Thanks for the SEO tutorials and the information about SEO.

Now I curious about how much time is required:

- for a new website to get listed in Google, Yahoo, MSN etc

- to get rank at top 100

- to get rank at top 10

- to get #1 rank

Then at the last but not least:

Any thoughts on how much time a webmaster using SEO it needs to invest to protect his ranking once it is established?

depends on the keyword popularity, the more popular it is, the longer it takes to get to the 1st page. It could take from 2 weeks to several months to get to the top 5 depending on your keywords. well you could get into the #1 in google with some crazy word like AbraFabraDukanator, but what the point when no one is searcing for it, right?

Answer for your Q. depend on many things, as you already read SEO articles so you must be knowing how to get listed in Search Engines. To rank at top 100 (in SERPs) is not very difficult but you need to choose very unique & less competitive keywords and continuous optimization like some on page and off page optimization, use main keywords in headers.

Then do some high pr directory submissions and try to get more back links. Use your site signature in your business related forums. It's long steps work you have to wait for google to crawl your site time to time so it may take several months.

I would again suggest you to read SEO Elite lessons you will get your answer in better manner