Join, create or buy a Linkedin Group within your niche area. Then pepper the discussion board with an "educational offer" about for your product. Send me thank you card for the idea. $2 buck tops.
Get a few top quality pieces written by a top writer. You could get 2 or 3 articles for that budget. Something that is unique, funny, controversial, engaging. Then contact other blogs and websites and offer them your article. The thing is, one top quality article can get you traffic for years. When I first started out in this business, I wrote on article in the 'get your ex back' niche and it got published 50 times or so. I still see Clickbank hops more than a year later from that article alone.
Content... content... and content. As a football fan I would not use your site for the latest info as there's not much of it and sites like sportinglife.com have much more up-to-date and more information. You can't really compete against them thus you need to differentiate...
Yeah, they probably do have much more up-to-date info on everything related to soccer - BUT I've narrowed my niche into the football transfer news market only. So my main focus on content is news, rumors and gossip from that market. And in the near future I'll cover more leagues as well ( La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, League 1, Eresdivisione and probably MLS ) I appreciate your thoughts and views as a football fan tho, it gives me the boost to sharpen up my site and what I offer to the audience! Cheers, - kenny