Guest post by Steve from Cheat Happens.
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There’s no mystery about why gamers want cheats and walkthroughs for their favorite games. Instead of getting stuck at a certain point in the game and making the same mistakes over and over, we turn to somebody who’s already done the grunt work and put helpful tips and detailed descriptions into a comprehensive walkthrough. But there’s a limit to how much we’re willing to go through to get to that information.

A badly written walkthrough is inaccurate at best and a total waste of time at worst. If you’re making any of these mistakes when writing a walkthrough for your favorite game, you’ll need to change things up of you want people to take them seriously.
 

Why Gamers Aren’t Reading Your Walkthrough
Unreadable Text Docs: I’m not dogging text documents. They’re plain, easy to read, and they’re a universal file-type. All I’m saying is put some formatting into your work; make it navigable. Put in headings, horizontal lines to break up sections and add some white-space to give some visual dimension to what’s written there. And Master Chief forbid you should put in a table of contents. If you write readable cheats and game walkthroughs, they’ll get downloaded more often, and people will think of you as an authoritative source. It’s that simple.

Vague Descriptions: If I wanted vague, unhelpful instructions, I’d trawl through forums for answers to my questions. Some of the walkthroughs I’ve seen read like some guy just wrote down level descriptions when he paused for a bathroom break. Grammar and spelling are important, because they can totally change the meaning of a sentence, sending somebody in the totally wrong direction. Do yourself a favor and re-read what you’ve written a day or two later. If it doesn’t make sense to you, the person who wrote it, how do you expect someone else to decipher it? Vague, unedited writing is a good way to lose authority with readers.

Lack of Detail: This is related to vagueness. Depending on the game, and what mode you’re playing it in, you’re going to need more details if you run into trouble. In these Need for Speed: The Run PC cheats, for example, you get details on track length, checkpoint locations and even the location of difficult turns you should watch out for. You also get information about shortcuts, gas station locations, roadblocks and police presence helps you navigate every level. That level of detail means that more people will find what they’re looking for in your guides.

No Strategy: Games aren’t only about solving puzzles or knowing the location of weapons and power-ups. When you’re reading a Halo: Reach walkthrough, sure you want to know where to find the sniper rifle is, but you also want some tips and tricks for how to develop a winning multiplayer strategy. Go beyond documenting levels and put your personal experience and game strategy into your guides.

No Contact Info: You’re neglecting an amazing resource for adding to your walkthroughs when you don’t leave yourself open for feedback. Put your email address in your guide. Add a URL to your website. Make it easy for people to send you corrections and new game cheats and tips. By making yourself accessible, you can develop a following to interact with and who will link to your walkthroughs online.