Online gaming should be on your radar as this multi-billion industry has been growing its community massively since Covid-19 forced everyone to go under quarantine and stay at their homes for quite a long time. In fact, about 64% of individuals aged 13 and above are playing video games in the United States.
What’s more surprising? More and more gamers are spending a few hours a week watching other’s recorded and real-time commentary while playing video games. The most famous platforms for watching gameplays are Twitch and YouTube platforms.
Gaming streaming not only entertains and takes delight in their fame but also makes money for doing it. Among the most popular game streamers is Felix Kjellberg, aka PewDiePie, who has earned a hefty $120 million for playing games.
Surely, there are several streams to generate money from YouTube, but as of now, the most influential gaming content creators belong to the gaming commerce. Out of the top five YouTube channels with the most subscribers, two belong to the gaming universe.
If you are into online games, it might be the time for you to make money out of your video gaming prowess. Making money while keeping yourself and others entertained is one heck of a rapidly growing revolution and getting started is just within your hands.
Let’s jump right into how you can make money as a YouTube streamer.
Step 1: Topic and Keyword
The gaming ecosystem is now diverse and extremely competitive, so you need a solid strategy for how you can make your video stand out among others. Pretty similar to when you are starting a business, you need to find your gaming niche, develop your voice, and create an effective keyword around it.
Everyone’s reason for watching YouTube gaming videos varies from one to another. Some might flock into your channel because you provide them a community with like-minded people who want to connect for game-related talks or those who want to make friends with the given common ground.
Gamers might also want to follow your channel and watch your videos to find a walkthrough or guide they can follow when they are struggling to beat a boss, stuck on a certain level, or improve their gameplay to go ahead in the ranks. Or it may also simply be for entertainment, reviews, or humor.
Once you know what the primary focus of your video (the topic) will be, you need to build a keyword around it and put it in the title.
You should know the main keyword to focus on to know which one people are searching for the most. If you don’t know how to construct keywords manually, you could go for tools like TubeBuddy or VidIQ. These two keyword-generating platforms can help you optimize your video properly.
If you want to go manual, you could go and check what other streamers are doing. By typing in the name of the game in the search bar, YouTube will conveniently give you suggestions to help you narrow your focus.
Step 2: Description
Along with your video title, your video description should also include your keywords because it also has a big role in your YouTube ranking and SEO. The video’s description will help your target audience catch a glimpse of the overview of your content, helping them understand what your video is all about when searching on engines.
According to YouTube Creators Academy, “YouTube is one of the largest search engines in the world. And writing a description with keywords can help viewers find your videos more easily through search.”
The words you will use in your description box will determine your video’s ranking, so you need to have a focus keyword. Basically, the focus keyword is the topic or phrase you are trying to rank for.
In the first paragraph of the description, make sure to mention your focus keyword and repeat it about 2-3 times to disrupt YouTube’s algorithm and give the engine a signal of what your video is all about.
As obvious as it seems, you shouldn’t just put a stream of keywords in your description. Make your description intriguing enough to drive people’s interest in watching your videos. Keep in mind that you are not just simply writing the description to boost the algorithm but to get people to watch your videos.
Including about 2 to 3 alternative versions of the focus keyword can also boost your SEO ranking. Incorporate broad category keywords and avoid using irrelevant words that may develop a poor user experience.
Step 3: Tags
YouTube tags are among the key features of online content that can help you supplement your click-through rates (CTR). One of the biggest mistakes you can make in tagging your YouTube videos is creating tags the way you do on your social media platforms. In fact, they can actually hurt your YouTube ranking.
Avoid playing guessing games about your keyword. You shouldn’t just put tags that your audience “might” search. Instead, gather actual data. Since you have decided on your keywords in the previous steps, you just need to add tags that will complement your topic.
Aside from topic relevance, your tag should also be popular. It doesn’t make sense to add tags that people aren’t searching for, does it? Your tags should be something that people are interested in.
A good tag doesn’t include unnecessary words in the tag compound, such as conjunctions, prepositions, and articles. YouTube’s algorithm pays little to no attention to such words. However, you should be keener to the use of singular and plural forms of keywords as YouTube differentiates between the two.
Step 4: Video time
Video time is essential in boosting your watch time. Others put up long, boring videos just to increase the video’s watch time, not knowing that it is actually a big mistake they are making.
What matters the most is the watch duration of your video content. Rather than trying to hit big scores by 20-minute-long videos, try keeping it for about 6 to 12 minutes to boost the watch period of your viewers. But if you think long videos work well for you really well, maybe you could go for it.
The video duration mentioned above is merely just a suggestion. Everyone’s preference varies, so there’s actually no right formula on how long your video should be. You need to examine and find out yourself what your audience’s sweet spot is.
Step 5: Clickbait and Thumbnail
Although click baits undeniably can attract big attention, don’t use them in your videos. Using clickbait would only mean that you value increasing your clicks over providing quality information to your audience. It can harm your YouTube channel in the long run.
Moreover, clickbait can be pretty harmful and lead to the outrageous creation of fake news. Clickbait is all over the internet, but you should not engage yourself in such kind of activity. When you make a clickbait, you basically deceive people.
Rather than wasting your time thinking of absurd headlines just to catch people’s attention, use your precious time in customizing images for your thumbnails instead. Thumbnails might not directly influence the YouTube search algorithm, but it greatly feeds the eyes of the viewers, impacting their decision to click and watch your video.
By following the simple steps mentioned above, you will be able to grow your gaming YouTube channel with much ease!