Originally Posted by Jdoughs

When you are new or learning the trade, only 2 possible things can happen.

1. You get lucky, do everything right, and wait a few months for solid results.
2. You try lots of everything, nothing works, and you've 'tarnished' your shit.

There is only one really good way to learn the trade or art of SEO, and that is just build a great site and learn proper practices as you go. One that is original, unique and really offers something to the surfers. Many of the exact things that you will accomplish by doing this, is what people are trying to 'mimic' or replicate, and just what the engines are looking for in their quality listed sites.

Pick out a niche, the keywords you want to take, and start build a single site focused solely on that subject. Pay more attention to building a great site with highly targeted content then to meta tags, or keyword density.

While you are working hard on your great site, start researching SEO and methods that work. Don't worry about stuff that 'may work' or works for some, but focus on the commonly known, and accepted beliefs, and start there.

It's pretty tough to give you actual tailored advice for your situation, as I don't know what you have as far as resources, time, and experience. I guess the main point is, if you aren't a plumber, you wouldn't run pipes for a new building, if you weren't a Electrician you wouldn't do the wiring in a house either. So don't touch the SEO of your site until you are a little more educated in it.

You wont get penalized EVER for not doing enough SEO, you could get penalized for attempting to do SEO and blowing it by making bad mistakes.