How To Teach Game Play Online

Written by Glen Brown in General

Have you wondered how you can earn money by teaching gaming online?  This article will show you how you can get an audience and then make money from it.  It is simpler than you would think, but just so many people do it wrong.

There are many ways to teach gameplay online like walk throughs, recommending gear, providing hero guides, tips and tricks, coaching and training courses.  This can be done with your own website, using YouTube, on Twitch and even social media.  Content is generally created as video or live streaming with coaching done with group voice chats.  

What you need to know to teach game play online:

  • The Most Popular Games
  • Methods Of Teaching
    • Walk Throughs
    • Recommended Gear
    • Hero Guides
    • Tips and Tricks
    • Coaching
    • Training Courses
  • Building Your Audience
    • YouTube
    • Twitch
    • Website
    • Social Media
  • How To Teach Game Play Online
    • Hardware
    • Software
  • Monetize Your Audience
    • Ad networks
    • Affiliate Sales
    • Live Coaching
    • Other Products and Services
  • Reliable Payment Methods
    • PayPal
    • Skrill

It seems like teaching game play online is a very crowded niche but with so many games out there and the huge rise of eSports prize pools, there are still heaps of opportunities for you.  This article will give you what you need to get the edge on lots of other people that are just doing it wrong.

So let’s look at what you need to know to not only build your online audience but to monetize it as well.

The Most Popular Games

As mentioned before, there are plenty of games that you can teach. The list grows constantly thanks to the rush of the game producers to create and release more and more amazing content for gamers. 

The most popular games you can teach are:

  • Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare
  • NBA 2k20
  • Madden NFL 20
  • Borderlands 3
  • FIFA 20
  • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
  • Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
  • Rainbow Six Siege
  • League Of Legends
  • DOTA 2 
  • Team Fortress
  • And more. 

If you want to see the complete list of the most popular games played in 2020 by millions of gamers then I strongly suggest taking a careful look at the following article:

ARTICLE: The Most Popular Video Games You Can Play In 2020 (Complete List)

Methods Of Teaching

There are heaps of ways of teaching people game play online that suits all types of personality types.  Those that love being in front of a camera and those that don’t.  Let’s go through some of these and discuss them a little further.

Walk Throughs

While game companies will put some of these out they have to be mindful of actually working for the company and won’t always give you a fair assessment of the game.  This opens the door for the everyday gamer to criticize the game and provides a more balanced view of the game.

A walk through specifically takes you through the interface of the game and general gameplay and how to use all the common features of the game.

Recommended Gear

I have played many games over the years and knowing the right gear for your hero, why you should use it and specifically where it is useful comes in very handy.  For people that are not playing all the time this speeds up their game play and gives them an edge.

This can either be a web page or actual demonstration of what this gear does in real game play.

Hero Guides

Similar to recommended gear this goes one step further and looks at where to build your skills and what spells or items to acquire and why.  This also recommends where to build skill points for different styles of gaming and the role of the hero in the team.

Tips and Tricks

Everyone likes a shortcut or secret little tip or trick and there are literally millions of these you can do.  From where to hide in a game or how to find secret items or even the easiest way to kill other heros in Player vs Player (PvP).

Coaching

Coaching new players is something you can do as soon as you know more than the beginner player but is often something you build once you have your audience.  While it can be great money the limit of its growth is how much people want to use you and therefore how much you can charge.  And then how many hours you have in a day.

While this is often seen as the pinnacle of a gamers way of monetizing their audience and it does build your ego there are much better ways to make money from your audience.

Training Courses

While not that popular in the gaming world as most of the content comes for free and people mainly search for things when they get stuck.  This is something you could definitely do once you have built up your audience and warmed them up a bit for the sale.

NOTE: There are many other ways you can teach gaming online but these were some of the main ways and just to get your mental juices flowing. Remember with any business whether online or offline, you can be successful if you find a need and fill it.

