How do you REALLY learn SEO?

[contentyouneed]

I have had a few sites I tried to take to the front page of the search engines based on info from a few different WSO's. None of them made it (the best any of them ever ranked was like 24th in Yahoo), and the WSO's contained different theories/approaches about what's supposed to work. I have read about private blog networks. They seem to be very expensive to set up -- if using at least moderate PR domains. The various SEO softwares aren't cheap either.

Is everyone who's really serious about SEO actually investing a shitload in software and an army of recently expired domains with PR history to experiment on until they "crack the code"?

[stiffler]

If you are new to the seo field, i recomend you to buy seo package.
just go to special offer section and buy some good seo package.
Seo is not a one day process,you can learn by watching good courses and with our experiments, i hope it helps you

[Losille]

First don't get discouraged.

Depending what you trying to rank and how long you worked on it 24th on Yahoo might be very good.

The people with the "get to page one of Google" secrets are ranking quickly for a term that isn't being used. For example a guy promised to get a band's video to page one on Google in 24 hours. The video was them trying to sell themselves as a party band.
He had no problem doing it. It ranked for the name of the band in less than 24 hours.
What he didn't say was no one would look for that video by the bands name. They would Google "hire a band" or "party band" something like that. Unless you are famous they won't put in your name to find you. So. Ranking in 24 hours meant nothing.

Don't chase every new idea. Before you read the hype, read the disclaimer! There is a "if, the, probably" clause they can use with these programs that allows them to legally lie about their successes. They won't say "when" you do XYZ you get $dollars. They something like "If" so read that first. Testimonials are usually not real. Think about that. Then decide if the "New, Best, Lastest, Super Secret" is really worth your time.

[bashy]

what you have done already is the best SEO you can do, trial and error....

you tried something and it didnt work, time to move on...

one word of advice ignore WSO's there just re hashed crap made to simple fill the pockets of the creator.

instead spend some time on SEOmoz and read articles, there plenty to learn on here just dont get sucked into the "rank your site over night hype" it dont work.