Those who say they get more clients from their blog than anywhere else... how are the blogs promoted? Mine is just part of my website. Should I also have one on blogspot or something? How does that work?
Mine is linked from my website too, plus I have a blogroll with links to other ladies and get some hits from the ones who link to me as well as using the tags function (so various things I've written about pop up in searches). As Ian's said, because the content is updated regularly it often comes up higher in Google than my site as new stuff moves it up the search rankings (don't ask me how because I haven't got a clue

).
It's worth pointing out that an ignored or not updated blog is far worse than not having one at all - putting a couple of entries up and then getting bored and not adding to them for a year or more looks bad, and whilst the punters who don't read them won't know or care, the ones who do will definitely notice. I do mine once a week if I can, or at least once a fortnight if I'm too busy (I draft bits on my phone inbetween too); it's worth having a non-date specific one in reserve if you can be that organised in case you get really stuck (I'm not

).
As for not having an opinion, I wouldn't have most of my regulars if I didn't both have and demonstrate a mind of my own, or not the ones I like best, anyway

. Whilst I agree about not ranting or being overly negative, that's more because it's incredibly boring and tiresome to read (irrespective of the topic or who's doing it), not because I care about putting people off. As Hadley says, the people who are put off by my blog/site/ads are largely put off because they're not people I'd get along with or want to see, and vice versa.