Have been out of action fulfilling my national duty to my country for the past two weeks. I am back with the following to provide more information.

Special thanks to Zuberr Nowrung (Warrior Forum) for his recommendation to this post, here are available and active RSS directories to help promote your blog and content. I have painstakingly submitted to each and every directory and only included here the ones that worked.

RSS directories are very useful in distributing your content to readers, and the more RSS readers you have, the more traffic will be generated to your blog.

Do note though that some of the directories require you to sign up. Don’t worry, it’s free. You just need to spend a little bit more time in your submission.

Anyway, hope you find these directories useful. The most important thing to do is to take ACTION and start submitting your feeds now…

Active RSS Directories To Submit Your RSS Feeds

Feedest.com
BLOGBal.com
Plazoo.com
RSSmicro.com
RSSMountain.com
RSSmotro.com
MillionRSS.com
Yahoo RSS Guide
BlogDigger.com
WeBlogAlot.com
IceRocket.com
RSS-Network.com
FeedShark.BrainBliss.com
FeedPlex.com
OnTopList.com
FeedCat.net
Feedage.com

One of the many reasons people fail is the lack of persistence. If you have read my article earlier on Ezines Rejected My Articles, do note that my articles with them is resubmitted, and rejected again. This time, I did not follow a different editorial guideline.

I was also rejected with my submission of this blog to Blogcatalog.com. This is the list of possible reasons they replied me for the decline:

- We could not verify ownership of your blog.
- A link back, widget or meta-tag is required to verify site ownership.
- The URL you submitted is not a blog.
- The URL you submitted is solely for commercial purposes, or is suspected to be spam.
- Your blog is brand new and/or doesn’t have enough content to make it truly valuable. If this is the case, please resubmit after you have made more postings.
- Your blog contains pornographic material.
- At the time of review your blog was unavailable or there was a typo in your submission URL. Please make sure the URL submitted is correct and accessible

Hence, I began to wonder and started to amend my blog over the past week to meet their guidelines. I resubmitted at least three times and still, I received a Submission Declined answer.

Some people may at this point forgo submission of both the articles to Ezine and blog to Blogcatalog. Not me. I decided that persistence is the only way I can achieve success over the long run. Hence, I changed my strategies. For my articles, I began submitting them to other article directories that I have previously mentioned. All of them were accepted, some almost immediately. As for EzineArticles, no I have not given up on them. I continued to follow their strict guidelines and changed my submission. I have not received any update from them yet but the good thing is, they have a very good support team that never fails to explain the reasons behind their rejection.

As for Blogcatalog, instead of changing my blog again, I sent them an email to check what is wrong with my blog that resulted in the decline. After a day, their support replied that my blog is approved.

I have learned valuable lessons from this. If I had not persisted, I would not have got my blog approved at Blogcatalog. If I have not persisted, I may have not even have a chance of getting my articles approved on EzineArticles.com. Even though I am still waiting for approval, I have strong believe that this time it will be approved. I have also learned that I should have read the editorial guidelines carefully before making the mistakes. It could have saved me time on the amendments and resubmissions.

Persistence is one of the critical factors for success. And my believe for persistence is even stronger than ever before. I hope that you persist in what you do too, and may you success follow.

Adsense is a program that is offered by Google that allows you to earn extra income by providing advertisements on your website that relate to your niche product or service. All you need to make money from Google Adsense is a well designed website that is currently up and running.

How Google Adsense Works

Once you have your website up and running you submit it to Google for review and then they provide you with the ads to place on your website. The ads are always related to the topic of the content on your website so you do not end up with a confusing mixture of ads that are unrelated and make your website look like a flea market at best.

The ads are relative to the content and strategically placed. When people click on them you get paid a commission for each click regardless of whether the person buys anything after they click through to the site. If you get a lot of traffic to your site, Google Adsense can generate a nice little stream of passive income for your website.

How to Sign Up for Google Adsense

To participate in Google Adsense you have to be accepted into the program under a certain set of criteria that Google defines for website owners. If you have a website that has a simple design, offers high quality content, and clearly demonstrates a purpose other than trying to make money with Adsense, your website will qualify for the program.

Log On To Google: Once you have your website up and running you can find the Google Adsense program by logging onto www.google.com and clicking on “Advertising Programs” under the search box. If you already have an account with Google you can go ahead and click on Adsense and start submitting your website information. If you do not have an account Google will prompt you to set one up and walk you through the process.

Submit Your Information: Once you are logged in submit all of your information in the sign up area. The information you need includes your website address, your name, your address and telephone number, and the website language. When you are finished simply click “Submit.” Google will review your website and then send you an email notifying of your acceptance.

Activate Your Adsense Account: When Google notifies you of your acceptance, there will be a link provided in the email message. Click on the link to activate your account and log in to obtain the HTML code that you need to display the ads on your website.

