Doing your own SEO can work but it very time consuming. Start by writing down your keywords that you want to be found with then through out all of the "general" keywords (too much competition for general keywords - you are going against major sites that have lots of money to spend on SEO and advertising). Refine your keyword list again and again. Then do a Google search for the keywords you settled on. Now study in depth each website that listed on the first page of results. When I say study, I do not mean spending 10 minutes looking over the site, I mean break it down to placement, frequency and uses for the keywords you are interested. Then compare the results of those 10 websites and you will have a good starting place for building your website. Also remember, the target is a moving target. Keep good records of traffic, what is working and what is not, keep good archives of what you started with, when and where you changed it (so as not to start over or duplicate what you have already tried by mistake). A lot of work!