So just starting to dig into SEO since I see more promise in online marketing rather than DM.

Yellow letters, SEO, click marketing, driving for dollars, agent pocket listings, probate/estates, etc. they all work. 

The point to wholesaling is to provide a cash buyer with off market properties at a discount.There are several ways to do this (find your inventory).Lists, DMM, Cold calling, bandit signs, SEO, Fb ads, PPC, D4D, word of mouth.

. :)*Cough* Do* SEO cough*

This will help you with SEO and keep your listing on the first page.

Find motivated sellers (direct mail, driving for dollars, seo, etc..) there are tons of bp articles on lead generation.Check out Carrot.com for custom lead generation site.

Sorry.I just have this feeling he is planing to use you to make more money, and shadowing is not enough a reward in my opinion for you to find him wholesale deals,But to answer your question..the SECOND there is a system that the general public can use to find deals the system ceases to be useful.That is why SEO is the best way to find deals because no one can invade your space.

there is no such thing as "before running SEO".

If your website has few pages then you don't need to hire anyone to do the SEO (search engine optimization) as you can do them by yourself. 

I'm very aware that it is super easy to waste a lot of money in DM, PPC, SEO, FB ads, etc. so paying someone who knows what they're doing is very appealing to me.