What is Game Hub

Game hub is all about the industry and business of games. It also looks at the emerging areas of gaming that do not get a lot of mainstream media attention. A full list of subjects that you should try to keep your articles within is below:

-Mobile gaming
-health and well being implications of gaming (mind, body, soul)
-Gaming economy and industry reports
-indie games
-business news relating to Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA, or any other big gaming company
-eSports
-Technological developments of consoles or hardware
- Business news relating to Casual Gaming
-Anything else related to the industry, business/conomics of gaming
- Funny gaming stories
- Gaming charity - mainly Games Aid
- Business news relating to "lifestyle" and "reality" games, like second life.+

This subject area allows you to write about something you're interested in and passionate about but lets you do this within the more serious, business like areas above. This lets you show your ability and potential as a journalist more than regular gaming news and reviews and is therefore great for your journalistic portfolio.

From an experience and CV point of view, Gamge Hub will also give you experience of using an online Content Management System (CMS), which is a valuable skill to many employers.

- Try to write your articles in 4 sections:

1 - An introduction that summarises the whole article and what its conclusions or findings are.
2 - First paragraph of main material of the article, or first point(s) in your article
3 - Second paragraph of main material, or seconday main points.
4 - Conclusion, summary of what you've said and what your final/lasting thought on the subject is.

- Article length should be about 300-400 words long. The minimum word count for any article is 150 - the site cannot publish articles shorter than this.
- If you need or want to write longer articles go for it! try splitting it into "part 1" "part 2" etc so that posts don't get too long - readers generally prefer short, snappy, blog-style and easy to read articles.
- I recommend writing it in Word first, and then pasting it on to site, so you don't risk losing your article.

A guide to the fields you'll need to fill in when creating your content:

First:
1 - Log in
2 - Click Create Content
3 - Click "Article"

Guide to the fields: 

Title:

Enter a title for your article - something relevant to the article and exciting enough to want people to read it!

Category

Select the most relevant category - select from the drop down menu. Put an article in a max of 2 categories. Always assign at least one category. If there's no relevant category put it in Games Industry or Misc.

Body

Paste in your article that you've pre-written in Word. To do this click the "Paste From Word Button" (Clip board with the W on it). Add any formatting that you need and any links.  You may need to add in or take away line breaks to sort the allignment and formatting out.

Image

To upload and use an image in your article:

Upload a picture stored on your computer by clicking the grey Browse Button - navigate to and select the image on your computer. Leave thumbnail size at 100, ignore scale image, and enter a relevant title and description of your image. Click upload.

On the Browse Tab of the image picker section you can see all images that have been previously uploaded - select the best way to order the images shown to help find the one you need. Click the image you want to use. Select the following settings:

Align - set to None
Show - set to either full size if it's a sensible size, or select the thumbnail
Link - select None

Then simply drag and drop the image upwards into the article body where you want it. Align the image either left of right by selecting the image in the body and click the align left or align right buttons, same as for text.

Maximum 2 pics per article please.

Meta tags

- Keywords: Enter 4 or 5 keywords or short phrases to describe your article
- Description - Briefly describe your article - about 10 words

Click preview to preview article, or Submit to set it live on the site.

Should you need to re-edit your article again, make sure you are logged into the site, find the article, view it, and click edit. Only the author of an article can edit it.

Writing for game hub should be about enjoying the industry we all love - gaming! - while building up a portfolio of good quality articles. While i'm asking that writers post 2 articles of 300-400 words in length each week, some weeks you may not be able to do this, and some weeks you may want to do more. Try to use 2 articles of 300-400 words in length as a guide. There's no preference as to when to post your content. The more active you are the more Game Hub points you'll earn - see below!

-Don't rip off and directly copy someone else work from another site or another game hub writer.
- It's fine to use the facts and details of an article found on another site as the basis of your article, but the opinions, style, theme and bulk of the content must be yours
- Don't submit anything that is untrue
- Don't submit anything that is unjustly harsh on anyone or anything else.
- Link to a maximum of 1 external site per article - this must be a legitimate and respected site - we don't want Game Hub to be seen to link to or associate with bad sites.
-By registering and submitting content on game hub you agree to abide by these terms and conditions.
- 1 or 2 photos max per article. pictures not an essential part of some articles.

-Set up a google news/google alerts account and get it to send daily updates on the themes you are going to write on. This will help you pick up on up-to-date stories. Suggested keywords are things like: gaming, esports, video game news, gaming studies, gaming business, mobile gaming etc etc.

-Check the official press and press release pages of relevant companies

-Sourcing facts and information from other sites is fine, but you must present it in your own way and not copy it.

- Try to register an account here: http://www.gamespress.com/. Because you'll be registering with a non-game hub address they might ask you who you write for and why you're applying. Say you are a content writer for www.game-hub.co.uk and tell them to contact admin@game-hub.co.uk if they have any questions.

- Check the national press and news sites for any relevant games stories that have made it into them. Remember not to copy though.

- Over time you'll pick up on the best sites to source stories from for you.

This is what makes game hub the best gaming website to write for on the internet!

For every piece of content you write you'll earn Game Hub points. And for every comment on someone else's article you make, you'll also earn Game Hub points. Game Hub points are identifiers of how active you are on the site and signify how much content you've contributed to it. They show how much you've helped to develop the site and help you show off how much you've contributed to the community.

10 points for every article you write
3 points for every comment you make

All points are moderated and approved by me and they'll be approved 99 times out of 100 but the moderation has to go through admin to stop abuse of it.

I'll personally send a £10 gift to anyone who genuinely achieves 500 points from proper content, and a further £10 gift for any further 500 points earnt. This is not designed as any kind of payment, but as a thank you and a reward for anyone who posts lots of good content and becomes a valuable member of the content team.

All content that you write, together with some personal information and contact details will be placed into your profile - that you can edit and use to showcase your portfolio of work at Game Hub. This is fantastic to show off what you've achieved and give as a reference of the quantity and quality of your work.

Happy Writing!!