There are several alternatives to blogging. But, blogging has benefits of its own as compared to other media available on the internet. Within this post, we will understand the benefits of blogging and reasons to start a blog of your own.

The reason for starting a new blog could be subjective. One may get influenced by a successful blogger around or someone who would like to take their business online or to promote their businesses to the next level. Nonetheless, there are only benefits of blogging that helps you to grow personally and professionally and develop several skills.

Until you start experiencing these blogging benefits like how it is essential to connect with the audience, knowing their preferences, what your competitors are doing, etc., you won't realize how powerful starting a blog could be. Writing a new post is always been an enthusiastic endeavor for me. As I begin writing a new blog post every time, I think about the opportunities it creates for me to grow, connect, engage, learn, and grow even more. 

I experienced blogging benefits with my first blog SMS Gallery itself and had a chance to learn many things associated with it. Thanks to all those fellow bloggers and the lovely audience who helped me reach there and taught me many things.

Alright! I have listed these blogging benefits for your understanding. So, without further ado, let's quickly have a look at 5 reasons to start a blog and the benefits of blogging:

1. Competitors link analysis
2. Guest blogging// guest post writing
3. Broken link building
4. Submitting your site to directories
5. Posting on forums
6. Adding a link in the comment
7. Posting links to the question-answer site
8. Adding links in press release articles
9. Submitting the link to RSS directories
10. Adding your links in local citation

Strategy #1: Competitor's link analysis

Let's assume that we have done all prework work that needs to be done on the website. i.e. added quality content, keywords, and optimization of all pages for search engines. Now, our next goal is to get backlinks from the right sources.

To identify the quality link sources for backlinks, you need to study the websites which are already successful in your niche. Competitor's link analysis lets you understand how they are connected to other sites on the internet and what methodology and platforms they are using for link building.

To identify your competitors, make Google search by using primary keywords of your blog and list 10 websites that appear in the search result. Check if these sites fall into your blog niche and complete the list of 10 websites in an Excel file.

There are a couple of free tools (OpenLinkProfiler, SEMRUSH, Open Site Explorer) with limited functionality which I assume are sufficient enough to perform competitor's link analysis at a small level. However, if you wish to use premium services that give full details without any limitations I'll recommend using SEMRUSH for the simplicity if offers to use the service.

By using link tracking tools mentioned above track the competitor's website for backlinks sources, high authority domain links, testimonials links, directory links,  guest post links, and dead links. Also, you will have to keep a tab on it by making this check-in every week or a month to track new backlinks acquired by your competitor.

An excel file with backlink data should also have details like domain authority rank, anchor text, top-ranking web pages from these domains which will help you plan a strategy for your backlinking exercise.

Finally, our aim of tracking the competitor site is to get high authority backlinks for our site. Therefore, approach site owners for any link opportunity you find through this tracking process, submit your site to directories, or fix broken links by offering your site link as a replacement.

Strategy #2: Guest blogging/Guest post writing

Guest blogging or guest post writing is nothing but writing a blog post on someone else's site and in return, you get a backlink to your site. Guest blogging could be a highly effective strategy for link building and getting traffic to your site. Despite that many of the bloggers doubt it's effectiveness and write content for the sole objective of getting a backlink.

Keep below-mentioned tips in mind when writing a guest post:

• Write a quality post that provides valued information and experience to the user than writing a low-quality post. A qualitative post will influence readers to visit back to your site for more such work.
• To get approval for a guest post from an established blogger, you should engage yourself with the author. Commenting on his blog posts, sharing his content frequently to grab his attention are some ways to grab the author's attention. 
• A guest post should be just like any normal post you write on your site. You may include high-authority links from external sources and maybe just 2-3 links of your own site rather than spamming it with too many links.
• If you are aiming to borrow traffic from the website for which you will be writing, then choose a website that writes a post every 2-3 days or every week. Highly popular sites that publish 2-3 posts or even more posts daily would make your guest post lost in the flow.

