Here is the break down: I have $45 in adwords credits left. $200 in MSN Adcenter credits left. (for advertising) When I launch decals.tk, I'm wondering how I can best spend other money I've set aside for SEO. (SEO only) I would like to show up as the 2nd or 3rd result for "decals" in google. Preferably, no lower than 4th... but my ideal target spot is 2nd (I tend to overlook the 1st result when there are sponsored ads above it.. thus my choice). I've bought a PR4 link for the term "decals"... my competitors pages have really horrible layouts... I've looked at the meta info for all the top 10 competitors and tailored mine accordingly. What next?
Write some articles on decals and submit it to article directories, submit to paid and free directories, exchange links with similar sites. You're going to have to buy more then 1 link on a pr4 page to rank well for a 1 word term. I would start off with a longer anchor text phrase like "cheap decals" or "funny decals", those would be a lot easier to achieve page 1 rankings rather then just a one word phrase. Oh, if its the site in your sig, I would suggest you completely finish the site before buying links and promoting . Most webmasters will reject under contruction sites.
Now all you have to do is make an excellent authoritative website about decals and you should be set!