BAD IDEA and Guardian Unlimited blog doyenne Jean Hannah Edelstein offers some practical advice…

Blogging is arguably the most freeform way to publish writing. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a few cardinal guidelines (I’d rather not call them hard and fast rules) to keep in mind.

– Think about it
With publishing at your fingertips, it’s all too easy to get worked up about something and fling your thoughts into cyberspace before you’ve had the chance to calm down/sober up. While great blogging benefits from spontaneity and, at times, a certain degree of extremity, bad blogging happens when people just go into inane rants without actually considering what they’re writing about. Who’s going to read this? What do you want them to think? What kind of responses are you looking for?

– Contextualise it
You’ve got to have hyperlinks. If you don’t, then you might as well be publishing on paper. How fussy. So find at least one other page on the Web to link to that will enhance the reader’s experience of reading and thinking about your blog post.

– Make it snappy
The web is not for long-form writing. That’s what print publications are for. Online readers have short attention spans. If you are going over 500 or 600 words, then you’re probably not writing a blog post but a piece that should be published in another format, whether online or in print.

– Edit it
Just because you are writing online doesn’t mean that you can be sloppy. Your readers will think you are a moron – and respond accordingly – if your writing is riddled with lame mechanical errors. I don’t care how good your ideas are: they mean nothing if you don’t proofread them.

– Make it interesting
There’s nothing wrong with blogging about the schmutz on the bottom of your shoe or the hilarious cab driver who drove you home last night – provided you make it interesting. But if you don’t, then you can be certain that your readers will desert you. We’re not all, alas, Charlie Brooker, so if you need to write about something other than minutiae, don’t feel bad – better just to focus on the goal of eliciting an enthusiastic, engaged response from the audience.

– Then interact with it
Respond to the comments on your blog. Lots of bloggers don’t like to do it, because they think they are too fancy or they don’t want to engage with the nutcases who are typing at them in a shouty way. But the whole point of blogging – and a great benefit of it, if you are a writer – is the opportunity to get feedback and engage with your readers, unlike print formats where you’re lucky if you get any response at all. There’s no need to acknowledge harassment, but there’s no harm at coming back to a critic with a sparkly riposte: even your detractors will start to respect you, and your hits will climb.

You can check out some of Jean’s Guardian blogs at www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jeanhannahedelstein.