If you thought there was a good chance that your dedication and hard work could lead to getting paid/a position at a top venue?

We know that many of the gaming blogs started out just like that - but for the really successful sites there's more to it than just writing, you need a good brand (ones that readers will want to be affiliated with), a well designed site (so the outfit looks professional - and reinforces the previous point), marketing (to spread the word), good management of the community/PR (to ensure the community are happy) etc etc etc ...So if your chances of getting into the A-list meant being part of something rather than going it alone, would you go for it?

[size=85](Please also feel free to check out this link if it's something you would consider!)[/size]
 

Well, personally I love it to start at a site from scratch. Because then you have way more commitment to the community, crew etc. since you were there from the beginning. That's why I joined Undercover-Gaming, but I could have also joined a slightly bigger site who had a bigger community, but there I would feel like 'just another guy'.

Are you asking about writing here or starting up a website? Because I've been writing for 20 years and I'm as skint now as I was the day I began. Whereas, I've never started up my own site. I'd say that starting up your own site so you can write about something you're into will eventually lead to you not writing at all and managing the site. In which case, you'd have to be more into web businesses than writing to make a real success of it, or else your site will eventually be your ruin. But then, like I said, I've never started up a website so I don't know.

Love to write, though. There's little else more satisfying than seeing something you've written in print. Re-reading it is a different matter entirely…

Good question! Mind if I answer it from a "would you develop games for the love of it" perspective?

Here I go.

Yes.

That's how we started.. game deving that is. The writing we have to do for it is part of the job. (being a small 2 person team)

But! ...

The web site, the videos, the press releases, the demos, the screenshots, the testing.. all that on top of the development, are still things that have to be done to support the game. And we are the ones that do it.

Doesn't mean we don't continue to dev. Just means we work more.

And yes.. it's worth it.

Currently I do write for the love of it. Very sporadically, unfortunately, now that I'm in full time work developing I don't have enough free time to sink into a game for a review to be finished in a reasonable time. When I was (briefly) paid for writing I learned much more about how to improve my writing, but as I'm short on time and have stepped back to a volunteer I feel under less pressure, if I wasn't in dire financial circumstances I really think I'd get more enjoyment from writing just for the love of it.

As stated by the OP, that's how most bloggers start... and that's how I am right now.

My blog is about to be 2 years old and still doesn't provide me even with a small steady income (which is normal here in Brazil, where there's not a strong industry backing everything), so I keep other jobs while I wait and work even harder for it to happen. So, yeah, I basically write out of passion. For games, but also for the idea of someday earn my living by writing about the stuff I'm passionate about on my own blog.

You're asking two different questions. "For the love of it" and "if there's a chance of getting paid" are not the same.

I'm full-time freelance games and technology writer, and 99 percent of what I do is done in exchange for money. But that other 1 percent of the time, I'm contributing to podcasts, writing a guest essay or penning something for my personal blog. I do that for fun, because even though I love my work, I don't always get to discuss the things that I want to.

So, to answer the question in your headline, yes. But I wouldn't write for things like "exposure" or "chance of payment down the line" because those are empty promises, and if you write for the love, those things could follow, anyway.