I agree. A trawl around WebMasterWorld’s Google forums is good, but will just highlight the fact that it is largely speculative and “best guess”. That said, there are some very sound basics you can learn.
This is how I see it.
I think there are essentially two levels of SEO. “Basic” and “Advanced”. The principles of Basic SEO can be picked up relatively quickly, though it doesn’t necessarily it’s easy to implement, particularly if your site is already designed and running. Basic SEO should ensure you are in the engines and get niche SERPS i guess.
Advanced SEO is required for the big positions on major keywords. Much trickier and a whole lot more speculative. Strategies that work today maybe won’t work tomorrow, so this is when it becomes a much more demanding job and you will need the time for it, if only to keep abreast of changes, updates and current research.
Cheers
Simmo!