Blogs - Aspkin?

[aaa1]

So I'm working on getting my pr up with my websites and am in the process of getting started on blogs to increase backlinks. I've read lots of conflicting things on blogs and am hoping to get some clarity.

1. I get conflicting info between hosting your own blog on another site vs something like blogspot.com If you host your own, then you have to increase the pr of your own blog, which seems like a lot of work. Then I've read that hosted free blogs are getting nailed by google in terms of PR.

2. If you go with a hosted blog, which ones can anyone recommend that do not have a "nofollow" command?

3. Would it be bad to host your identical blog in various places to get more backlinks from varying sites?

I have 3 websites that are COMPLETELY different so I'm not sure how to go about this all. Have a blog for all 3? (one designer items, one home decor, and one art).

Any help would be great. Thank you!

[aspkin]

You should always host your own blog. You have freedom to do more with it, and you actually own it at the end of the day. Also don't worry about pagerank; all that matters is if you have good incoming links and good content.

If you're trying to increase your traffic to your sites, it's best to setup your blog on the sites you're trying get traffic to. I did differently for a reason.