Building Your Audience

This is the most critical part of building a business that makes you money teaching game play online and what most people get wrong.  You need to know how to market online and that does not have to be expensive.  You don’t have to pay for advertising to build your audience as you can do most things for free.

There are heaps of people that have heaps of subscribers and followers that just don’t realise how to monetize their audience or are even aware they can do so.  This is what separates the casual gamers from the ones that can do it professionally for a living.

Here are some ways you can build your audience:

Each one has both advantages and disadvantages. Let’s find out which one works best for you. 

YouTube

Youtube is now number 2 ranked search engine globally to Google Search depending on the age range of people you are trying to reach it may be number 1 for initial search.  Anyone under 25 normally starts with Youtube and people over 25 normally start with Google Search.

It is not enough to just make content and put it up there you need to know what name to give the video and the topics people are searching for so you can get more traffic.  There are plenty of tricks you can use like alphabet soup to figure out what people are searching using Youtube’s prediction feature.

Finally you can look for channels and videos that have heaps of views but the channel itself does not have lots of subscribers and just do the videos better and ensure you ask people to subscribe.

Once you have over 1000 subscribers you can put on ads and also get a unique name for your channel. If you are wanting to make even more money from your audience it is wise to have a matching blog with an article per video with extra content.  This allows you to get ad revenue from your website as well as funnel them to other things you are selling.

Twitch

Twitch TV is one of the most popular live video streaming platforms. It is designed for gamers that want to stream their gaming sessions. The competition there is fierce and while it is great for people watching you live stream playing you need to fight your way through a sea of people to the top.

The Youtube and Blog idea is much better for turning a profit but this should not let it stop you from using twitch for live feeds.  Then you can use YouTube for your tips and tricks and training and then your Blog for better ad revenue and selling products and services of your own or using affiliate marketing.

Website

Specifically we are talking about a simple to manage blog like wordpress that you can set up quick and post blog posts to answer questions people are asking on google about that game.  Answering the questions people are asking and not just what you want to write a post on is key to making money.

You need to know how Google SEO works and how to write your articles in a way that not only suits you audience but also brings in traffic.  For every 1000 page views on your website you can get between $10 USD to $30 USD depending on your game and niche.  You don’t do this with Google Adsense but with premium ad providers.

Once you have 5,000 to 10,000 pageviews you can go away from google adsense to something like Ezoic for much better ad revenue.

Social Media

Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook are your core social media platforms and they are making it more and more difficult to route traffic from those platforms to your website.  What I would recommend is auto posting your content to these platforms from you websites and when you are earning enough money you can go to Fiverr and put a social media manager for a cheap monthly fee in charge of doing all your social media growth.

This is not to say that some people are not making a lot of money using them but it is a very time consuming task and you are better off playing more games and creating content for traffic.  Once you take your foot off the pedal with social media the traffic decreases.  With websites and YouTube the traffic will come on its own.

How To Teach Game Play Online

Now that you know the basics of online gameplay teaching it is time to see the actual equipment you will need. In order to make it easier to understand, I have divided this section into two distinct parts. Below you will find a detailed explanation of each equipment element that will help you teach online gameplay. 

Hardware

First and foremost part of your setup you will have to use for teaching this online subject. The main pieces of equipment needed include but are not limited to:

  • Laptop or Computer 
  • Headphones
  • Microphone
  • Webcam

Let’s discuss each piece of the above-mentioned equipment in order to get a better understanding of its importance. 

Laptop Or Computer

When you are gaming these days each game has different requirements.  It is kind of irrelevant whether you have a laptop or a desktop machine as the hardware is now fairly equal.  You will obviously pay more for a laptop with similar specifications.

The core components your computer will need are:

  • i5 Gen 8 or better CPU
  • 8 gig of RAM
  • 256 gig Solid State Disk (SSD)
  • Wifi G / N / AC / AX
  • A decent graphics card with dedicated memory

Now you can do this quite well with slower speed laptops but if you are doing multiple games and then creating lots of video content you will need the speed for editing your videos and storing them.

