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Thanks Joe. I thought he was talking about corporations asking if they can provide a guest post with specific anchor text links, but I'll have to go back and listen again. I agree that links should be relevant to the topic of the article. In a way I think guest post links are very similar to paid links in that you are exchanging a link for something of value (writing services) so it seems like a loophole to the rule of no paid links.

xenu does to job

Definitely! You get the obvious HUGE SEO benefit mentioned previously - AND you are also improving the visitor experience - as they get all of the additional benefits that text gives you i.e the transcription can be read on low bandwidth connections, devices with no video support, downloaded to be read later, printed for reference, translated into other languages. Be sure to give consideration to accessibility to disabled users too! A text transcription allows hearing impaired users to access your content - be mindful of the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act - Comliance with the dda is a legal requirement in the UK, From http://www.disability.gov.uk/dda/smefinal.html What happens if I fail to make reasonable adjustments? You might be breaking the law. A disabled person can make a claim against a provider whose services are impossible or unreasonably difficult for him or her to access.)Additionally you can add links to other relevant pages within your site using the anchor text generated... If your video content is longer than 15 minutes because it is genuinely good content then it is worth transcribing all of it. Don't forget you can omit any parts of the transcription that may not be that engaging.

I would agree with Alan on this one - user experience and relevance are paramount. I get approached by guest bloggers regularly that are outside my niche and have to turn them down, and would also be expect to be turned down if I did the same. In a simplistic form, imagine going to a local bicycle shop that only sells bicycles, to find they had started to sell deep sea diving helmets - a cyclist would be confused, and a deep sea diver would be highly unlikely to even consider coming into the shop anyway. Regular customers would likely think the reason for the new products would simply be down to some kind of deal, rather than expanding on a related/natural niche.

Very good thread...I see what you're saying about time being used to do other "high priority activities"  vs. controlling link juice, but I've found controlling link juice to be a high priority issue its self. To me, that's kind of like, "Why worry about how many MPG your car gets when you can figure out how to buy more gas". Again, this is just in my experience, but I have seen remarkable ranking increases through conscious use of link equity. Whether it be with the use of NoFollow (which I know Google has said doesn't work but I believe otherwise), restructuring site architecture, or using Robots.txt, it seems like making the most use of the "juice" (or fuel), would be a worthwhile task. I'm also still torn about "Top 50" pages that don't generate a a substantial number of links. And to explain why, I'll pose a hypothetical. Is link juice zero-sum?

Should I create new pages to cover related topics or improve an existing page? My first consideration would be specificity of your topic. How many key words or phrases are you trying to focus? How much content do you have to offer? Let's use cough syrup as an example (as I reach for my bottle). If your company name is Nature's Relief and you offer Nature's Cough Syrup as your product then one well presented page would probably be best. If you are Robitussin and have 5 different cough syrups and brand yourself on "a different syrup for different coughs" then I would definitely recommend a separate page for each product. The first page might target keywords such as "hacking cough" which the next page might work along the lines of cough and nasal decongestant. A final thought. If you provide Nature's Cough Syrup and are trying to compete with a competitor like Robitussin, then I would try to be creative and offer separate pages focusing on my competitor's key words. You can offer testimonials or examples where your product relieved a hacking cough, targeting the same key word. In summary, step back and determine what your goals are for the page. First and foremost, how can you present the page to provide the best user experience. The next thought should be why are you making a change?

I know that Google rarely updates toolbar PR You understand this.  It is an important consideration. I suppose the site could have also earned a lot of quality links since the last update. If you thought that one email message would get you a PR0 link on loc.gov you would not want to pass it up - even if that page had zero outside links?

Thanks for your thoughts, Alan.  Much appreciated. I agree that "quality" is the key.

Short answer, No. The best detailed answer is offered by Matt Cutts in this 2 minute video from Google: http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleWebmasterHelp#p/u/25/l6g5hoBYlf0 Just be conscious of all your links. Use the SEOmoz toolbar's Analyze button and check the Page Attributes. You may be surprised at how many links your page actually offers.

Traditional online directories are losing its value in the eyes of search engines and a good example is DMOZ. Even though DMOZ was one of the most popular directory before 2009 (it still has some value) it is not the best link source. Local search prominence has allowed local directories to become stronger than a regular web link directory. The question a user should ask before investing in directory link building is are users going to appreciate the availability of this directory? Is this going to provide benefits to the end user? Is this a vertical directory within high authority website or is this just a collection of links? Is the directory locally targeted (think yellowpages.com , cityguide.com) (applies to local ranking) If the answer to these questions is no then clearly this is not a good source for getting links.

Link directories adds almost no value today. It is our experience. Years ago they were a great ressource.

You may be better off sending that link juice to your own pages rather then to the blogs, seeing that they may not link back to you with a do-follow link. what would make someone link to your page, the fact that you have a link to them? or that you speak highly of them. why not just do article on the blogs with no links, if you speak highly of them they will more then likly link to you. PS this would create 1 way links rather than 2 way

Phil from Distilled weighed in on this question today in a different thread at www.seomoz.org/q/best-way-to-host-video; his answer might help you as well.

For some more current information, you can check out Google's official page here http://www.google.com/support/news_pub/?hl=en. Have you been able to get in Google News since you posted this, or are you still trying?

I'll build on what Mike said in that comment links are less valuable than they used to be due to the proliferation of this as a spam tactic.  And I expect they'll become even less valued as time marches on.  For the most part the value is weak at best nowadays, and requires a lot more time and effort to get right given the attention this type of link has garnered from Google due to the spam issue.