There are some SEOs that do extraordinarily well for themselves. Think of an industry awash with cash, like say consumer finance. Does there exist an affiliate program in consumer finance? Does there exist advertising in consumer finance? If so, is there any space for a new entrant in this field? If yes, there exists at least a few SEOs who are probably doing pretty well for themselves.

There are many reasons why someone who is really good at SEO might not be rich. That goes for any white collar profession, like say lawyering. See that unrich lawyer, what's wrong with him? Maybe he's not good at lawyering, but is good at writing about lawyering or playing a lawyer on a social network, which describes quite a few SEO "experts." Maybe he's good at lawyering but not good at extracting value from it. Maybe he works in a sector where money does not naturally concentrate, like public interest law. Maybe he doesn't really care for money. Maybe he's rich and doesn't feel like talking about it. Maybe he's playing a different game or one with different time horizons.

As to whether you can make a full-time living doing SEO: yes. People do. Nota bene: most of the SEOs I know have diverse skill sets -- some understand broader marketing well, some have deeper technical abilities, some have ready access to capital, some have domain expertise or industry connections, etc etc. The field is quite like programming in that regard.

YES. Patrick. FUCKING McKenzie. I don't know this if this is appropriate for me to say, but it is 2:18AM where I am at right now, and I've kind of been hoping you'd answer. Why I haven't emailed you instead I don't know.

I'm only getting into the whole marketing thing now, and I gotta say it's pretty interesting, and studying it is not a grind at all. I am a programmer, and I thought search marketing would be a nice skill set for my new hobby of micropreneurship.

It's really interesting how you mention that there are people who are good at teaching SEO, and people who are good at actually executing SEO. I guess I should start applying what I've learned!

You can do very well for yourself, but you have to commit a significant amount of time, research, and be constantly monitoring/changing.

It doesn't just "happen" for everyone. A SEO god is pulling in millions per year, but so is everyone in the top 1-2% of their industry. The money is there, but you likely will not get it.

Remember the barriers to entry here are zero - anyone with the desire can get in that game. It is crowded. Your first idea has to be to find a market/niche, and then go full out. Then you have to repeat. One a week while keeping up everything. Once you have 52 hooks in the water you'll start to do OK, assuming you've done everything the way you should. It is a lot harder then you think!

I personally know of one SEO who earns upwards of $50k/month. While not exactly super rich, I wouldn't complain about that kind of money!

And how is he doing it? What's special about him? Does he have industry-specific knowledge, does he know how to get big accounts?

He gets results & it's all white hat (the only thing that could be considered a bit dodgy is the content writing but it's generally of good enough quality to be useful to a human).

He can point to previous clients whose traffic has jumped 2, 3 or 4 times over after he went through their sites.

People will happily pay $50,000 to make an extra $200,000. If he just said to them "give me $50,000 and I'll do your SEO", he'd be laughed out.

Like the others have said if you are really good at it you can make a very good living. A lot of the very successful SEO's aren't the ones speaking at conferences all the time or writing books, why? Because they are busy actually doing SEO or aren't they type that need public recognition to be happy. Just like in anything else you need to be at the top to make good money. In my case I only work with companies in a consulting role instead of doing affiliate marketing because I get more satisfaction in working with other people and being part of their success.