I know many people and couple close friends that are making very decent living by learning seo/adwords/copywriting(or getting really really good at one of 'em).
The biggest hurdle that holds a lot of us back from this industry is our own intelligence. That is why we shrug in disbelief that a website with a cheesy 2000 word copy makes thousands of dollars in sales. For the time I dabbled with this stuff, that was the most challenging part: putting myself in my avg customer's shoes.
ie. if you goto the site I am recommending, most of us would dismiss it as a "scam." Hey, I did--it took a lot of convincing and showing by my friends before I learned that may be should put my suspicion on hold and explore further.
With that said, getting the initial sales funnel going is not easy and can require lots of patience.