It was never easy to build something from scratch. And it is even tougher when you have no idea about building the blocks except your sheer determination, “We are going to do this no matter what it takes”. Efforts, dedication, time investment, and teamwork play a key role everywhere and as we hit GamingonPhone’s 1st anniversary, I can say, we have thoroughly experienced it throughout the last year.
What does it take to build something from scratch?
If I have to say this in one word, that would be your dedication. While you do need some basic knowledge about what you are planning to do and a team (depends on the size of your project) who are equally enthusiastic, the motivation/determination is what will keep you going. Because at times we start questioning ourselves, “What are we doing? Can we succeed in this tough market?”. So having people with you is very important with whom you can share your vision and mission and plan the roadmap accordingly.
Killing time and being productive at the same time
It took us a few months to conceptualize the idea of GamingonPhone since life in top-notch B-School is quite vibrant. You literally get zero free time during the first year, however, you get plenty of time during the second year, unless you are a book worm (in that case, I’m not!) or you have that special person with you (I don’t need to answer this, do I?).
The second year of college began from June 2019 and with the massive free time on my hand, I was wondering, what I can do to pass my time. The thing should kill my time as well as a productive work that can add value to the CV (yeah, final placements are always a pain). We tried participating in the D2C competitions but it didn’t work out since we (both Shaquib and I) were too lazy even after cracking the first round. So definitely it wasn’t working out as expected.
I started brainstorming and proposed the possibility of starting a website that would cater to the needs of mobile gamers. As a mobile gamer myself, I could see the gap in the market as well as the existing click baits and misleading articles that were troubling the mobile gamers. So that was a place where we could surely establish ourselves. Discussed the idea with Shaquib and Ron and both of them agreed to join in with the motto of providing authentic content round the clock.
To start or not to start is the question
However, the competition is never easy since there are many established websites. Also the niche we are choosing, we need a vast pool of knowledge if we want to focus on quality. And quality is the only key to rank among the plethora of websites and come on the first page of search engines. So yes, building the team was another big task.
Market analysis is necessary
It is very important to check the depth of the water to confirm survival. Developing countries are now recognized as a huge market for smartphones. Someone or the other from every family plays any mobile game now. And since JIO revolutionized the telecom industry of India with cheap data packs, the rate of online gaming has increased massively. Various researches showed that the mobile gaming market is only expected to grow over the years and this was surely a positive thing for us.
Finalizing the prerequisites
After the decision was finalized that we are going to create a website, it took us a few weeks to decide a name. A suitable domain name is very important because this is going to be a brand in the future. It must be short, easy to remember, and related to the niche. After everything is settled, I built the framework after consulting with my brother Ron and Shaquib. The design part took a few days since strategically positioning the things plays a key role (Consumer Behaviour lessons) and it may reward us with more engagement.
Our tiny hideout
To start something online we don’t really need a big office or something. The image shown above (In case you are wondering what was I playing – 3 Doors Down – Here Without You) is the place where we sat down and worked for long hours! Since we did not have many classes during the second year of MBA, I could spend an average of 8+ hours every day. And I followed the same time pattern for the first 8 months. I felt exhausted each night but the feeling of building something pushed me to work harder. Initially, it was really tough but now, with the distribution of the tasks, things have been much easier. I still spend somewhere around 6 hours every day without any fail. But now, I’m not the only one who is spending this much time. Some of my teammates are also doing the same and I’m proud of my team!
Trade-off is real
We read it in Economics and experienced it in real-time! Both Shaquib and I missed dozens of parties, hangouts to work on GamingonPhone. Sometimes, we had to rush for things and not to mention the endless chats with customer support when anything went wrong.
Initial struggles
SEO is a never-ending sea
Since WordPress is more like a drag and drop system, building the framework is not hard, but the content optimization is what will drive you crazy. It needs regular readings, researches, and keeping up with the current trend. The search algorithm is changing every now and then. And a news-media website, it is very necessary to keep up with the trends. There are days when I started reading a topic and it continued for a few hours. The Internet is full of resources and we can learn/discover many things just by reading! Now talking about the content part, catering to the need of the mobile gamers requires a thorough study of the current happenings in the gaming community. Developers are introducing new games and features regularly, so it is important to understand what we should cover and whatnot.
None of us came from a journalism background. So initially, we made a lot of mistakes in news reporting, received criticism, and learnt the hard way. We still can’t say that we do perfect reporting but we try our best to provide genuine information.
Apart from the contents, we are still lacking in the web development part. We have plenty of ideas but because of the lack of web development knowledge, we are unable to transform it.
Our values at GamingonPhone
From the very first day, we are focused on providing authentic information. And this will remain until the end! Neither we allow clickbait nor we provide misleading information. Since everyone in the team are gamers, we understand the possible reaction after reading a piece of misleading information about games. At GamingonPhone, the satisfaction of the readers comes first. And we are realizing slowly that our contents are helping the gamers to progress. These are free morale boost!
