Does have the right keywords in anchor text within your site help the ranking of your pages? or is it just backlinks that are coming from outside with the right a text that help you the most? Also any tips for getting the right <a> text from people who are linking to your site?
The anchor text of the site's internal links is considered to be a ranking determinant, thus the advice to avoid linking to your home page with the anchor text 'home'. However, IBLs are much more powerful when it comes to determining the site's rankings. You can specify anchor text if you are requesting or exchanging links, but if the IBLs are spontaneous, you don't have much control over things.
Yeh you can control what patrick last said with your choice of domain-name-ofcourse. Using keywords in the link text on site will help pass relevancy to that page for your particular keyword