I am still not clear on the best practices for opening a Blog. I have 2 clients. #1 is an eCommerce website selling lots of products and #2 is a very small beverage brewer (looking to create awareness of his brands).

#1

www.mycompany.com/Blog  :  Is this best?

#2   Very basic vista print website. www.blogger.com/DeanesBeer ??  Do you recommend this?

I want to advise these clients with the best possible solution to starting a blog with there current budgets and having a plan to expand.

I'd like to know if Google has a preference to certain blog sites over others. Wouldn't the blog provider have to also have some SEO in place in order for a blog to be found?

thanks!

I come to you, my fellow IMU friends in hopes that you can help me solve this huge issue I am having, and it seems others are having, with Technorati.  

I have a blog that I have been trying to get Technorati to claim for sometime now.  You may remember the blog about "Which Blog Software to Use" that I wrote.  I was about to abandon the blog I currently use that is part of the CMS that we use until I realized that it wasn't just my software, as I originally thought, but others were having similar issues.