Oneita Jackson / The Detroit Free Press

If you are thinking about writing a blog, here are tips to get you started.

1. INTERACT: “You get a response,” Detroit Free Press Editor Paul Anger said Wednesday when I asked him why he loves “O Street.” “It’s interesting, it’s provocative … O Street gets at something that’s really hard for a newspaper to do. Conversation.

“If there’s no conversation, then it really isn’t a blog,” Bill Adee of the Chicago Tribune told me Tuesday.

2. ME ME ME MEEEEEEEEEE: Let the reader hear you — the actual you, not some contrived cyber-you. People who know you should be able to  picture your written words coming out of your mouth. People who don’t should believe you’re real.

What’s distinctive about how you think? Let your uniqueness be reflected in your writing.

Write with confidence and clarity, wit and style. And learn how to craft a very good sentence.

3. DON’T EXPLODE: If someone told you you were full of yourself, that you wrote mindless drivel, that you were condescending, that you are ignorant of that your boss should fire you for what you write, how would you react? All of these things and worse have been said to me on the O Street blog. I’d like to say, “Say that to my face.” but that wouldn’t be appropriate according to my home-training.

Respect your readers and let your responses reflect your dignity.

4. EDIT: “Blogs with active editors. Guidance is important and all blogs need editing and benefit from the back-and-forth between the author and an editor.” That’s from a Washington Post memo that addresses what makes a blog successful.

Before it goes up, the O Street blog is edited by any of four copy editors: me, two colleagues and the O Street editor. He is a wise man who asks questions that prevent me from embarrassing myself (my family and friends and him and The Free Press) and that a judicious reader would ask. He raises issues that I might not have considered. He points out when things can be more clear or whether I have too much detail. He saves me.

5. KEEP ‘EM HOOKED: What’s she going to say next?” That’s what you want them thinking. Keep ‘em fending for your blog. Post frequently. They can be short posts, like postcards, my colleague Susan Ager says. Or they can have more depth. If you have updates, post them.