Set Up the Ads on your Website: To set up the ads on your website, click on the Adsense setup icon and then select the Adsense for content link. Click on Ad unit and click Continue to select the ad format. Click Continue again and then simply copy and paste the ad code where you want the ad to appear on your website. That’s it. Google will track the clicks through an ID number that is embedded in the ad code and then send you your commission check.
Keep in mind that a lot of people try to inflate their commissions by clicking on their own ads. Google is able to track the origin of the click through your IP address and if you are caught you will be booted from the program for good.

If you have a great website that offers something useful, Google Adsense is a great way to make some extra income with your online business.

Yup I am wide awake in the early morning. Not watching World Cup 2010 actually but working on my website. Remember I mentioned EzineArticles rejected my submission? Well, they replied it had to do with a site that I am promoting as this site uses an article spinner software. I sent them an email to clarify if my referral site does not contain any mention of the article spinner, will it get approved? I am waiting for their reply. The good thing is they have lifted my submission limit.

Anyway, I am supposed to be writing two more articles for that website. I am definitely behind time. Not because I am watching World Cup but because I am caught up with creating a page for my website. The thing about Internet Marketing is this – there seems to be so many things to do and if you are working part-time like me with a full-time job, time is really limited. That is why I must learn to be more focused on my tasks.

One of the fastest method of getting your blog exposed after you have started it is to get it listed in a blog directory or search engine. There are many blog directories available for submission, and the more you directories you submit your blog to, the higher the chance of getting your blog exposed.

Introducing – Technorati, the best blog search engine available. Simply put, it is a search engine that is designed to search blogs. Having your blog submitted to Technorati will ensure its chance of being seeing by people.

To add your blog to Technorati, you need to join Technorati. After you have joined, click on your username (located at top right corner).

Scroll down to My claimed blogs, put in your blog url, and click CLAIM.

On the next page, follow the instructions and fill in as much information about your blog as possible. Once you have completed the entire process, Technorati will send you an email with a unique code to claim your blog. You will need to enter this code in your blog post for verification. An example of a quote could be 3C7KH29CGS5H.

Create a post with the unique code and return to Technorati. The last thing you need to do is to click on “Verify Claim Token” and you have just submitted your blog to be listed on the best blog search engine.

Today, I received an email from EzineArticles that my resubmissions for two articles were rejected due to some ‘issues’. In order to find out what my issues are, I have to fill out their contact form and wait for a reply. I also encountered another issue – I am not able to submit any more article as my number of submissions left says ’0′.

I am really puzzled! Am I rejected because I am not following their guidelines? Both articles that I submitted were original and written by me. I must admit I have had some real issue with copying and rewriting content before though but I have learned my lesson and will never carry that thought again. Anyway, all I can do now is to wait for EzineArticles to get back to me and let me know what went wrong.

By the way, for those who are not sure what is EzineArticles, it is the leading article submission directory where you can submit original articles for publishing. For an Internet Marketer, this is a free method of promoting your website. How it works is you write an article to describe a specific topic of interest, and at the end of the article, you point to your website for more resources about the topic you discussed. This is also called Article Marketing.

Article Marketing is widely used by Internet Marketers as it is free to use. Of course, besides EzineArticles.com, there are other article directories available. Examples include: GoArticles.com, ArticleBase.com, ArticleSnatch.com and IdeaMarketers.com. All these are useful resources for Article Marketing strategies.

I really hope that EzineArticles can help me quickly resolve my issue.

Anyone can choose a niche product for their online business but the key to lasting success with your online business is choosing the right niche that will ensure that your business is profitable. Many new online business owners make the mistake of choosing a niche product simply because it is popular. What they do not realize is that a popular niche product sometimes means a product that has a marketplace that is already saturated.

Choosing the right niche product means finding a product that suits a highly targeted audience who are seeking a specific solution to a problem. Choosing the right niche also means offering a niche product or service in a new and unique way. Your niche is what is going to make your business stand out in the crowd.

Steps to Choosing the Right Niche

Identify Your Interests and Hobbies: One of the important steps in choosing the right niche is to identify what it is you are interested in and passionate about. It is important that you like the product or service that you are offering and that you are knowledgeable about it as well. If you do not like what your business is about this will reflect on you and your audience that is seeking your expertise.

Research Niche Products: Do your research on the product or service that is related to your area of expertise as well as your interests and hobbies. You can use open directory sites such as Dmoz.org and sites like eBay to discover different products and how different websites are offering the product that is related to your niche. You can also find out what products and services are not being offered which will provide you with a unique selling proposition.

Create a Keyword List: Once you have an idea of the type of product or service you would like to offer, sit down and create a list of keywords and keyword phrases that are related to your niche. You can use a spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel to grow your list of keywords. Include synonyms and misspellings in your keyword list and add as many phrases as you can think of that people may use to find your product or service in an organic search. When you are through, you should have a list of literally hundreds of keywords.

