We had a few landing page articles on hacker news lately. But this one gives a much greater background to the concept of landing pages and what else goes with it.

Been holding off on designing a real landing page for my side project http://www.virtualrockstars.com and generating signups therefor has been costing me a much higher price.

Will compare the difference next month after launching with an optimized landing page experience. Might blog and share my experience...if anyone is interested.