My First Month Blogging: What it’s Really Like Starting a Gaming Blog

Hi, this is Sara – the other half of Game Katsu. Andrew is the creative side, while I’m more focused on the operations, optimization, back-end and analytics.

I’ve always loved reading realistic monthly recap blog posts, so I figured I’d start documenting our journey too. Especially now in 2026, when blogging seems to exist in two extreme camps:

• One side says blogging is dead because of AI  and there’s no point in writing anymore.
• The other side claims you can make thousands of dollars immediately in your first month. 

Neither of those felt honest to me. So this is what our first month actually looked like.

Starting a Gaming Blog in 2026: The Reality

Technically, it’s been more than one month since we launched Game Katsu. Our first article was officially launched in October (which holy moly, didn’t feel like it was 3 months ago!) But we were not consistent with posting. And we didn’t actively promote the blog until January of this year, so I’m calling January 2026 our official one-month launch.

The Data: First Month Traffic & Users

January 1 to January 31st 2026

Views: 600 total page views
Users: 193 total users

Honestly, I’m really happy with these numbers! When you look at page views alongside total users, it shows that people aren’t just landing on one article and immediately leaving. They’re clicking around and reading multiple posts. 

These visitors mostly came from the Game Past Instagram account. It is very difficult to get visitors from SEO – especially since our site is new and doesn’t have domain or topical authority yet.

Most Popular Article

How X-Play Changed Video Game Journalism

This was the first article we actively promoted on GamePast, and it did really well! It was even re-posted on Reddit! Both Andrew and I grew up watching X-Play, so it was genuinely nice to see other people care about it too. To me, this shows how important it is to write about things you actually care about. If you like a topic, others will want to read about it!

Now, how to get this article to rank on the first page for the keyword X-Play history is a whole other question…

Least Popular Article

Star Wars Outlaws – The GameKatsu Review

I’m not surprised this didn’t perform as well the other articles since the hype for the game died down. That said, I personally love this article because I like how Andrew writes reviews impartially. He gives the readers enough information to decide for themselves if the game is for them or not.

What My First Month Blogging Taught Me

1. Marketing is more important than ever

This sounds obvious in hindsight, but hear me out. When I blogged in the early 2000s, it was a completely different world. You could post something and get organic views almost immediately. Google would actually find your content because the internet was smaller and less saturated. There were also blogging communities, link exchanges, and more ways to get your content out there.

Now? You can publish a well-written article and Google doesn’t even know it exists because you’re not a large enough creator yet. Google basically ignores you until you’ve proven yourself, but you can’t prove yourself without traffic and backlinks. It’s a frustrating catch-22 that nobody really prepares you for.

2. Just pick one or two social media  platforms

When I noticed the GamePast Instagram account was driving a decent amount of traffic, I immediately went down a social media rabbit hole. The Instagram algorithm is confusing, and we didn’t want to rely on it alone, so I started searching for other platforms to use. In hindsight, I ended up wasting more time than I should have. These were all the social media platforms I researched:

• Flipboard –  I spent an entire weekend researching it, setting up boards, and posting our content. But after a week, saw that we had 0 traffic coming from it.   Later, I found an interview with someone who actually succeeds on Flipboard, and they mentioned it takes six to eight months of constant posting to see traction. Six to eight months. Aint no one got time for that.

• Pinterest – Everyone and their mother says you need to be on Pinterest as a blogger. But they never tell you what niches wouldn’t work well. My gut told me that educational video game content wouldn’t do well there. I tried anyway, created some pins with my limited design skills, and quickly realized this strategy needs a redo. I’m a Pinterest user myself, and I know these pins aren’t going to get traffic as-is.
• TikTok – So many articles talk about how “easy” it is to grow on TikTok. Let me tell you, it’s hard. Like, really hard. The algorithm is mysterious, competition is intense, and what works for one person might completely flop for another.

The lesson here is that every platform has its own learning curve, timeline, and best practises. There’s (unfortunately) no easy button.

3. WordPress Is Not as Easy as Everyone Says It Is

WordPress is hard and frustrating. If I want to change something in the footer, I somehow have to navigate to two completely different areas of WordPress to make it happen. The back-end is clunky, the learning curve is steep, and I spent more time than I’d like to admit just trying to make basic changes. Do I know how to change the side bar of my posts? Still no.

I’m honestly not sure if I would choose WordPress again if I were starting over. Some people suggested Substack instead. But we’re here now, and I’m committed to making it work.

4. Errors will happen all the damn time

I mentioned that WordPress is difficult but everything else around WordPress also breaks. Setting up an email domain? Well for some reason, you now don’t get emails. Setting up bing webmaster? Well here is a generic error message for you. Setting up Google Search Console? Here are some more error messages thrown at you.

5. Splitting Work Based on Strengths Is Essential

We quickly learned that dividing responsibilities is absolutely necessary because blogging is overwhelming. I genuinely can’t imagine Andrew trying to do this solo, writing content while also learning SEO, managing social media, finding images, looking at Google Analytics, and dealing with WordPress issues. It’s overwhelming even with two people!

My Best Advice for New Gaming Bloggers

Am I allowed to give advice when we’re still new to blogging in this era? Maybe, maybe not. But here’s what I’d tell others anyway.

1. Start Your Video Game Blog Now

It doesn’t matter if it’s on Blogspot, Tumblr, Substack, Live Journal (did you know that they still exist?!) or WordPress. If you’ve always wanted to blog, start now.

I found a list of blog topic ideas in our Google Drive from 2022. 2022. Imagine if we had actually started then. Instead, we let all the “blogging is dead” articles scare us into doing nothing. So instead of letting those articles hold you back, try it for yourself.

