Thanks for your replies. This thread is now read-only due to continued link abuse.

People are sharing some great advice here.   What I would suggest is that you build many links but keep them on topic within your sites niche and natural otherwise it will create the reserve effect.

This is an excellent question that you posted and something that has taken me a number of years to really understand the SEO game. There is so much garbage online these days and everyone has there own so called advice.   Here are several key points to remember about SEO and ranking your site on page 1 of the search engines.   1. Keyword research 2. Pick a domain name around your keyword if possible. 3. Can you monetize your market? In other words, are people buying products and or services? 4. Are you taking advice from someone that has never ranked on page 1? Theory is great, but can they walk the talk? 5. Getting Backlinks - the most important aspect of anything you do online to rank your site. If you are going to rank your site in a competitive term, you will need back links and plenty of them. Invest time searching out those different terms above. 6. If you type in SEO, you will find plenty of good sites on page 1 and they have excellent information and alot of it is free. You don't need to pay someone a bunch of money. 7. I would suggest you check out SEO forums. Sorry, I can't recommend a specific one on this forum as they don't seem to want us doing that. But do your own searching and you will find some good sites. Remember, ask lots of questions and people will help you.

Google will be your best friend on this one. Stay away from black hat and link farms! Also stay away from comment spam.    Remember content is king! So keep is fresh and keep it orignal!

As a professional SEO analyst I definitely suggest seomoz.org   In my opinion it is one of the most credible websites for seo resources.   They provide great analysis, tips and resources for beginners as well for experts. Check it out and you won't lose.   Owner of e-airtickets.gr

if you want a credible place to learn SEO i recommend you check out aaron wall's seobook. just search it on google. he has a free course and free tools that i also use to increase rankings in search engines.   if you want other sources, my advice is to look for a course that has a lot of rave reviews and is made by a reputable internet marketer. it's hard to find honest reviews these days and my advice is to look or ask a review on a forum rather than searching for a review on the net (as it will probably be biased).   hope this helps mate

SEO is very deep and very big, lot of source available on internet to gain knowledge but i know you are confused from where to start. Let me tell you--Don't waste time in reading blogs or article, better take part in good seo forum and whatever you read implement it ( do pratical) , that is the best way to learn seo. Like it takes long time to get good position same way it will take time to learn seo.

there are already plenty of resourses mentioned in the thread, most of them will give u a good insight over what SEO is,... offline/ online, and the various 'hats' :D   newletters also do work, entireweb and sitepro news gives good SEO related article and news on the web.   i guess the most important thing again being experience ... just like any other business, ... what experience teaches no book can teach!   Rahul | Dir.vc Web Directory

I have been researching SEO now for about 4 years and my opinion is that everyone seems to be blowing it way out of proportion.  It's really not that difficult.  As far as sources, I think HubSpot has some really good content along with webinars and videos.  Keep these basic points in mind when researching SEO:   Good Clean Code Site Hierarchy Keyword Research Content BackLinks