there’s lots of tutorials. If you have questions about the theme you’re using, ask in the support forums. They tend to be super responsive.
Some things will depend on you whether or not you’d want to pay for the subscription plans of this platform. The first tier for personal use should be more than enough to get started, and honestly, you can go ahead and continue with the base presets until you’re financially ready.
There’s other services as well, such as Medium or Substack, that can lead to similar results. But if you want more of a site rather than a blog, you can’t beat the customization and ease of use of WordPress.
Social media is key
As soon as you have your name, create users in all relevant social media sites and content related platforms: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, Instagram. It doesn’t matter if you don’t get to use them during the beginning, it’s just key that you call dibs on them.
I recommend focusing on Twitter to start building an audience. Facebook can be extremely eerie when it comes to sharing your posts on other peoples’ feeds, and there’s a whole thing related with ads that isn’t ideal (plus, it’s Facebook). Twitter, on the other hand, is a platform where you’ll inevitably be spending lots of time as a writer or journalist. Regardless of how many followers you have (I was only in the couple hundreds when I started Spine, and most of them were folks from highschool) you’ll be able to share your site with them.
If something catches their eye, you’ll have a click and, potentially, a new follow to the brand account. It’s a slow path, but as long as you’re consistent and, again, distinctive from what people already get from other sites on a daily basis, growth will happen naturally. Find what works best for you, and embody the kind of publication you want to build.
Please, get some sleep.
Don’t try to do everything at once
In case you weren’t aware already, managing your own site is a shitton of work. When you’re freelancing most of your tasks usually end after submitting a draft with a couple screenshots. This is the same, but you also need to get that content into the CMS, format it, do all SEO related stuff, write copy for social media, share it on social media, and move on to the next thing. In the meantime you might notice something you’re suddenly not too happy about regarding the design of the site, so it’s likely that you’ll spend the next hour or two looking for another theme, or at the very least a workaround. And then you have pitches from folks to respond, drafts to edit, DMs to respond, and lots of planning to do.
This is all very time consuming, and if you don’t specialise your site and instead want to take the mainstream approach, this means covering everything from news, to playing games for reviews and previews, setting up interviews, writing features, opinion pieces, lists, and so on. What, you also want to host a weekly podcast and start a stream schedule? Hold on there a bit.
Don’t try to do everything at once. Take it slow or you’ll be overwhelmed in the span of weeks. I took a more mainstream approach with Spine when I started, and I found myself writing news that nobody read while juggling a full time job, classes during the evenings, freelancing, and a life, too, on top of everything else I mentioned before. It’s likely that you’ll have this huge enthusiasm to create new things, but most of them can wait. You’ll get to them eventually. Don’t burn yourself out trying to match the workload of an entire business’ staff.
Know when to accept help
Of course, you can rely on others to ease all these time consuming tasks, but there’s a few things to keep in mind. First and foremost: money. Unless you come from a wealthy background, or you just happen to have an initial budget for whatever reason, your site won’t give you a profit anytime soon. It’s been almost three years with Spine and I’ve invested far more money than I’ve gotten back - we don’t have ads, and whatever comes to our Patreon helps me to pay for pitches, although I always end up over commissioning (whenever possible, that is).
I neglected help from others during the first two years. I’ve had experiences with volunteer ran sites that left me a sour taste, where I was basically putting full time hours as the “editor in chief”, building relationships with PRs, managing the team, and writing post after post all for no real compensation. I didn’t want that for anyone. I still don’t. There’s a big difference between a site that exploits their writers to keep on gaining clicks, and one that isn’t giving any profit but offers editorial guidance and professional support that can help you get to the sites that pay fairly for your work.
It took me a while to realize this, so I want to pass on that advice. If there’s people who genuinely offer their help because they enjoy what you’re doing and want to lend a hand, do consider it. Teaming up with others can be rewarding in many ways, but it’s also key to compensate them in whichever way possible. If you can’t pay them, give them a title for the site so they can at least put that in their portfolio/resume in the future. Support them when they’re pitching to other sites. Share their work on Twitter.
As a writer, it can be hard to know when to move on to the next thing, and sadly people who are just starting or are just unaware of how established sites operate may think that some practices are the norm. If you’re someone who has a platform, it’s your responsibility to always be clear about everything, be respectful of everybody’s time, and help in any way you can.
I don’t think that having people doing a minimum of posts per day, week, or month should happen in volunteer sites, but if that’s the case for you, don’t let them get burned out only to hit ridiculous milestones. We already lose enough people as is in this industry. Don’t be a part of the problem, but rather, try and make a change even if it’s through small steps at first.
Even the Diamond Dogs need someone to run their email account.
Don’t make a shared account for press copies
If folks are writing reviews for you, the worst thing you can do is to create a shared team account for everyone to use. Keys for coverage aren’t payment and shouldn’t be offered as compensation, but the least you can do with your volunteers is to let them register games to their own accounts. It meant a lot to redeem and review games like Just Cause 3 or Rise of the Tomb Raider while I was starting out in my own Steam account. It’s still work, of course - PR don’t just give them out for free. But as a purely editorial decision, I think it’s better than borrowing it from a shared account. And if your answer is “well, I don’t know if I can trust this person to deliver the review and not just walk away after getting a free game”, remember that they’re the ones who will be at a loss. The industry is small and word gets around fast - no one's gonna want to work with someone who steals keys. I’ve had this happen to me and it was heart wrenching to explain the situation to the PR. But at the same time, I hadn’t seen that writer anywhere else ever since.
Be transparent, always
This covers what I’ve been mentioning about having volunteers, payment, press copies, and so on, but it really applies to everything. I’m often very open with contributors, saying how much we can pay, or if we can’t afford a pitch at the moment because we’re booked for the whole month already. Our Patreon is public, too, and I often enjoy sharing insights and things I learn about working on the site on my personal account. Whenever somebody asks me something related to all of this, I don’t hesitate to respond.
While this is really important to build an audience, I’d say it’s even more vital to build a trusting team. Keep them on the loop of things, let them know of any relevant news regarding the site, and be honest throughout it all. Again, this is a small industry. If you fuck up, own to it. If there’s an harasser or abuser in your team that you didn’t know about before, cut ties with that person and announce it publicly. If you get a donation or anything alike, let your folks know about it and discuss the best way to distribute it. And my god, if you do pay, disclose your rates both in the pitching guidelines and on your social media posts. Don’t waste folks’ time asking for them every single time.
Anyone want to buy me coffee?
Set up a Ko-fi
Speaking of which, Ko-fi can be a great way of having a tip jar instead of looking for people to become subscribers via Patreon. You can make a text widget on any of the sidebars or the bottom of your site and link it there, or just add it to the site’s Twitter bio and/or as a pinned tweet. Don’t be afraid to share it every once in a while, too, even if it’s just a RT. You and the site have earned it.
Friends. Are. Important.
Look for and support similar emergent outlets
This works in the same way as freelancing does. It’s cool to do your own thing, but I believe that supporting other similar sites and their respective writers is key. I’m not talking about mutual benefits either, but just as a principle. Seeing other sites as competition doesn’t make any damn sense. Boost their stuff on your social media channels, support them in equally small to big ways, and learn from them. This has been a far more rich experience for me than the other way around, and I hope you get to join us with your own vision someday too.