Strategy #3: Broken link building

Broken link building lets you create a backlink on another site by reporting a broken link to the site owner and offering him your link as a replacement for the broken link. Broken links cause harm to SEO efforts as well as user experience. Hence site owner may agree to your proposal if your post has relevant content.

We have already seen how to look for a competitor's link profile in the first strategy. In the same way, we can use backlinks finder tools to locate site URLs of these niche sites which gives a 404-page error (broken link error). Later, you can approach these site owners to replace the link with your own page link.

Strategy #4: Submitting your site to directories

Web directories are nothing but the sites that list various sites in their database under several categories. Getting backlinks from these directories is one of the effective ways to build your linking profile.

What are the benefits of submitting the site to web directories?

• Spam-free web directories could provide you quality backlinks which will help you rank better in SERP.
• Web directories not only help us in building backlinks but also in getting massive exposure to your site. Increased traffic could help you increase your revenue or sell your products faster.

In a notepad or excel whatever you prefer and write down the following things:

• Your site URL
• Site title
• Description text
• Important keywords
• Valid email to register
• RSS feed URL
• Social media links
• Site category

Now visit authoritative web directory sites and fill in these details to include your site in these directories. I made several searches to find free web directories that actually work in 2017. Many of them list either paid sites or have outdated site listing. I find this article useful from the rest of the sites that list High PR Directories.

Strategy #5: Posting on forums

Forums are user communities where users who seek the same interests, gather and share information, and solve one another's queries. Forums could help you get quality backlinks by providing a solution to those who are seeking the information. Add your site link in the feedback form while you share content on the forum with other users.

A simple way to get traffic and the backlinks from a forum is to search for the problem statement by using specific keywords. Before this, create your profile with basic details and your site link. Once it is done, click on the relevant thread that relates to your site page and provides a solution to the problem mentioned in a thread. Finally, mention your site link in the description.

• Be relevant to the topic of the thread and don't go off the track. Don't spam every thread with the same content but be creative in your communication.
• Engage in conversation with other members and build a friendly relationship with them. 
• Also while you help other members create a value-add through your solutions.

Strategy #6: Adding links through comments

Adding comments on others blog help you get quality backlinks to your blog. This is one of the easiest methods to get quality backlinks to your site, but there are certain checks you must do before you start commenting on other's blog aggressively.

• Generic comments like, "Nice post!" create no value and hence not much beneficial. Rather will get ignored more likely.
• Create a profile on a couple of blogging and social media platforms. Add an image to your profile to prove that you are an authentic user.
• Write descriptive comments that add value and relevance to the post content.
• If you use your business name or important keywords as a user name which could be more beneficial as it gets hyperlinked and hence better from the SEO perspective, but the site owner may not like your comment thinking it as spam comment. Though, if your comment is really contributing to the thread then your comment might get posted.

Benefits of commenting:

• Commenting on other's blogs increases the chances of getting your blog indexed by Google more quickly.
• Do-follow or no-follow comments, it still helps you get backlinks from high authority websites.
• A well written descriptive comment helps to influence the visitors of the site and may also create curiosity in his mind to follow your blog.
• Commenting provides a chance to connect with established bloggers and help you get recognition in the community.

Strategy #7: Posting links to the question-answer site

Question-answer sites are the common platform to get any question answered by the users. These sites have high page ranking and it is a good platform to get backlinks to your site.

Start looking for the questions on these sites which are related to your blog posts. Once you locate these questions you may answer them in writing a short descriptive solution and a link to your site.

This post I came across lists the top 15 question answer sites of the year 2017.

Best SEO practices:

Strategy #8: Press release articles

Companies use press release articles to make important announcements or product launches to syndicate news media. Later these media houses may cover stories on such press releases.

Though a trend became common for companies making press releases every in a while, these press releases help them get backlinks from the webmasters in good numbers. No sooner Google started to penalize these companies and even those sites that shared these links.

However, nowadays no-follow links still can help you get a good number of backlinks without upsetting Google.