Use a Keyword Research Tool: A keyword research tool is a tool that all online business owners use to help determine their targeted audience. A keyword research tool provides you with information about your audience and what they are searching for.

You can use a keyword tool such as Google Keyword Tool External which you can access for free when you create a Google account. You use this tool to enter all of the keywords from the list that you formulated in Excel. The research tool will then return the search results for the keywords you have chosen, as well as provide you with other keyword suggestions.

The search results will tell you how many people are searching on a monthly basis for your niche product as well as the exact words they are using to search. Out of these results, you want to choose the keywords that are producing the most searches with the lowest number of competing websites. Enter the keywords that you have chosen in another spreadsheet in Excel.

Search with Chosen Keywords: Once you have chosen the keywords you feel are working, enter them in the search engine so you can view the top websites that are using these words in organic searches. From there browse the websites to discover how you can make your niche different from all of the others.

Keep in mind that you should choose your keywords carefully because they will represent the base on which you build your online business and help you to find the right niche. You will also have to do additional research like hanging out in forums that are related to your niche to discover what it is people are specifically looking for and the types of problems they are trying to solve.

Recently I keep hearing people around me complaining about work. I can fully understand… Given the pressure and the lack of direction in my office, I can understand that people want OUT! I too feel the pressure and lack of direction. But as I sat through and think about how unmotivated I am here, I also think of how I can change my mindset so that it is more empowering rather than discouraging.

I too do not wish to work, but what I am looking for is to have the ability to achieve financial independence through passive and residual income. And my goal for retirement (regardless of age) is to do what I love because if I can do what I love doing, be it a job or not, it is not work. This is what many people want to achieve but how many can really live such a dream? I do not know. What I do know is this is what I am working for. I am going to build my pipleline so that water runs for me not now, but in the future.

So instead of saying ‘How I Wish I Don’t Have To Work’ I will say ‘How Can I Spend More Time To Be With The Ones I Love And Do What I Love’.

The latter is definitely more empowering and propels me to put in more effort now and to enjoy my rewards later.

I would like to introduce you to this book that I am reading. It is The Parable of the Pipeline by Burke Hedges. It is not a new book. I picked it up late… but better late than never. Anyway, this book explains the concept of leverage in very simple terms and if you embrace the concept with an open mind, it will open up the doors of possibilities for yourself.

Here is a review from Amazon.com

By Scott McKenzie (Louisville, CO United States)

The Parable of the Pipeline: How Anyone Can Build a Pipeline of Ongoing Residual Income in the New Economy (Paperback)

The parable in this book is an eye opener. The story is well done and interesting. The story was helpful in opening my eyes to the work mindset which had been ingrained into me since a child. Learning about building pipelines, which is residual income, was excellent. I highly recommend this book personally and for business building.

The problem for many people is that we are trained to work a job and have not learned how to own a business. This book teaches principles on business ownership. The story is told in such a way to help us shift from working our whole life and having little in the end, or becoming a business owner and getting financial freedom. This book goes along well with Rich Dad Poor Dad and Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki – cheers

So, if you are interested to check out Burke Hedges’ The Parable of the Pipeline, you may purchase a copy from Amazon here!

My family and I watched Toy Story 3 yesterday and I sure did enjoy the long awaited movie.

In Toy Story 3, Andy is all grown up and ready to head for college. This means that he has to leave his toys behind for a fresh new start. While Andy’s intention was never to forsake his favourite toys, things did not turn out as it was meant to be.

Thus, new ‘toy’ characters are introduced and it became a whole new adventure once again for the toys.

My daughter loved the movie even though she is only a 4 year old. I liked the movie too. Like I said, there is a whole new adventure, new toys, and still, there is a very personal touch especially at the end of the movie where Andy had to part with his toys.

If you have watched Toy Story 1 and 2 and have been waiting for Toy Story 3 like me, you will not be disappointed.

Had a week’s break and things seemed to have slowed down a fair bit. Lack of energy to push things ongoing. Had similar feedback. Trying to pull myself together. Must review my NLP lessons… Stay focused…

Anyway, still having fun with Photoshop lesson. Thinking of signing up for Advance Photoshop and subsequently Illustrator and Fireworks. Costs are adding up. In Wealthy Academy, I’m now learning on niche selection. Ideas are running wild but eventually, I feel kinda restricted by the amount of knowledge I know in the niches I choose. Still, I tell myself I must succeed in Affiliate Marketing as it is an important milestone. Pressing on…

I’ve also started a ‘slimming program’ about a month back. Results are starting to show (tummy getting smaller). It’s a 3-month program and hopefully by end of third month I have very positive results to show. If interested, you may visit losingmyinches.blogspot.com.