In November we launched our first Q&A with the team behind LadiesGamers, with Paula and me. We talked about what keeps us both going when it comes to gaming (the first Q&A is found here). These Q&A articles are of course exclusively for our Patrons!
In this second one, we will talk about what goes on behind the screens of LadiesGamers.
Sharing the Load
Yvonne: when I first started what is now LadiesGamers.com it was more of a blogging page. When I started gaming 14 years ago I found it difficult to talk about my passion in my everyday life, as none of my friends simply cared about that hobby. And I really HAD to talk about it, so I took up blogging. With some friends I met in AC Wild World reading!
That blog has turned into a fully functioning website. And fully functioning websites require a lot of work and maintenance! You’d think that having a team of writers would do the trick, but it couldn’t be further from the truth!
Paula: Indeed, there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes of a website. I don’t think people, in general, realise just how much work can go into the daily running of LadiesGamers. We all flick from page to page on the internet without any thought to what might go on behind what we see on screen. I certainly didn’t give it a thought when I used the internet, before I started helping Yvonne out with the site.
Yvonne: you started helping out, but it turned into an almost full time job for you, right? Paula offered over a year ago that she could take over some of the things I did to make more real gaming time for me. And I’m so glad she did! Not just to lessen the load, but more importantly: it’s much more fun to work together!

Paula: yep it is! Though I don’t think you’ve gotten more gaming time, have you? Somehow you always find new projects for the site to take on!
The Things We Do For Love (or in this case: LadiesGamers)
Yvonne: maybe it starts with deciding what games we want to review. At the start, we both perused the Nintendo eShop Upcoming Games section to look for interesting games. We both tend to have a different view on games we love, so it makes for an interesting mix.
Paula: indeed, so after deciding what games to review, I contact publishers to ask for review key codes. As of course we have to keep track of it all, we have a huge spreadsheet that I manage. Keeping it up to date with all the codes we want to review, if and when we receive the code, who is reviewing said game and when the review is published plus its verdict is at all noted on the spreadsheet.
Yvonne: right, and as we always feel a review is better when a writer is partial to that genre of video game, we offer our writer a chance to ask for a code too. That’s in another spreadsheet. You’ll be an excel specialist in no time, Paula!
Paula: yep, I will! Nowadays, when we are getting to be more widely known among publishers our email inbox is starting to overflow too. Reading all the press emails we get, answering smaller indie studios and publishers.

Yvonne: they lead to games to be reviewed too, right? Imagine a couple of years ago to just be offered a review code to take up instead of asking! We would have been very surprised! It does happen now, occasionally.
Paula: true! After we have the code I keep track of embargo dates for when the review can be published and at what time in our joint calendar. Oh yes dear reader, reviews can’t just be written and published as there is a sequence of events that happens before a game is released. And breaking an embargo by publishing a review before it should be is a big NO-NO and one of the fastest ways to lose the confidence and trust of a publisher!
Yvonne: so after a writer gets to work with a code and the review is made, they put it up in our Wordpress environment. From there, Paula does the first edit and I do the final one. Plus I schedule the article keeping the embargo time in account and making sure our articles are nice spread and offer variation.
Paula: and after that we send a link to the publisher who we received the code from when each review is published. And every review that is published is put up in Open Critic as well, so they can be found there.
Managing the team
Yvonne: I would have never though we’d have a real team! Still remember the first time I asked someone else to write on the site. It was scary to give some of the control over my baby away. But that’s what I did, and Paige and Elena, who were two of the first, are still a part of LadiesGamers.
With a team comes the need to keep in touch with them too, which is where our Discord comes in.

Paula: when we have a review code in that doesn’t have a preferred writer yet, I put the review request on Discord so people can chip in. That comes down to who is available to write a review as real life can be busy. But also, who is best suited to review a particular game code we have, looking at the genre of the game.
Yvonne: but the Discord isn’t used for just distributing codes. Writers can pitch ideas too, share gaming news or just chat. I have found though that people like to know each other a little better before chat really flows though.
Paula: and don’t forget we also try keep in touch with our writers one on one as we are spread all over the world.
Yvonne: still, I must admit that keeping writers invested in the goings on at LadiesGamers can be challenging. Over the years we have had a lot of people starting our enthusiastically, only to see them fade away from the site and Discord in a couple of months. Guess writing reviews isn’t as glamorous as a lot of people think!
Getting the Word Out!
Paula: it’s important of course to make sure we have a presence on Social Media, like Twitter and Facebook. That means sharing articles on there, running giveaways for our audience and hoping for retweets and follows to broaden our audience.
Yvonne: yes, and you do most of that now right? Following up on a successful giveaway is a challenge in itself as we have found!
Paula: and now there’s our most recent project too that you run yourself, Patreon!
Yvonne: Patreon was terra incognita for me too, but I had such fun making the creator page and making sure we offer a variety of rewards. It isn’t without its hiccups, as I recently found when the Patreon Button in articles on the site wasn’t working.
Paula: you do a lot of work under the hood of the LadiesGamers Motor too, don’t you?
Yvonne: I do, like putting up the links in the side column (if you look at the site on a computer or tablet you’ll know what I mean). And before I started working on Wordpress I didn’t have a clue about all technical stuff that goes on beneath the hood of our LG Motor! But I think that’s a topic for one of our next interviews.
Hotline between Northern Ireland and the Netherlands
Yvonne: all of this requires that we work together well, otherwise things would mess up pretty quick right?
Paula: well, we don’t have a written schedule per se, though what we do have is Messenger and FaceTime between Yvonne and myself. Messenger, in particular, is never silent except when we are sleeping, then it gets a rest for a few hours, which it’s probably glad off.
We do have things I would do and Yvonne doesn’t and vices versa. Such as I put the reviews up on Open Critic and Yvonne sets all the publishing times for each article or review. I mainly send the email off to publishers to ask for a code but Yvonne also sends off the odd email to publisher too.
Yvonne: it’s the constant communication between us that makes it work! And even if we don’t have a schedule but mostly take it day by day, it works out fine. A good thing too, as with two 55+ ladies we might forget some stuff, this way we keep each other on our toes!
Paula: first and foremost we are friends who have known each other quite a few years now. We were friends long before I started reviewing games at LadiesGamers and then helping with the site.
Yvonne: yes we have been! I still remember our first visits in AC Wild World when you were there in my town together with your daughter Siobhan!
Paula: good times! I must say, I don’t like to blow our own trumpets but we do work well together. And aside from work, we have fun, the odd moan and a laugh along the way while we do all the site work!
Yvonne: wow this has turned into a long Q&A! If you’ve read it all, then thanks for sticking with it and we hope you enjoyed knowing what goes in to filling up a website!