"SEO-driven businesses are super fun to work on and run"
Until they're not.
I think this is true when you run one of these as a hobby and you look it as getting something for nothing. If you make your livelihood doing it and Google changes something your whole life can change for the worse in a heartbeat. Then you're totally helpless. It's the exact opposite of fun.
You have summarized the remainder of my comment after that quote -
I would never rely on any of my pet projects as actual income; my wife jokes that it's magic internet money (she thinks it's the stupidest thing, in a humorous way of course). I'm not quitting my day job for this stuff in case the faucet gets shut off one day.
Some people take the risk, but I could never sleep at night knowing I could randomly wake up one day in the proverbial black hole of "page 2" search results.
Until they're not.
I think this is true when you run one of these as a hobby and you look it as getting something for nothing. If you make your livelihood doing it and Google changes something your whole life can change for the worse in a heartbeat. Then you're totally helpless. It's the exact opposite of fun.