SEO

basically hoping for a miracle?

no. you aren't going to improve your site if you aren't willing to either

A) improve the off-page factors such as backlinks

B) improve the on-page factors such as articles, keywords, etc.


Ideally, you'd do both. Not sure why you'd want to do neither.
 


If you already have your keywords and you're confident in your copywriting skills, do a PPC campaign. Coming up with 100 ppc ads takes less time than writing an article once you're good at it.

a statement that good and I agree with you.
 
To earn PR you have get some quality back links. To get quality back links, you will have to write quality content and publish it in quality article directory or web 2.0 sites. There is not any alternative for it. To get PR you have to get back links. ;)
 
You should hire professional article writer for that purpose if you don't want to spoil the quality.