If you want to see several recommendations of the best gaming laptops that are available on the market in 2020 then I strongly suggest taking a look at the following article:

ARTICLE: The Complete List Of The Best Gaming Laptops (Notebooks) Available On The Market (+Reviews) 

Headphones

You don’t need the most expensive headphones on the market or ones that are made for gaming to teach people online.  Be careful you are getting more when you are paying more and not just paying for the brand.

Reasons for using headphones:

  • To not get feedback on your microphone when recording or live
  • To not annoy the people you live with
  • For post production video and sound editing
  • To look COOL

Microphone

You purchased a set of headphones with a microphone. Why would you really want a dedicated microphone?  The simple answer is quality of the audio and not having to cover your face while recording video.  If you pay a lot of money for your headphones you can get a fairly decent microphone built in but it still does not have the features of a normal quality dedicated microphone.

Features of dedicated microphones

  • Noise Cancelling
  • Voice Filters
  • Adaptive Sensitivity
  • Volume Equalizer
  • Pop filters
  • Zero latency headphone jack

I would only recommend a wired USB microphone for streaming because with any wireless microphone depending on what your computer is doing you audio can be delayed.

If you are not yet decided on what you want to use, I suggest you take a look at my favorite dedicated microphone.

Webcam

While you can record and teach without showing yourself you need to be very careful on how you do it.  When you are setting up a business like this to change your service away from being a commodity style product or service adding you into your video will enable you to be the brand.

Growing you as the brand people will want to play with you as they get to know you.  People respond better to other people and create relationships better that way as well.  The more you can put your personal touch and in this case image of yourself on your content the harder it is for your content to be replaced by the next video that is a small fraction better.

They have bought into you and like the way you deliver your training, coaching and tips and tricks and know what to expect so trust you.

Now as for the actual webcam you select to do this there are some features that you may wish to look into that you will definitely need.

These features include:

  • Greenscreen
  • Low Light Adjustment
  • Background Removal
  • Quick focus
  • Noise Cancelling Microphone
  • Directional webcam
  • Ability to put it on a stand

So why don’t you just use the webcam built into your laptop if you are using a laptop?  The answer is the quality is awful and the focus speed and low light are awful as well as you having to move the whole microphone and lid to direct the webcam.  Don’t get me wrong it is great in a pinch video calling family but that is where its use ends.

If you can not decide what dedicated webcam to buy I strongly suggest taking a look at the Recommended Tools page to find out what type of camera worked the best for me.

Software

Once you have the right hardware you can make sure you have the software to match that hardware and the tools commonly used by gamers.

Group Audio Chat

Whether you are just having a game with friends or are teaching gameplay online the ability to talk to the person you are teaching is very important.  This is because you are using your hands to play the game with them in most cases.  This means you will normally need a group audio chat even if there is one built into the game. 

There are a couple of important reasons for using a separate audio chat:

  • You don’t need the game running to use the audio
  • If the game crashes your audio is still running
  • You have a private audio chat to the other players in the game

The most popular group audio chat tools are:

TeamSpeak

https://www.teamspeak.com/

This is the most used and most advanced of the audio chats that is often used for huge eSports tournaments.  You can download the software and use it for private use for free for up to 32 slots (users) on your own server.  After that it is paid for and you can find the pricing on their website.  If you pay they will host the service for you as well.

Skype

https://www.skype.com/

Used mainly in corporate environments you can use it for game play as well but it is not really that common.  It is free to download and make internet calls but is charged for calling mobile phones or landlines.

Discord

https://discord.com/

Discord is another commonly used game audio group chat application. It allows you to create heaps of groups with plenty of users for free. Their free plan enables you to take advantage of all the important features. Personally I love the mobile app offered by this tool and the ability to control the call as well as chat through it.  It means if your computer crashes you can still be chatting with your students or team.

Ventrilo

http://www.ventrilo.com/

This is not a free service and you normally have to pay for access through one of their licensed providers.  You will pay a small fee for each user normally or each group of users per month.  While this service has been used for some games due to the paid only option is not as popular as some of the other options.

