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Ask HN: How should I monetize a games website

3 points by PauloManrique ↗ HN
I own a fighting games website since 2004. It was always a hobby, but the content is kinda huge and I feel like I could get some return out of it.

Right now I'm using Google Adsense, but the income is already low because most of my visitors come from Brazil, and as time goes on, more and more people are using AdBlocks.

Should I offer some free articles / reviews and then introduce some paywall? Maybe truncate the article at some point?

2 comments

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Gustomaximus
'Gamers' for real or not reasons tend to be hot property in the marketing world, largely cause they are perceived as young men who can be harder to reach. Though the reality in my experience is gamer go into middle aged group. Because of this attraction you should be able to do direct deals with companies for advertising sponsorship if you have sufficient numbers to make it interesting. This comes with some time cost. While there are loads of areas that would find this audience interesting the e-sports space is kicking off more than ever. Perhaps approach some teams and see if they would sponsor the website. Add links to the live streams etc.

End of the day, no. of eyeballs will determine the value. People with websites tend to over value their worth. Viewers in this category for a place like Brazil are probably worth around $2-$7 per 1000.

Alternately try to sell items to your audience. Find an affiliate deal with a gaming hardware store or something relevant to your audience.

Do you collect emails? It can be quite profitable to attached offers to a newsletter. If you do this just don't spam and make offers that are relevant or interesting to your users and you'll have an ongoing revenue stream here.

PauloManrique
Thanks for the ideas, I will try to make some happen. ;)