8 Steps to Becoming a Paid Video Game Reviewer

There are probably thousands of gaming sites out there that offer reviews of the same game, over and over and over. Or, you can also easily create get a domain and create your own site or blog that will also review games that hit the market. And, the majority of these sites have tons of reviewers who are not paid a dime for their reviews. Since there are millions of gamers out there who want to become either paid pro video gamers or paid video game reviewers, they offer up their services as a game reviewer for free and work their behinds off to create some great reviews for these sites that help the sites push their ratings up.

Wait – isn’t that what I just told you to do in the guide? Yes it is, but there is a trick to offering your services for free so that you can quickly become a paid reviewer, and this report will tell you how to do it. Here are the steps that you need to take:

Step 1: Write a sample review. Now, don’t just crank one out and hope it’s good. You need to take your time, find one of the most popular games for the type of games that you want to write about, such as pc gaming, console gaming, MMORPGs, and so on. Then, look up the most popular keywords that related to that specific game for the SEO (search engine optimization) content. Once you have this information, take your time and write a great review that sites will fight over to post. Make it personable and passionate, like a blog, and not dry, like a Wikipedia page. But, do not offer too much of a personal opinion – as you want your review to be fair and balanced, no matter how you truly feel about the game.

Step 2: Find some of the middle-sized gaming sites to contact. Don’t go for Yahoo! Games, Gamespot, or Curse Gaming right off the bat, as these are some of the “big fish” in the gaming site world, and they will be harder for you to crack. Instead, you want to go for medium-sized sites that get decent traffic. Here is the best way to find them: search for what type of gaming you want to write about, for example “pc game reviews” or “console game reviews”. Now, you will probably pulls up millions of hits. Go to about the third page of the results and start with the sites listed there. This is where the middle-sized sites will start, and these are the ones you want.

Step 3: Find the email addresses for the site administrators, their careers/jobs page, or any other area where they request that you send information to. Make sure that you gather up between 10-20 different sites to submit your emails and information to so that you will have a good chance of getting a great response back.

Step 4: Draft an email cover letter, like I showed you in the guide. This will be their first impression about you, so make sure that you follow the steps in the guide to create one that they cannot refuse answering. When you do this, here is where the trick comes in:
*Offer them your services for free for a couple of weeks or for a set number of reviews or articles. Offer to do reviews or articles over any topic that they would like, no matter what it is – but be prepared for this if they accept your offer, because they will usually offer you really hard or boring topics to see how you to and test your skills. Make sure that you tell them a time frame of when the work will be completed, and set a goal longer than the time that you will actually need, but not too far out. This way, you can easily get the work done and to them quicker than they expected it.

Step 5: Don’t get discouraged if a few, or even most, decline your offer – no matter what. But, there will be others who will jump on the opportunity for free SEO content for their site. When they do, make sure that you deliver what you say you will and then deploy the “under-promise and over-deliver” ideal. Show them that you know what you are talking about when it comes to both gaming and SEO work to prove that you will be a great asset to their site. You want to blow them out of the water so that they will not want to lose your skills and written work when your “free” offer is up.

Step 6: When you alloted time is up or you have turned in all of the articles that you have offered them for free, send them a separate email and let them know that you enjoyed working with them and ask how they liked the work that you did for them. Don’t offer them anything else right now, simply wait for their response. If they do not respond within the next 4-5 business days, then send a simple follow up email, asking if they received your work. Once they respond with a positive email or phone call, ask them about working out a deal for your services for their site.
*Tip: If you ask them to contact you over the phone, make sure that you have worked out what you want to say and have a small speech worked out as to how you want to ask them for a position with their site.

Step 7: You need to know what the going rates are for reviews and articles for gaming sites. The going rate for a review or articles that is 500 words or more is $10-20 USD, and the going rate for feature-length reviews or articles that are 1500 words or more is $30-60 USD. Now, when you are getting started with getting your reviews and articles out there, you should expect to be at the lower end of these pay scales and when you get better and have more out there published online, you can start to move up the scale and make more. Basically, don’t expect to be making $100 USD for the first feature article or review that you write.

Step 8: Making a deal with a site is actually pretty easy, as long as you already have a worked out speech ready to go. Once you know what the going rates are and you have received a good response from the site that they are interested in your work, then you simply ask for a paid position with them. (Yes, it is that easy.) If they say no right away, don’t get discouraged. Simply ask if there is anything that you can do to help change their mind. Be open to taking less money per review or article or to providing less work a month that you originally wanted to. But, if they say yes, and they want to work something out, do not be arrogant when you are dealing with them. Since you are getting your foot in the door, you want to be agreeable and work with the site, but you do not want to seem too agreeable. If they make an offer that is too low for you, say like within the $3-5 USD range for a 350 word review, tell them that you would be happy to do a couple for $5-7 each. You should not ever take less than $5 for a 300 word review or article. Basically, you want to work with them until you both get what you want. Keep in mind though that some of the smaller sites may not have a budget to pay much right at the moment. Simply work with them, and when their budget goes up, they will remember that you were happy to work with them and they will be happy to work with you as well.

Remember that once you have made a commitment to work for a site, you need to keep it if you want to grow your experience and your reputation online. If you do not, they you will find that trying to get another paid reviewer spot will be twice as hard and you may get to the point that you cannot find a paid spot at all. Keep your reputation up as a great game reviewer or writer and you will find that those coveted high-paying positions on the “big fish” gaming sites will start coming to you.

Tags: Game Reviews, Online Games, PC Games, video game jobs, video game reviewer

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