Freelancer Blogs - Whats the point?

Blogs are a fantastic way to network with other people, air some opinions and personal thoughts/beliefs but surprisingly enough freelancers for all markets are using blog platforms as their portfolio presence online.

Gone are the days of a formal xhtml/css website or the fanciest in flash development for use as a portal to previous projects, blogs are in and they wont stop growing.

however...

What's the point? What are you gaining from mixing a blog, with a portfolio? Do you not feel restricted to the framework of the blog, not by design but by functionality? How do you feel it balances out against the predecessor which was well coded web pages, case studies, archives of projects and links to live work?

Of course, people do get creative and fancy with blogs and blogging. Is there any need? Do you feel there are any benefits (long term) from keeping your blog separate to your portfolio, and just linking between them from time to time?

Your thoughts please

I believe it makes sense to separate portfolio web site and your blog. The blog could contain case studies of challenges and highlights of work done for each client. A simple link to the blog from the main portfolio site is the way to go in my opinion.

It can be used for case studies and such, but then it's really considered a blog. It's merely a site powered by blogging software. I think they come in handy some times, but there are many times I feel like blogging about stuff I don't really want my clients to know. Like politics, religion, money, etc. That's why I don't have one on my site, but I do blog.