The site will be live by the end of January 09, but I want to work on building the SEO, PR etc now. So if I simply put the homepage up for the new site and not anything else, will this be enough to work on it by submitting articles, etc for SEO? Anybody that goes to the site can simply sign up for a free newsletter until the site is live. Good strategy? Thanks in advance!
You can start SEO right now, But i would prefer do not start submitting links to articles etc immediately. If you want to start SEO of your website now then i think you should start submitting links to directories, because directories take time to approve your link. Your website will be completed in January and then your website may be live on few directories. Once your website will be completely developed, then you may get links form other resources as well.