If you can break the code, you get the job

For those who are new to this field , you should understand SEO as an “technique, tricks and methodologies used to rank website higher in search engine” . You can read in details about SEO here .

Jobs :

Go and search for SEO on indeed.com or monster.com. There are lot of freelancing jobs in craigslist also available. This would give you an insight into demand for SEO specialist

Salary :

The salary can range from $45000 – $75000to or $20/per hr to $40/per hr, depending on your capability and talent.

Challenges:

Since this is a online work , any one who has a laptop  and internet connection can take this work.  So people from India, Philippines would be there to challenge you on this front.

How to Start :

There has been much written about SEO , black hat marketing , white hat marketing and you can find tons of materials.  From my perspective,  if you are planning to make a career in SEO you should have following

1. Create a website or a blog , which can be displayed as a proof that you know your work. A good example is Mani Karthik who write dailySeoBlog.  If you have such a good blog then people will know you have got talent and can hire you on high rates.

2.  Start posting articles on the blog on a subject area you are comfortable with.

3. Familiarize with tools like alexa, google page rank, keyword finder .  You can find link of some tools in our forum.

4. Start following sites like http://www.SEOmoz.org, read Matt Cutts blog , Avainash Kaushik . You will learn so much by reading these people’s blogs.

5. Create a google analytics and google webmaster account. Create a bing websmater account also.

Configure your site/blog with these tools and review the results periodically.

These are good starting points.  I will add more later