SteamPowered Voice Chat

https://store.steampowered.com/

Steam Powered is a games delivery platform and the biggest one in the world.  It allows you to buy, download, install and play games in a very easy to manage way.  You can create a friend list with a text and voice messaging service you can use within games as you play together with your friends.

If you don’t have steam you should download it as the premier games delivery and management platform.  There are heaps of games you can play for free or for cheap prices as well as the most recent releases.  

In-Game Voice Chat

There are plenty of online games that allow players to communicate using the in-game voice chat. For example, P.U.B.G. (Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds) features a free voice chat that connects all the users in a predefined area. Therefore you can talk with all the gamers which are in an area of a few kilometers in the in-game map. Another popular example is the L.O.L. (League Of Legends) in-game voice chat. It features the same functions as other tools but allows you to talk with all the players that are part of your in-game team (up to five players). 

Remote Control Applications

If you are planning on becoming an online coach then you should take into account the situation when your students need additional guidance. For example, they might not have the right configuration in their game menu  

Using this type of software you can remotely use their mouse and keyboard. This way you are able to make the appropriate changes in their devices. The student will have to download the right software and install it as well as accept your remote desktop request.

The most popular remote control applications are:

TeamViewer

TeamViewer is amongst the most popular remote control applications available on the Internet. For personal purposes, it can be used without paying any subscription fee. It allows you to gain full control over your students’ devices. 

It also has a mobile and tablet application as well as being available on MacOS and Windows.

Chrome Remote Desktop

If you have a google account you can use this free tool to remote control other peoples computers as long as they download the add on for Chrome browser.  This however is more annoying to set up and you would not use it unless you were going to regularly connect to a remote machine.

NOTE: That once a student allows you to connect you will have access any time to their computer which the student may not like.

For a large list of remote desktop software tools you can check out this list on Wikipedia.

ARTICLE: Remote Desktop Comparison

Screen Streaming & Recording

Whether you are streaming your game live to Twitch or Youtube or recording video to use for uploading to Youtube or your own website.  You will need some screencasting software to do that.  

Here are some of the free tools you can use to live stream:

To just record the video to edit and then upload as a tutorial you can use the following apps:

If you are unsure whether to use screencasts as training content for your online gaming students I recommend taking a look at the following article.

ARTICLE: Spice Up Your eLearning With A Screencast

After you’ve finished recording your video, to edit the raw footage you can use:

You can find out my personal recommendations for all of the above tools for all content types by taking a look at the Recommended Tools page.  They are the ones I use myself.

Monetize Your Audience

This is the most important part of teaching game play online because if you are not coaching at an hourly rate then you have to have some way to make money out of your audience.  While it is great to use platforms like Twitch and Youtube to direct traffic to your website the competition is huge and you want to own your audience.

Being reliant only on Youtube or Twitch for your income is a recipe for disaster as they will change the rules and reduce your income over time.  It has happened with thousands of other websites over the years and it will happen to these.

If you own your network and direct them to your website they are an audience to sell to as well as getting 100% of the ad, affiliate and products and services revenue through it.  So lets look at the best way to do this.

Ad networks

No matter where in the world you are you will be aiming your website and content to a USA based audience.  The reason is that they pay the highest per 1000 page views of your website.  Here are some rough figures that will depend on your niche, game and competition.

Example Ad Revenues per 1000 page views (RPM)

NOTE: Ad revenues can change dramatically on each platform and these are not absolute but just showing the difference between platforms and your results may differ.  You may get more on Adsense for instance but if you then expect to get more on the other platforms as well.  Premium ad networks will normally give better money as they get to cherry pick ads from the google ad networks and other locations.

As well as on your website using the above ad networks you can also put ads on your Youtube channel once you have 1000 or more subscribers as well.

