If ONLY I knew about SEO when I started. I began serious SEO work a couple months ago and it's just starting to kick in. You definitely need patience.

Mancheck Michael mentioned it in another thread, but Good Keywords (goodkeywords.com) is a nice tool to help pick... well, good keywords to optimize for.

I haven't tried the full paid version yet, but the free version of WebCEO is good for general optimization. It'll let you know if there are any mistakes or omissions, as well as give you some tips to improve the page. The free one won't get you ranked to #1, though. I don't know how well it works in full.