Growth over the months
We started GamingonPhone with zero experience. But we could pull a good position with quality content and hard work. However, content is not everything that we have focused on in the last few months. With the growth of traffic, there are many things that we needed to take care of. Starting from Industry relation to reaching out to companies for business opportunities, Shaquib took care of those with great expertise. His business mind really helped us to become sustainable throughout the year. Since we pay our teammates for their every contribution, we need to make sure that the business model is sustainable in the long run. This is the place where I do not interfere much. Ron (manages the whole finance part) and Shaquib manages it completely.
Here is a graph that shows GamingonPhone’s traffic growth over the last year.
How are we celebrating GamingonPhone’s 1st Anniversary
It was our plan to have a meetup (probably in Kolkata) to celebrate GamingonPhone’s 1st anniversary. But then Covid-19 happened. So we had to cancel this. However, we have some other initiatives! We have designed a team t-shirt that will be distributed among the team. We have also introduced awards for the team members.
As the logo plays an important role in brand recognition, we have come up with a brand new logo. Big shoutout to Braweria for designing this for us.
Apart from that, we are launching our Telegram channel (Do I need to invite you personally to join?) and we’ll be hosting 4 small giveaways on Twitter (one giveaway each week) this month. So if you want to participate in the giveaways, make sure to follow GamingonPhone on Twitter.
Bonus: Here is a video that we have made exclusively for GamingonPhone’s 1st anniversary.
Where are we heading
So far, the growth has been fairly good. We have been referred by many reputed online publications like Dexerto (global authority on Gaming and Entertainment), Pocket Gamer (one of the oldest and most trusted mobile games website), Toms Hardware (major Italian tech publication), Droid Gamers (global authority on mobile games), Moviester esports (major Spanish esports website), Kompas.com (popular Indonesian tech publication) etc. According to Alexa, GamingonPhone is currently ranked top 110,000 globally and 30,000 in India. And it is just within one single year!
However, it’s really tough to predict the future and we are counting on you because it’s our readers who supported and motivated us to work. We have come this far and promise to provide all the relevant, unbiased and accurate information in the future.
Team speak
As we hit GamingonPhone’s 1st anniversary, let’s hear what the team members are saying
What started out as a first-hand writing experience for me, from guiding to writing articles, to creating posts across social media and building a community, Tousif has been a patient mentor and guide. From there the journey began as I became an editor to the site, followed Tousif’s footsteps, and entered the world of mobile gaming.
This has been my first earnings as a young adult. However, the memories and the experiences I have gathered here through this journey are more valuable to me than anything.
As someone who plays mobile games just for fun, I’ve never thought of getting an opportunity to write for a reputable website like GamingonPhone. Other than particular details and high standards for the contents, I’m amazed by the bond the team embraces since I first join them. I will be forever grateful to find a place where my insights are accepted and shared with players out there, at the same time expanding my knowledge and analysis of the game!
Being a part of the team GoP feels like a privilege. I will always remember that warm welcome I received when I first joined. The ability to write about mobile games in any way gives enjoyment as well as freedom. As someone with no particular favorite game, I am always on the look for new, fresh games. At the same time, I’ll be writing about these on the GoP website. What could make a better combination than that!
A few months back this opportunity arrived at my doorstep where I had to write about what I love to do, playing games. Well, this was my first time writing about such things and to be honest I was afraid a bit if I could live up to the expectations. But as soon as I joined in, I got a family in the form of GamingonPhone. Special thanks to the heads of this family, Tousif, Shaquib, and Jarjis. Their continuous support and guidance have always reaped success for me while being at GoP.
Apart from writing and editing articles at GamingonPhone, what I mostly like about our team is that everyone is very much friendly and cooperative. This surely makes the bond between us stronger and also we get to know so much about lots of games we didn’t know earlier. Standing at GamingonPhone’s 1st anniversary, I can say that this journey at GamingonPhone has been a joyride for me which I am enjoying to the fullest.
When I joined, I had little idea about how things work on a website. But slowly, from being one of the inexperienced in the field to writing articles to reach many, the website helped me grow. When I look back and see, I took this chance for gaining experience and make it a part of my hobbies. Now, I love this job and make me animated thinking about the years to come.
First time when the opportunity came to write for GamingonPhone, I started out of just the will to share my gaming experience with fellow mobile gamers. To be a part of the gaming community and the GoP team felt nice from the very beginning. I feel privileged to be part of a team where I get to work with so many people from different parts of the world, possessing knowledge in their own field, helping each other out, and growing as a team. I thank Tousif, Shaquib, and Jarjis for this opportunity. The whole team is a family to me. I am determined that we’ll together work GoP’s way to the top.
So that’s it for GamingonPhone’s 1st anniversary blog post! If you have come this far, why don’t you leave us some feedback in the comments below? We would love to hear your thoughts.
Best of luck. ❤️
Thank you!
From the concept of mobile gaming to making use of digital marketing to consumer behaviour lessons and a few other MBA lessons to resolving queries through quality content;
Dedication is what it took to realize your dreams.
Congratulations team and there is more to come your way, soar higher and leave the impressions globally.
Thanks a lot, sure there’s more to come!
Thank you for your kind words 🙂
Congratulations 🎊
Hell yeah! 👊😎