Am I putting too much effort into this keyword?

The search count is really low. Even if you were number 1, converting 1% of those visitors would only be $25 bucks a month. Obviously, you could raise your conversions, but I guess its up to you if its worth it. If you're dead set on it, I'd vary your links a little more - blogs, web 2.0, forums etc. Good luck!

There can be a delay before links are reflected in your search position, comparing the competitors links is probably the best gauge.

I suppose 170 searches/month qualifies as a micro-niche, doesn't look to me like a very fruitful keyword.

You can spend a little to test the value of potential SEO traffic. I see Adwords cpc is $0.05 you might spend $5 or $10 to test conversion, if you get no conversion after 200 visits it's probably a loser.

I don't think this was a waste at all. It might not be on the first page right now, but if you learned something from the situation, then it was not a waste. A large portion of internet marketing is testing and learning.

I don't worry much about the actual search count for two reasons. First, these numbers are never accurate. Second, some of the lowest searched keywords that I have targeted have created more sale than the ones that get searched for like crazy. sometimes the conversions are just much much better than normal in this scenario.

Benjamin Ehinger

I wouldn't have even wasted my time going after something with that small of a search count, maybe if it was an exact search domain for a product that pays you hundreds in commission but not $25.....

Yeah but you'd like to think 2000 links would be an amount that could take this keyword over. I am serious when I say this is a dead easy keyword to dominate. Like literally, you would think 200+ links would do it, let alone 2000.

Should these backlinks start trickling in over the next month or do you think I should begin trying other backlinking methods to get links?

Just out of curiosity? ... have YOU bought a membership to this site yet?

Some of these movie sites on clickbank just tell you how to download torrents! It turns out this isn't one, but you have to be careful. In thier case they have about 100 B movies at best.

Plus, if you use google autosuggest something that comes up right away is

movie capital COMPLAINTS

So I would also expect a lot or refunds. IMHO this is not worth devoting time against unless you have everything pretty much automated.

Putting this into Market Samurai, gets no results for keyword ideas. This KW generates less than 20 hits for the #1 spot, with more than 50,000 competitors. Most mention the kw in the title, url, and headers, and there is some room for taking these sites over, but why? Unless you can figure out how really quick, and have cheap hosting, I don't think this will turn fruitful for you. Perhaps some .edu links? Pay someone on fiverr to create some?

Alright - abandon ahoy! Thanks for your recommendations.