PageRank for new websites?

No. Pagerank comes from links with Pagerank, an unlinked page doesn't get PR. Parking it is the worst solution and would hurt more than leaving the domain just registered.

As for ranking: Pagerank doesn't mean ranking in the SERPs, don't mix it up. A high pagerank doesn't mean your site gets any visitors or makes you any money. On the other hand, a PR0 site can make you thousands a month.

The best option in my opinion: Build a little splash page (already on your own hosting) on the same topic your site will be on and already link it a bit, then upload your site when ready.

First off, great job with the DMOZ directory!

Second, don't worry about the PageRank of the site now. Trust me, because you've got that DMOZ listing, it will go a long way towards building up some Google trust for your site.

Since you're site is listed in DMOZ it will get indexed by Google. And like someone said here, you can check and see if it's there by visiting Google and entering in the search box:

site:NameofYourSite.com

I'm assuming when you mentioned "Google directory" above you mean the Google search engine results.

The Google directory (Google Directory) actually gets its listings from DMOZ.

Ideally you want to at least get that website indexed so I would put up a few pages that won't need to be changed later on such as a "Privacy" page, a "Contact Us" page, etc. Just to get on Google's radar.

You're not going to get much of a PageRank without adding content on a consistent basis. That said, don't worry too much about PageRank, instead focus on the keywords that you're using, the end goal you want to achieve with the site, etc.

Kristine

The answer is if you niche is not too competitive you may be able to still get it to rank with onpage optimization but I would still build links for good measure. Depending on the competitiveness link building may be requires to rank for some of your keywords. Really the comptetitiveness of the industry is the key here.

Actually, that's a huge misconception a lot of people have. Higher PR does not mean better organic listings.

The bottom line is, the more one-way links you can get to your site, the more your site will gradually move up in the search engines regardless of it's PR.

Remember too that just because YOU can't see the PR doesn't mean that your site doesn't have one. Google is constantly updating a sites PR but we, as the general public don't see that until they do an update. So just because yours might not visibly have one now, does not mean that Google hasn't assigned you one yet.

As htownseoguy said, depending upon the competitiveness of your industry, it is possible to get a top position. It's just a matter of gradually getting those links to your site and updating your content with information that people want to link to.

- Kristine