A hitchhiker's guide to good blogging

I started to blog in 2004 while I was a graduate student at Syracuse University. In the decade that has followed, my blog has fetched more than 20 million page hits. The exposure has also brought invitations to write columns for various newspapers and magazines, including China Daily and Southern Metropolis Daily, as well as the Chinese versions of The New York Times, Financial Times and Holland Online. I have published three collections of essays based largely on blog posts, too.

Vanity aside, I am saying this to take the stigma off blogging, which used to be perceived as verbal doodles produced in basements by people who do not have a job or life. Blogging is an effective way to engage with a cross section of people in an informal way.

When you start to blog, do not be burdened by the small stuff, "techniques" such as the proper length, the frequency of publishing or the time to release articles. With the multitude of blogging vendors out there, there is no point detailing the mechanics of a particular one. But writing habits matter a lot, for which I have a few suggestions.