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Most SEOs don't call people to acquire links although I know someone who has good success by calling the decision maker and asking for a link. I think it requires good phone sales skills which is generally not a strength of most SEOs. If you are comfortable calling people I would recommend trying it and measuring the results against your other efforts.

I'm not sure if it was related to postcard delays or not, but Google Places had some outages up until recently. I'd recommend being patient with the postcards as well - you can re-request a PIN, but if you do so and the original card shows up it'll no longer be valid. sigh Phone isnt always an option either - if you're claiming a listing chances are you'll have to wait it out until the card arrives.

Oh, this could be a very long reply, however I will condense it to the following: If you're link building for an Australian domain for Australian market and you have 1000 link opportunities. You should certainly focus on the followings: Australian domains relevant to your niche Australian domains that otherwise qualify (eg main local directories) International domains relevant to your niche (The order of 2 and 3 is a bit of a struggle for me when deciding which one to attack first) Basically it's all about time management and if you have a limited number of hours to work on your domain (and that is always the case) you will need to find a way to prioritise. Also look at obvious opportunities such as joining your local chamber of commerce and relevant industry associations in Australia. Local directories wortth mentioning are here: HotFrog.com.au, TrueLocal, Aussieweb, Start Local More here: http://www.aussietycoon.com/showthread.php/1112-A-list-of-Free-Australian-Online-Directories.

Just wanted to leave a quick note saying that SEOmoz has upgraded the Link Directory! You can view a post Cyrus wrote with more information about the directory updates and link building via directories at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seo-link-directory-best-practices

You might benefit form a visualization program as well like Visio, Mindjet, or Mindmiester to figure out some of the more intricate details. Also JoelHit's suggestion of using Apple.com as an example is a good one. Even though their main sitemap is smaller than what you're describing there are some subtle takeaways when looking at it as an example (http://www.apple.com/sitemap/). All their top level categories are H2 tagged major categories of their site.      a. "Apple Info" emphasizes the brand      b. Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad all emphasize product sales      c. iTunes, Downloads, Support emphasize sales and an ongoing customer relationship. Precedence is given to the core aspects of their business via their sitemap.      a. As outlined above, this is elegant and functional. Also, you'll certainly want to back up the work you do with an HTML sitemap with XML sitemaps for large scale sites and as Richard suggested register them all with Google Webmaster.

Don't forget to monitor links you earn "naturally" and request better anchor text. That can do wonders.

Not to be overly obvious, but part of the answer to this question is that Google is using the metrics included in the XML feed (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=80472#4) Things like, video:title, video:description, video:tag, video:category, etc. In addition Google is combining those with the authority and content of your website.  Since your website is an authority on painting vs youtube (videos on anything and everything), there's likely an associated benefit to sending a user to website where they can find a collection of painting related material, not just videos.  That's a benefit to the user. The benefit to you is that you're receiving qualified web traffic that has an interest in painting and has a better chance of becoming a customer in the future.  You may receive the same benefit from a user going to youtube and then being interested in your services, but they will certainly be another step away from that, either figuring out how to contact you via youtube or leaving youtube, going to your site, and then contacting you. For visitors outside of your area you could offer a starter kit or educational material for the DIY crowd.  If they like your style of organization and view you as an authority on how to make painting projects a success they could conceivably become customers of that sort of material. Your link from your home page to your video uses the text, "Recycle Paint" which further contributes towards ranking for that term, and the text around your link lines up semantically: take away, old paint.  All the things Google would expect to see are present in your content and links. Basically, everything is organized and categorized very well on a website that is clearly an authority in regards to painting so it makes sense to be a beneficial ranking for both users and yourself. Well done!

I'm not sure I understand your question John, and the second URL is a 404. Could you expand your question a bit? Thanks!

Forgot to answer your beta question limit. No limit dude! Keep 'em coming. Yo'll know when it's too many when you run out of people to answer them

Try the following search in Google www [dot] CompetitorSite [dot] com "Article" OR "Author" -site:www [dot] CompetitorSite [dot] com this should show you what they are doing (with the [dot] chnged to .)

I live in Vancouver Canada and there is no shortage of businesses using Twitter here. We are a bit of a hotbed of SM use. There are plenty of businesses who don't get it and are really stinking the joint up with bull horn techniques. On the other hand there are some that are really killing it. Plenty of restaraunts, gellato shops, bars etc are all doing a great job by being part of the culture and dialogue that goes on. Sounds like you are intimate business that deals with your cutomers face to face. Treat social media with the same caring and general interest in your customers, neighbours and community that you do in your everyday face to face interactions. Make it about everyone else by making them better for having lent an ear to what you have to say. They can pick up a local flyer and see whats on special. But they can get so much more from you being human. Like others have suggested tie in helpful tips to utilze the products you provide, make them better users of your product by makng them 'smarter'. But also lend sometime to making your followers smarter about the happenings outside your shop that may be of interest. Or just putting out 'good vibes'. Set up a search to notify you of certain terms within a distance of your location and reach out to these people. Maybe someone is looking for a great tuna recipe or maybe someone caught a big fish while out on the water for the day. Reach out to these people, be human and lend a hand to give them a pat on the back. Make a connection. Go beyond selling fish. Then you'll sell more fish! More importantly you'll become closer to many great people who want to help you in return. And then you'll sell even more fish. But remember selling fish is a by product of being a great digital citizen.

Hi Jeff: The following is half at, half science, but try pulling two separate but contiguous phrasesfrom the site which don't include the company name (even if Google smacks a site,  the site will almost always still rank for it's own name/brand unless it's JC Penney :). If it doesn't come in at the top of the SERP's (top 10) then it's a good bet it's been smacked. How is it doing in Bing? PS - Richard's got some great suggestions.

the question on what scale it has to be done....

Thank you so much Neil! That helps!!

Update: The numbers are still solid. People are still filling out the quote form. After 3 months, the actual closing is around 5%-6%. It is profitable. Thanks for the compliments regarding my website.

Thanks for your response. As an SEO, I would have to agree with your approach but I don't think the decision to merge these different mediums on the online front will rest with the SEO, however, when asked for my two cents, i can give them the option that is most likely to bring maximum benefits. Cheers!

Wondering why you would recommend this solution vs. confining such redirects to the .htaccess file. Thanks.