Affiliate Sales

On your website you can recommend gear, books, software and other products and services and get a commission every time someone buys them.  You have to be sincere in liking and using the products or services yourself or at least have tested them.

You will generally get a conversion of the traffic to affiliate sales of between 1% to 5% of your traffic and if you choose items between $100 to $200 dollars you can make a lot of extra money this way.

Live Coaching

This is the one everyone knows about and aspires to but it really is something people want when you get more of a name for yourself or have won or ranked highly in tournaments.  Theoretically you can coach as soon as you know more than someone else but you will have to build this over time.

Other Products And Services

You can make and sell any other products and services that you want through your website as well like courses, eBooks, game guides etc.  Whatever you can think of you can sell once you have built your audience.

If you want to look at other ways to teach gaming online check out this article.

ARTICLE: How Can I Teach Online?

Reliable Payment Methods

Whether you are coaching people on how to play games or selling other products and services you will need to have an account to be paid into for one off transactions and for your payments from affiliates and ads to be paid into.

There are many options you can use and I have listed two for your below.

PayPal

https://www.paypal.com

PayPal is perhaps the most popular online payment service. It is widely used all around the globe for both personal transfers and commercial transfers. This service is among the easiest to use. You can transfer money to anyone having a PayPal account, a credit card, or a savings account. On the other hand, you can receive money from another PayPal user, a credit card, or a bank transfer.

Users benefit from a wide variety of features, such as:

  • Small fees
  • Rapid transfers
  • Easy-to-use interface

Small Fees

Fees are the most important thing to understand when it comes to choosing a money transfer method. PayPal doesn’t charge any fee for opening or closing an account. Sending or receiving money using PayPal doesn’t inflict any fees to be paid for citizens inside the U.S. 

For the complete table of fees, visit the PayPal FAQ.

Rapid Transfers

PayPal allows its users to transfer money within minutes, depending on the transaction type. For example, Paypal-to-Paypal transfers are processed within a few minutes for free. This rapid transfer rate makes this service one of the most convenient available on the market. 

For a better understanding of the processing time when using PayPal, visit PayPal SmartHelp.

Receiving Payments Via PayPal

As mentioned before, PayPal is one of the easiest online money transfer methods available for free. It has a user-friendly interface that is easy to use. Additionally, there is a Support Section that answers the most frequent questions and guides users throughout any process. .

If you want to Receive Money using PayPal, you only must get in touch with the person that sends you the money and provide them the following information about yourself:

  • Full name
  • PayPal username
  • E-mail address or phone number

Skrill

https://skrill.com

Skrill is an electronic wallet ensuring online money transferring solutions that are available worldwide. It is widely used in Europe, being PayPal’s main concurrent. It is connected to MasterCard and you can even order a prepaid Skrill MasterCard to withdraw funds from ATMs.

This payment method features the following perks:

  • Fixed fees
  • High security
  • Fastest transactions

Fixed fees

Unlike PayPal, Skrill features a fixed fee list that can be viewed on its website. The most important fees that you as an online teacher must consider are:

  • Skrill account: free
  • Deposit to Skrill: 1%
  • Sending money Skrill-to-Skrill: 1.45% (up to 5.50% if you are a new Skrill user)
  • Receiving money Skrill-to-Skrill: free
  • Sending money to bank account: free
  • Currency conversion: 3.99%

To see the full fees that may apply to your transaction, click here.

Rapid money transfer

Compared to PayPal, Skrill offers even faster money processing. After the sender approves the payment, you receive the funds within a few hours and can withdraw them to your account or using a Skrill MasterCard. This is currently the fastest method available to receive a payment from a customer. 

During weekends, the money is also processed almost instantly. That’s a huge perk for you as an online teacher, as you can instantly receive payments from all over the world with minimum costs.

Glen Brown

I am a Technical Trainer and Manager with over 20 years experience in IT, Education and Business. I have multiple qualifications on each topic including post graduate qualifications. I have a passion for sharing knowledge and using technology to do this. If you would like to know more about me please see the about page of the website.

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