• To use press release articles, your article needs to have something potentially good to be shared. 
• Press release articles should have important keywords only. A spammed article may get penalized by Google.
• Add no-follow backlinks in your article to ensure that it doesn't get penalized.
• Choose the right words for your anchor text for its effectiveness.
• Include only 2-3 links to your site in your article or it gets penalized.

Strategy #9: Submitting a link to RSS directories

Nowadays every leading blogging platforms provide you RSS service and some directories list your articles based on your RSS feed. Some of these directories provide high-quality do-follow backlinks which help in improving your Google ranking.

This article lists the top 20 RSS directories where you can submit your blog feed. Some of the blogs in my niche which are highly popular use these directories to improve their link profile. So these are worth noting.

Strategy #10: Adding citation on local platforms

A citation is nothing but online references to your business name, business address, and business phone number. A citation can be included on your website, local business directories, and apps. But, as we are looking at this from SEO and link building perspective, hence we will consider external options.

It is far easy to rank high in local business directories than the global platform. A citation is one of the factors Google takes into consideration for ranking your site in local search results. Having citations on several business directories ensures the trustworthiness of your site and ranking in Google SERP.

• Include the citation for your blog in local directories, social media platforms,  as well as industry-specific directories. 
• The local, geo, or industry-specific directories vary from business to business. Hence find out them and add your blog citations into these directories.
• Also, a citation strategy may not apply to all blog niches.

Furthermore, having an ordinary free version of a WordPress blog is not enough (web version) as it would not let you install any plugins on your blog. It requires a storage place where you can install the plugin which is not possible with the free version WordPress blog.

Making a blog post is not a complex task, but to write the perfect blog post is certainly an art! To make our blog post reach everybody's attention, it has to be shaped nicely just like an art piece.

Every small element of your blog post should come out in the exact shape and should construct an exceptional, outstanding art piece. In the article further, we will understand how we can write the perfect blog post.

To build a miraculous, masterpiece blog post, we are going to put the content at the core and build supporting pillars (elements which will help the core content stand-out) around, which will hold our blog post high.

It is said that content is king and it is assuredly true. Everything else could be secondary but unmistakably has equal importance. Hence let us have a look at all these aspects of writing a perfect blog post.

1. Gather information to write the perfect blog post

A perfect blog post should be full of information and inspiring, which will not make our readers feel dull. Hence, we have to put information that is really useful, trendy, and beneficial to readers. How will we achieve that? Well, there's a simplistic approach to do this.

Information or content is an integral part and core of this whole story. Therefore, gather all necessary information from different web-sources, YouTube videos, books, magazines, newsletters, forums, etc.

Study and understand the top 10 blog posts. Make notes on what successful bloggers are talking about. Understand the flow of the article and their way of writing. See if you can convey or put things differently and create a difference.

We are equipped with smartphones nowadays, practically all times. So, from now on make notes on the phone, whenever an inspiring idea strikes in your mind. ColorNote, Evernote, and FairNote are some free apps available on Google Play Store which can serve this purpose.

2. Unique content and a writing style to support the perfect blog post

There are thousands or even millions of blog posts that are published every day. Your target readers get plenty of options to choose from. Therefore, you have to make your content stand-out among the masses.

Write a blog post that has constructive content.

To make your blog post is interesting, below points could be considered:  

• Tell your readers a story, 
• Ask them questions,
• Make provoking statements to keep them engaged in conversation but don't go too far, 
• Give them statistics, 
• Add notes which you have prepared for the blog post, 
• Polish sentences for better impact, 
• Develop a writing style and organize your content neatly. 

All these points are utterly important to create super-quality content and eventually the perfect blog post.

Study the best selling unique facts on the topic you want to write about and put it in your blog post. Get inspired, but do not copy any content. Make your readers loyal fans of your blog through your writing style. If you follow all these tips, surely your blog post will be full of information as well as fresh.

3. Write a striking headline that readers can't go unnoticed

Normally in search engines result-page, if your blog post doesn't have a nailing title no matter what how great your inside content is, it won't get noticed and eventually won't rank high in search engines as well as on social media.

