Q: What are some of the challenges you've faced in keeping Table for Five going?
A: I haven't really had any problems keeping the blog going. I've been lucky that my family was supportive of my blogging right from the beginning. I've had to take a few short breaks from updating, to focus on family needs, but I haven't had technical problems or problems with readers at all.

Q: What blogs do you read?
A: I don't have a set daily list, although I used to start at the top of my RSS reader and work my way all the way down, every day. What I do now is, when someone leaves me a comment, I click through to see what they are posting about. The two blogs I read the most are Amalah.com, and Dooce.com, both popular mommy blogs, and rightfully so. Occasionally I pick a blog from my reader that I haven't visited in a while and catch up on their last few posts.

Q: What would you say to a new blogger?
A: Commit yourself to a regular posting schedule, and stick to it. It doesn't have to be every day, but it gets you in the habit of writing, and your readers will know when to expect a new post.

Second piece of advice: Visit other bloggers who write about the same topics as you, read their posts, and leave comments that contribute to the discussion. To really attract attention to your blog quickly, submit a post to a Blog Carnival or join a group like Thursday Thirteen. It's great to have readers, and commenters, but it's also great to be part of a community.

Third piece of advice: Use the spell-check on your posts. If English isn't your first language, check your grammar carefully. And for heaven's sakes, please do not write your blog posts as if they were a text message. No one wants to read all-caps, words like "ur", no punctuation, run-on posts. Take the writing seriously.

Fourth piece of advice: If you see something on another blog that you wish you could do with yours, leave a polite comment or send an email and ask the person if they would please tell you how they did whatever that thing is. I learned almost everything I know about blogging from asking other bloggers for help.

Fifth piece of advice: You CANNOT PLEASE EVERYONE. You will eventually get a comment that is snarky, or even mean. You might get nasty emails. Just keep your focus, and remember, it's YOUR blog, in YOUR space, with YOUR words. Unless someone else is paying you, the choice of what to put on your blog is yours.

Q: What would you say to someone new to BlogHer?
A: If you write a blog, and you are interested in meeting other women (and some men) who also blog, you might be interested in both reading the BlogHer web site and joining the BlogHer community, and you might also be interested in coming to an annual BlogHer conference. At a conference, you will be treated to two days of sessions and workshops devoted to all of the many aspects of blogging and of having a presence online. You will be dined, and wined, and given pounds of free goodies from sponsors. Companies will send representatives to the conferences just to meet bloggers like you! It's a great way to meet other bloggers, do some valuable networking, plus you get to take a little vacation at the same time. And it's not just for women, despite being called BlogHER, it is open to men too, if they are interested in working with women bloggers.

Q: What's the deal with bloggers who earn money with their blogs?
A: I could write you paragraphs about monetization. I have lost sleep over this topic since getting back from BlogHer, so this is what I want to say—

1. Marketing companies, public relations companies, and advertising agencies need to understand this: A well-written, high-traffic blog with a good reputation can be a very valuable way to get the word out about your product. Use a blog advertising company like BlogAds, BlogHer Ad Network, Parent Bloggers Network, or PayPerPost Direct, and you will find the perfect site on which to place your campaign. You need to understand that there are bloggers out there who see their blogs as their business. They work very hard on them, spend long hours on content, design, and networking, and placing a campaign on a blog can reach thousands of people a week.

2. The biggest problem that many bloggers have with monetization is that companies do not pay bloggers a "fair wage". What we are doing for you is essentially freelance writing, so pay us what you would pay for a freelance writing job. If it's a product review, send us the product but also a stipend for the time we spend writing.

3. When thinking about which blogs to approach with your campaign, look for blogs written by people of color. I was SHOCKED during a session at BlogHer to find out that African-American, Latino, and Asian-American bloggers NEVER get sent emails about product reviews. Why not? They use the same products as everyone else!

4. And for bloggers reading this, I want to say this— choose your ads carefully. Before accepting a text, image, or flash badge ad, make sure it is for a product that is a good fit for your blog, and is something that you yourself would use. A few well-chosen ads will be more valuable to you than a bunch of different ones that don't make sense on your site.

My last words of advice for bloggers? Be grateful. Appreciate your readers, appreciate the comments they leave, appreciate your advertisers. Say Thank You, a lot, and mean it. Kind words go a long way.