I was wondering if it's better to link your blog straightly at www.name.com, http://blog.name.com or name.com/blog ?

I think that's entirely up to you. For my personal site, I intend to have a portfolio section aside from the blog, so my blog is at domain.com/blog/ . But on some sites where the blog is the only content, I'll have it directly under the root level (domain.com)

In my opinion, it's better to use domain.com as your blog's URL if you are only running a blog instead of having a pointless index page which only have a link to your blog. Also, it might score better in SEO too.

But if it's only between domain.com/blog or blog.domain.com, I would go for blog.domain.com - looks nicer without the slash.

How about if the format is as in the subject line above?

Is this SEO friendly?

My site is not based around my blog, but it is a large part of it. Should I change the directory structure?

you can use your domain as a blog if you're good at writing and have much time to spare writing. i use my domain to my other sub domain n sections. look at my front page and where i point it to my blog and promotions

xxx.xxx.xxx/blog mean you're making a blog folder

making blog.xxx.com is better. look more pro.

If you are planning to run adsense, remove all references to the words "blog", "weblog", etc from your page, posts and URLs. One of the biggest problems new bloggers running adsense have is that adsense only displays ads about blogging (which convert poorly in most cases and pay pennies). This is because if Adsense reads "blog" in your url, H-tags, links, sidebars, etc... well you know, it's contextual!

It will depend:

If your main revenue stream is from your blog, you'd better choose: www.YourBlogname.com

If you are going to have a website and you want to drive traffic with your blog(s): choose the other option.

As I see it its most common to use domain.com .

But lets say that you are a company that runes a business of some kind, and you want a blog to get more "personal" and "open" to their visitors/customers your site, its quite common using blog.domain.com ...

My name domain is my blog, so its name.com.