SEO LOST in the Sauce

Hello.
I am putting together some affiliate marketing sites and I am getting hung up on SEO. I managed to build a couple of WP websites, add plug-ins, register w web masters, and design the sites and write the content. I've also created some social media profiles to run parallel. I’ve also tried to follow the guidelines & put forth for the categories and tags to the best of my ability.
Where I am stuck;
Site A is more long term driven with the idea that it will be rich in content and be a long-term winner because it will be done right and on subjects I am passionate about.This is my baby that I do not want to compromise in any way.
Site B..(and others that are coming soon) is going to be only a landing page for one product ( likely a clickbank product). If this one fails it's far more "disposable" so it is for learning and trying to succeed at affiliate marketing.The reason I'm running two types concurrently is to learn the ropes with the one-page ads to get a feel for the entire process from a cold start. Then I will apply what I've learned to my baby, so to speak.
I want to do the whole process myself if possible, some of the SEO just seems a bit out of my ability right now.
Building these WP sites and what I’ve done up to this point is the most tinkering with html I’ve ever done so needless to say, I am not familiar with these things. I can follow directions but what I really am looking for is the good communicators and instruction on youtube on the subject of initial SEO .
My other option is to hire it out on fiverr, but 5 bucks is about all I have in my budget and what are they possibly going to do for only 5 dollars? Possibly that is the best option and will save me time. Does anyone recommend that course of action?
Any up to date down and dirty step by step guides for setting up my SEO the best I possibly can in the context of being a brand new site with no audience as of yet. I’m building this thing from the ground up so I am only looking for what is relevant to my position and fundamental in that I don’t miss any steps.
I have to go back to my real job soon and I want this as set up as possible on auto pilot at which point I can just do basic maintenance sharing and promoting every week . I understand the odds are not in my favour for fast conversions considering I am starting from scratch so my concern is just doing everything right. Due diligence and a good foundation to build upon.

Other question for the pros...for a couple of weeks into this endeavor..am I making sense? Are my assessments & expectations where they should be?

Any recommendations for quality, free instruction on basic SEO setup would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks

-Capo