I had a (sadly short lived) relationship which went from semi long distance to very long to back again, started dating and had to go spend a good month overseas and got a good taste of some things. When I got back we stayed about an hour and half away from each other. Broke up with her a month later because, yeugh, it just wasn't good. But anyway, best advice I have on the subject is:
For starters, a huge thing I noticed that came into play is trust and confidence, both in yourself and your partner, I spent a few sleepless nights just thinking about how I'll get a message from her breaking things up or if there might be someone else closer there she's having on the side or so. What I learned is that a LDR is definitely much better if you know the person for a long time already and feel close enough to not have those disapproving and conflicting feelings, also believing that you are worth the pains of such a relationship and so is the partner helps tons.
Another biggie for me was the big difference there is between how a person interacts through messaging and such, and face to face contact, to the point that it will feel like you're talking to two different people. Just something to keep in mind essentially before you dive in a relationship with someone you have never met in person, be sure to skype video chat a few times before going any further is my best advice
If you can, make time to meet each other whenever you can, long distance gets painfully lonely, especially when you walk around a mall and see couples being all lovey dovey and it sits there heavy in your heart that your love is somewhere far far away. If you guys can't meet up regularly enough (try every weekend if possible, every second weekend at worst imo) then its going to be hard, unbearably so. Also, be sure to have lots of free time, those long rides back and forth add up.
And yeah, communicate when you can and I found doing it daily really helped, but different strokes for different folks, some like to talk daily, some may appreciate a conversation every second day or so. All in all, you know the person best and you know what to do best, but when in doubt, message when you feel like it and hang back a bit if you feel the responses aren't good.