A great title can really go a long way to make your blog post popular. A title is like a cover page of a book. The first thing readers see and judge if to follow-through the blog post or not. A nicely written title would encourage readers to follow the entire blog post.


The post title should be concise, yet descriptive, and create curiosity among your readers to follow the blog post. A title should introduce the subject of your blog post to your readers. Hence, spend a little time crafting the perfect blog post title. Check this blog post for creative blog title ideas.

4. Write a captivating introduction that keeps readers engaged

An introduction is the second most important thing in the process of writing the perfect blog post after a post title.

Generally, readers go through the first few paragraphs and if it is not compelling, readers can stop going further through the post. In order to keep them hooked-up, you have to make the conversation interesting.

Again, how to bring that twist in the story to keep them engaged?

Well, there are a couple of ways. You can share an interesting story and relate it to our post topic. For example, a mighty prince goes on a quest to kill the dragon and saves the world. Another way of gaining the reader's attention is to share interesting facts and statistics. Like, how quickly you got first 10,000 visits to your blog post in just a week's time.

In the latter story, you will come down to actual business. Let your readers know the purpose of the post. Explain to them how you are going to touch entire blog posts in the coming sections. Add some value so that readers gain something out of it and they continue to read the story.

5. Organize content for a better experience

Now you have written a blog post full of quality content, but readers wouldn't read it if it is not presented in the right way. In my personal experience, I find it really boring to read long narrated paragraphs. It feels like, putting too much effort to read it.

• Paragraphs — It is our general tendency that if you see a long written paragraph or a huge block of text, you will most likely avoid it. A better practice is to write in small paragraphs, usually up to 3-4 lines in each. Breathing space in between the paragraph text makes the content look neater and organized.
• Headings and subheadings — Introducing headings and subheads helps organize content in an even better way. It gives readers a quick overview of significant information. It also enables the flow of the post. We can think of coloring them as well. Though keep color formatting the same throughout the post. Use only 2-3 colors in your post if you plan to do so.
• Bullet-list or numbered-list — Use bullet-list or numbered-list wherever possible in your post. They grab the reader's attention if used mindfully. Also, I would share an interesting fact about bullets here. When you feel like you are about to lose your reader, add a few bullet points to make him stay through the blog post. That will win over the situation for sure. 
• Bold, Italics, and colored words — To bring readers attention to important words and sentences, the text can be made bold or/and colored. Italics could be useful when you want emphasis a little less than that of the bold words, but a little more than the surrounding text. Again, a warning message, overdoing it will lose its effectiveness.

6. The perfect blog post is incomplete without pictures

An image is worth a thousand words. Images/pictures, icons, media, infographics, etc. really add life to a dull post. It is a step closer to writing a perfect blog post.

A post with the images gets more shares on the social media platform. Hence find relevant images or icons which are free for use, stunning, high-quality images, and add them to your post. Here is the list of top 10 free image sources for commercial use.

Ideally, 1-5 images are enough for a post. Generally, I prefer to add an image at the start of the post which is relevant to the blog title and the topic of the post. You can add images in-between as per the rest of the content.

7. Write a punchy conclusion

The perfect blog post is incomplete without a punchy conclusion. Ending your conversation with readers abruptly looks amateur work to me. I have done that and believe me it is not a correct way of wrapping up.

After sharing all that valuable information with the readers, ending it is just not done. Therefore, writing a few more lines to convey key-message of your post has no harm, right?

But what to mention in the conclusion section?

Well, we summarize the overall content and main points we touched in the post, what new we learned, and what should be our next action. You probably can ask questions to your readers, but don't start a new conversation entirely. Remember, we are about to wrap-up and hence keep it short.

A call to action is also necessary for a perfect blog post. As it keeps your readers engaged with your blog even if they have finished reading the post. You may ask them for an opinion about the post, to share on social media or what content they would like to see in the next post.

8. Proofread before you publish

9. Customize permalink and write search description