just listing in directories and putting your site in your sig files and stuff like that may help you rank well for your company name. of course as you build brand and value that marketplace gets much more competitive.

Update: well I removed it from my sig entirely in these forums, and the site has now moved up a place in a google search for the company name (it's behind a forum sig I haven't yet removed), and daniweb has disappeared as a result for the company.

So do I have a choice between lots of poor links for other search engines and a few good links for google, or is there a way to beat daniweb with my site?

just thinking, would it be better if I just used keywords for link text, not the company name? then I'd get the links, but not lose the keywords? or have I got it wrong again?

Update: Google has reindexed and we're up to the #1 spot. PR is still at 1, but c'est la vie.
Google directory has also updated.

So back to my last question, would using a keyword only link rather than a company name link work better?

Changing the anchor text can affect the keywords you rank for, but won't affect your PR at all. If you're already #1 for your desired keyword, don't fix it if it ain't broke.