Me think adding a non-functional (dummy) node to a linked-list is not a good thing.
Just check the initial pointer against NULL.
for example (simplified-ish code)
struct node
{
int data;
node* next;
};
node* myList = NULL;
node* myIterator = myList;
while ( myIterator != NULL )
{
myIterator = myIterator->next;
};