This is one of the first things to consider before starting to write your guide, because if you think you can write a successful guide in half a day, your wrong. Obviously some guides are shorter than others, but even if you are writing about a certain aspect of a game, you still need to take your time over it, making sure you don't miss anything out. You have to ask yourself "Am i really going to commit myself to writing this guide?" because if you are not, you may lose interest halfway throught - writing walkthroughs is not for everyone!! But if you think you would enjoy doing it, have a go. "What is the worst that can happen..."

Firstly, there is no generic answer to this. You may want to concentrate on writing about a certain aspect of the game (eg how to complete time trials) or you may want to make a full FAQ/Walkthrough. It is entirely optional what you write about - it you are an expert at a part of the game but not so good at the other bits you may just want to focus on that bit you are good at.

A good idea is to plan your guide before you start writing - I usually think about aspects of the game the try to form a contents list but there are other ways that might work better for you. You should always include legal information and version history of your guide, a game overview, and credits. An afterword and how to contact are optional but I recommend them as reader comments can help improve your guides as well as you as an author.

The most important and largest part of your guide is the game content, and this is different for every game. For example, if you are writing about a racing game you may have tracks, cars, shortcuts, tips.. and so on. Probably the main part of a guide is the mission walkthroughs, if you are doing it on the whole game. This is also the biggest rasons wlkthrough are looked up, because players get stuck on a level and need help, so take your time over it and make it as full and as detailed as possible.

You should try your best to make the guide as clear as possible, because if it is complicated and the reader can't find what they are looking for, they will probably get fed up with it and look for another guide. A good idea is to look at other guides on the internet, and adapt them to create your own unique style of layout. Have a look here to see a guide I wrote, and observe how I layed it out. The more you write guides, the more your style will change but you will probably end up sticking to one and remember - simple is great!!

This is probably one of the last questions you should ask yourself before you start submitting it to any guide hosting sites. This is because, if you are trying to make money from it, you should only submit it to one site, (a site that gives you money such as pwnGuide.com. You have to realise that if you choose to earn money from it, it will be less viewed as it will only be on one site.

If you do choose to earn money from it, you will use a site called pwnGuide.com, which is totally free to use, and earns you revenue. It works by giving you money for evrytime the guide is viewed. The site earn money by ads and you earn a percentge of this everytime your guide is viewed. Check out my lens on pwnGuide.com here for more information, like how it works and the best way to make money from it.

I highly reccomend having a look at my lens on pwnGuide.com here if you are interested in making money. Also it's a good idea to look at one of my guides here to see an example before you try to write one yourself. A good tip is to choose a game, then look around on he internet to see if it has a guide. If it doesn't (or the guide it has on it is pretty bland) then write a guide on it, and if you submit it to pwnGuide.com, the person looking for the guide will probably end up there, increasing your views and earning you money!! So all I can say now is if you think you might be able to do this, go for it! I hope this lens has taught you a bit about how to write a game guide and I hope you do well.

Guy McLean