"Empty" vs. "Blank" site collections

Many people believe a "Blank" Site collection equals an "Empty" site collection. This is very untrue. A "Blank" Site Template is just that a Template, one that allows a little more freedom than the rest but still a template none the less.

For Content Deployment your best bet is to use an "Empty" site which can only be accomplished by using the stsadm command as shown below. Using an Empty site collection limits any issues of site formatting caused by using any template.

Syntax
STSADM.EXE -o createsite -url -ownerlogin domain\user -owneremail