2. Don’t Buy Paid Tools Yet

I know this goes against what a lot of blogging gurus say, but this is just based on my own experience. SEO tools are expensive, and when you’re starting out, they can be incredibly discouraging. They’ll tell you your keywords are too competitive and that you don’t stand a chance. 

In my first month, I experimented with a bunch of blogging and YouTube tools – VidIQ, ContentBuddy, Ahrefs, and KeywordSearch. Each one costs money, and each one takes significant time to learn properly. And here’s what nobody tells you: these tools can actually be counterproductive when you’re brand new.

I bought a one-month subscription to Ahrefs because everyone swears by it, and it basically told me that every single article idea we had would be difficult or nearly impossible to compete for. Maybe that was accurate, or maybe I just wasn’t using it properly yet or doing keyword research well. It could absolutely be me. But that feedback made me not want to publish anything. That’s the complete opposite of helpful when you’re trying to build momentum.

The video game niche is extremely competitive, and the bigger sites have multiple writers who focus specifically on SEO, so of course it’s going to be competitive. I just need to figure out what these sites are not writing about. That will take some time though.

I’ve since stripped things back and gone with mostly free tools instead. For now, Google Keyword Planner (completely free) has been the most useful. Maybe in the next few months, I’ll revisit paid tools.

But right now, I’m focusing on letting Andrew create the content he actually loves and getting it out there, rather than obsessing over what some tool thinks our chances are.

3. Your Niche Matters, but So Does Your Passion

Everyone tells you to niche down, and there is truth to that advice. But at the end of the day, you still have to write about things you actually enjoy. Don’t limit yourself to only what you think will get traffic, especially since it’s harder and harder to land on the first page of Google anyway.

Instead, put yourself in your reader’s shoes. What questions do they have? What experiences can you share that they can’t find everywhere else? Are you really into retro games? Game design? A specific franchise? Write the articles you’d want to read yourself, the ones bigger sites usually skip.

And let your personality show through! One of my biggest pet peeves is reading gaming articles that were clearly written just for SEO, with zero personality or actual insight. I’m constantly searching for games similar to Danganronpa, and half the time the recommendations make absolutely no sense. It’s painfully obvious when the writer hasn’t actually played the games they’re suggesting.

We also knew from the start that we couldn’t compete with Kotaku or IGN on breaking news. They have entire teams working around the clock. So instead, we decided to put our own spin on things. Andrew leans more into the industry side of gaming, using his insider knowledge to add context and perspective that bigger sites don’t always provide.

That philosophy carries over into our reviews as well. We know that game reviews are very hard to compete against, so we made a very deliberate choice to leave out numbered scores. Numbers feel weirdly limiting. How many times have you skipped a potentially great game because it received a 7 from a big publication? I know I have, more than once. Instead, we focus on giving readers enough information to decide for themselves whether a game actually fits their preferences.

4. Make Sure Blogging Advice Is Current And Of Value

There are so many articles about blogging, traffic, and monetization, but a lot of them are outdated. A strategy that worked in 2018 might be useless now. Always check the date, and take advice with context. What worked for someone else might not work for you.

Also, if a blogger is clearly hawking something, please check reviews. I almost went with Hostinger because every blogger was recommending how easy it was to design a site with it. That was until I looked at Reddit comments and realized a lot of people were complaining about Hostinger’s customer service.

5. Blog Design Can Wait

The truth is, design isn’t as important at first as you think. Just make the site easy to understand and easy to read. Once the reader lands on your blog, will they know what your blog is about? Will they know what topics you cover? If the answer is yes, then your design is fine. 

Look at how IGN and Kotaku started. Their early designs were basic because they were building the foundation of their site. We also chose a more simple layout and design. We will be adding more design updates in the future, but only when traffic increases.

That said, looking at Kotaku’s older site back in 2005, I really like their right-hand navigation and might try to emulate something like that later. Hmmm……But then again, I still have no idea how to update any of that in WordPress!

What I’m Changing for Month Two

1. Build an Email List

We desperately need a way to get people to sign up for notifications when we post new content. Our brand isn’t strong enough yet for people to remember to visit our site regularly. Email is going to be a huge focus going forward.

But remember how I mentioned that you’ll run into issues when setting up just about anything on WordPress? We’re currently dealing with a few of those problems while trying to get our notification list set up.

2. Rethink Pinterest Strategy

I know that our Pinterest efforts isn’t working but I don’t want to scrap Pinterest entirely. I need to think about how to pivot. 

3. Test New TikTok Content

I’ve been posting reels from our YouTube channel, but I’ll admit I’m not great at video editing – I’m much more analytical by nature. But I’m going to give it one more month of testing different content styles. If we don’t see any movement, I’ll rethink TikTok as a strategy entirely. Or maybe just abandon it.

4. Exploring Bluesky

I read in another blogger’s monthly recap that there’s actually an active gaming community on Bluesky. It’s not a top priority since I want to focus most of my energy on TikTok, but it’s definitely worth exploring when I have some extra time.

Moving Forward

Looking back at this first month, Andrew and I both feel genuinely proud of what we’ve accomplished. I mean, we’ve been talking about starting something together since 2022! And we actually did it. We actually launched it, published content, promoted it, and got real people reading our work. That’s not nothing.

Nearly 200 people found our site interesting enough to visit, and many of them stuck around to read multiple articles. That’s a huge accomplishment.

And if you already have a gaming blog, I’d genuinely love to connect. Drop a comment below with your link – one of our real goals with GameKatsu is to build community in the gaming world. Which I know sounds like a total buzzword, but we actually mean it. We’re not trying to compete with everyone – we want to support other video game bloggers.