Welcome to the Q&A Forum

I wouldn't get to concerned about having an a file extension in your URL. If you can remove/hide it, by all means go for it because it couldn't hurt + it looks a little nicer.  With that said though, I wouldn't go out of my way to hire a developer to do that, it's not going to make a major impact on your ranking ability.

I wouldn't go out of my way to build a bunch of profile backlinks, but I would definitely get profiles made up on sites that make sense to use for your industry.

On a side note though, services like KnowEm can be useful for reputation management. Even if those profiles don't rank or pass any value along to your actual site, you can (and should) prevent someone from using your brand name.

I would probably go with the PDF, possibly with a thumbnail JPG image of it instead of a text link to the PDF. That's just me personally.

Most RSS feeds exist because a site has some type of content generating script/software tied to it (IE a blog.) If your site doesn't have something like that already, you can create an RSS feed using a site like this: http://page2rss.com/

If you are unsure if your site has a feed, in Chrome, you can use this extension to find out - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pnjaodmkngahhkoihejjehlcdlnohgmp

Any link that points to another page could be considered a "backlink" - these doesn't mean every link will show up in "back link reports" from various places.  Every data set is different.

For example: In Google Webmaster Tools, it shows me a handful of links for my site. Bing Webmaster Tools happens to show the same links, plus some that Google didn't. The same can be said about all link tools (Open Site Explorer, Majestic, Ahref's, etc)

You can acquire links through an uncountable number of ways. The type you are currently chasing though may not be the best route for long term strategy or success.  I'd suggest checking out link building related posts here on SEOMoz and then elsewhere.

If you just want to jump into action without really getting a better idea, this site has an awesome list of link building ideas. However, keep in mind there is a certain skill level involved with how you go about building links, something you can't fake easily.

This is personalization. Nothing completely new, it's just getting more sophisticated. Your SERPs will vary based on if you are logged into a Google account, your browser history, your IP address's location, etc.

Enter private browsing mode (Firefox) or Incognito mode (Chrome) for a better chance of getting less personalized results.  You can also "verify" your rankings by using multiple rank checkers.

Chances are you won't get the exact same answer across them, but you'll get a much better idea than manually checking it with all the "personalization variables"

As John Pring put it, OSE doesn't update instantly or "often" - you might want to try out Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools.

Bing's inbound link tool is remarkable. It's showing links to my site that I've never seen before (and I've tried OSE, Google's, and a few other "back link reporting" tools)

I'm most familiar with myblogguest.com but I wouldn't discredit any of those sites. Take some time to look around all the sites to see if you can find people looking for content that is somehow related to your niche.

I typically take a look at whatever site I have plans to guest blog onto, and see what their topics are like. Then I'll look for any "information gaps" on their site that would fill a need (for them), as well as be a relevant topic to the site you're going to be linking to.

This way you're getting a nice relevant link, but more importantly, you're producing something that the blog actually needs and will** benefit** from.  That might get the guest post more exposure as well as strengthen your relationship with the owner of the blog.

If you are on an Apache server and have FTP access, you can setup 301 redirects using .htaccess

The proper format for this is as followed:

redirect 301 /oldurl.html http://domain.com/the-full-url

As Ben Fox stated, you can use the report to find the linking errors.

I'd also run a scan of your site using Xenu Link Sleuth (it's 100% free) if you're a PC user. Some people prefer Screaming Frog (both work well, Screaming Frog has a free and paid version to my knowledge)

I use Xenu personally, been using it for years with much success. You'd be surprised what kind of stuff it digs up.

Guest blogging. It's nothing new, it's nothing that requires a lot of talent, but my god! It does the trick for most clients I manage. Helps me acquires custom anchor text dofollow links from themed sites and the long term relationship with these blog owners are worth their "weight" in gold!  You get a great link, you get some referral traffic, and you expand your network. Triple win!

I would consider other routes than using article directories for a long term strategy. I'd suggest placing one quality article on each site (totally unique, not spun.) Then try to build relationships with bloggers in your niche and try out guest blogging. You'll get the benefit of the link, the anchor text, and also a dedicated audience base somehow related to your niche.  In short, the benefits are much greater.

If you must go the article route, definitely get links from a variety of sites. Make sure they aren't all ran by the same people. There's a lot of article "networks" which are typically easy to spot. It's beneficial to check the WHOIS data for the domains and the IP address/name servers being used by the domains to make sure you aren't willingly placing your articles on a "link network."

I've been a member for awhile, a PRO member for almost a year.  I haven't experienced any problems like that, and I have come across issues in the past. I typically email or tweet at them and get a solid response within 24 hours tops.

What specifically are you having problems with?

I'm most familiar with myblogguest.com but I wouldn't discredit any of those sites. Take some time to look around all the sites to see if you can find people looking for content that is somehow related to your niche.

I typically take a look at whatever site I have plans to guest blog onto, and see what their topics are like. Then I'll look for any "information gaps" on their site that would fill a need (for them), as well as be a relevant topic to the site you're going to be linking to.

This way you're getting a nice relevant link, but more importantly, you're producing something that the blog actually needs and will** benefit** from.  That might get the guest post more exposure as well as strengthen your relationship with the owner of the blog.

I wouldn't go out of my way to build a bunch of profile backlinks, but I would definitely get profiles made up on sites that make sense to use for your industry.

On a side note though, services like KnowEm can be useful for reputation management. Even if those profiles don't rank or pass any value along to your actual site, you can (and should) prevent someone from using your brand name.

Any link that points to another page could be considered a "backlink" - these doesn't mean every link will show up in "back link reports" from various places.  Every data set is different.

For example: In Google Webmaster Tools, it shows me a handful of links for my site. Bing Webmaster Tools happens to show the same links, plus some that Google didn't. The same can be said about all link tools (Open Site Explorer, Majestic, Ahref's, etc)

You can acquire links through an uncountable number of ways. The type you are currently chasing though may not be the best route for long term strategy or success.  I'd suggest checking out link building related posts here on SEOMoz and then elsewhere.

If you just want to jump into action without really getting a better idea, this site has an awesome list of link building ideas. However, keep in mind there is a certain skill level involved with how you go about building links, something you can't fake easily.

Nope, either should be fine. The biggest thing to remember is if you change any URL structure, setup 301 redirects to go from the page's old URL to the new URL.

Your friend is right. If there are 10 links on a page, and 9 are marked nofollow, that 1 followed link is getting less juice than a page that has only 1 link on it.  The division happens regardless to whether it is nofollow or followed.  I believe I remember reading this on SearchEngineLand, or it may have actually been a Matt Cutts video.  If I can find a reference to cite, I'll edit my post/add another comment.

There is no real right answer for the specific situation.  Whenever I'm linking to content, especially my own (or clients), I try to include the main focus keyword in the anchor text but also include other words that make sense.

For Example:

If you are targeting the keyword "landscapers upstate NY" it might look weird if you link to the article using that same anchor text, it doesn't really make sense. In this scenario, you'd be better off linking to that content with something like "Landscape companies located in upstate NY"

I know the example is pretty rough but I think it displays the idea pretty well.  The end result might be less anchor text love, but it'll make more sense from a user perspective and search engines can look at that and still get a good feel for what that page is really about based on the anchor text you used along with the content found on the particular page.

If you are on an Apache server and have FTP access, you can setup 301 redirects using .htaccess

The proper format for this is as followed:

redirect 301 /oldurl.html http://domain.com/the-full-url