Write Reviews for IGN

If you want to write reviews for IGN officially, you would first have to get hired as a game reviewer by the company that owns the IGN website. The good news is you don't have to be an IGN employee to see your review land on the front page of the website. Just start an account with My IGN, connect with the community of gamers on the site, and start publishing your game reviews on your blog.

Steps

Opening a MyIGN Account

1. Go to the My IGN website. When you point your browser toward http://my.ign.com/get-started, you'll see a large green button that says "get started." Click that button to start setting up your account.
   • You'll be prompted to choose a user name, and provide an email address and password. Choose a user name that you think best identifies you as a gamer.
2. Verify your email. Once you enter the required information to get started, My IGN will send you an email asking you to verify your email address. If you don't get this email within a few minutes, check your spam folder.
3. Build your profile. Just as on any social media platform, My IGN gives you the ability to tell other users a little about you. For IGN in particular, focus on highlighting your favorite games, what kind of gamer you are, and the games you play online.
   • You can include game IDs as well, if you want to be able to play online with other IGN users who see your profile.
4. Follow games and people. The My IGN community is similar to any other social networking platform in that the posts you get on your home page depend on the accounts you're following. Start by following some of your favorite games.
   • Following games you love will lead you to other people who also enjoy that game. Follow and talk to these people to expand your network.
   • At least at first, follow back everyone who follows you, unless they never post about anything you'd want to see or read. Right now you want to expand your network.
5. Participate to earn points. When you move around the website, you accumulate points for completing various actions, such as uploading a picture or commenting on a post. As you continue to participate, you will gradually level up.
   • You have to be at least level five and have an account at least two weeks old before you will be allowed to post blogs or reviews.

Getting Involved in the Community

1. Read and comment on other people's work. Before you start posting your own work, get a feel for what other community members are posting. This helps you avoid repeating what someone else has already said.
   • You also can get a feel for what types of writing are most popular, and start finding your voice, or the style you'll use when you write your review.
   • You also can introduce yourself through comments and reach out to other users who you think would enjoy your work. For example, you might comment "I thought your discussion of color was interesting here. I just started, but I'm planning a blog entirely devoted to the use of color in Skyrim. If you're interested, check it out!"
2. Find your niche. Instead of thinking broadly about the games that you love, think about something specific that you like that sets you apart from the crowd. You also might find a niche in some particular, narrow aspect of gameplay or game design.
   • Reading others' posts can also help you get a sense of what your niche should be. If you see a lot of people writing about a particular topic, ask yourself if you have anything new to contribute to their discussion.
3. Check your feed regularly. If you're trying to build up a following so your blog will be successful, you need to show up on other people's blogs frequently. This doesn't mean you have to comment on every post, but you should be an active follower.
   • When you show up on others' blogs frequently, they'll have greater recognition of your username and be more likely to read your posts when they see them.
   • Supportive notes in particular are likely to get you more support from those who follow you.
4. Interact with other people. You have the ability to private message and communicate directly with other My IGN users from your account. Adjust these settings to suit your personal safety preferences.
   • For example, you may want to allow anyone to message you, or you may want to restrict messages to followers who you also follow.
   • The more interaction you have with other users, the more interested and supportive they'll be of your posts. Don't necessarily think about it in those terms, though. Just relax and have fun talking to other gamers.

Posting Reviews

1. Click on your blog tab. When you log into your account, you'll see a tab that says "blog." Clicking on it will give you the choice of either writing a new blog post or uploading a header. Before you write your first post, make sure your blog looks the way you want.
   • You can use a header image to make your blog more attractive to view. Play around with this to get your page looking the way you want. If you change your mind about it later, you can always upload a new image.
2. Introduce yourself. For your first blog post, your best option typically is to let your followers and readers know who you are and what kinds of things you're going to write about on your blog.
   • Use the same writing style and voice you plan to use for your reviews. This gives first-time readers an introduction to your writing style as well.
   • Start by introducing yourself as a person, using highlights that are relevant to your gaming interests. Then discuss the structure and focus of your reviews and your schedule for posting them, if you have one.
3. Publish your blog. When you've finished writing your blog post, proofread it carefully for errors. Click the button at the bottom of the page to publish your blog when you're satisfied with it and ready for others to read it.
   • Once you publish your blog, anyone who follows it will see it pop up in the feed on their home page.
4. Submit your blog. At the bottom of each blog post, you'll see a big red button that says "submit." Clicking this button will pull up an email client so you can send an email to IGN staff asking for your blog to be featured.
   • Use the email to briefly sell yourself and your blog post. Talk about what makes it (or you) special, and why your post deserves to be featured.
   • You'll receive an email notification if your blog post is selected to be featured on the IGN homepage.
5. Promote your work. Once you've published your blog post, you can still link to it on other websites or around the community to get people to read your post. Encourage others to share it as well to get the word out about your reviews.
   • The more popular your blog posts are, the more likely you are to be featured on the IGN homepage on a regular basis.
   • Even if you're not featured, if you have a lot of users following your blog your reviews will still get a lot of attention.
6. Continue engaging with others. You can promote individual posts by messaging or commenting on posts. If you read something that you think is related to something you wrote, drop a link so the other person can read it.
   • Be careful with this and make sure your post is actually relevant to the discussion. You don't want to spam people, and most people are put off if they feel like you're only talking to them to promote your work.

Sources and Citations

See also

• Write Successfully for the Web
• Write Your First eBook
• Make a Webcomic
• Write a How To Article
• Create an Online Magazine
• Become a Popular Author on Quotev
• Make Money Selling Your Own eBook