everyone’s dream. I see many people complaining that their sites are not

indexed by Google months after of going live. Ironically it is possible to

get your site indexed by Google within a week by following these simple

tips: Feedburner- Use RSS Syndication, Add your RSS

feed to Feedburner. Netscape- Submit an article from your blog or

website to Netscape. Digg- Digg a post from your site or have

somebody else digg your posts. Google Webmasters Console- Add your site to the

Google Webmasters Console. Technorati-Submit your site to Technorati and

tag your posts. BlogCatalog-Submit your blog to BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog. Stumbleupon-Submit your site to Stumbleupon and

other social bookmarking sites. DigitalPoint Forums-Post your link into the

“Reviews folder at DigitalPoint Forums. Flickr-Submit a photo album to Flickr and add

your URL in your Flickr.com profile. Blog directories – Add your

site to a few blog directories like BlogRateDirectory. Video Submission-Create and submit a Video to

In all seriousness, boosting your RSS subscriber count is quite the task, and you need to put in a little legwork to kick it off. As you’ll read in one of the tips below, once you’ve done the work, and get the count up to a respectable three digit number, as long as you keep the content coming, it seems to take over on its own at that point. Working to get that first 100 subscribers can be a pain for many new bloggers, especially if they don’t take their blog serious enough to get the job done.  

Below are 21 different ways that you can start building your RSS subscriber count, and the more of these suggestions you follow, the more success you should theoretically have. I need to work on a few of these myself, and writing this post was just the motivation I needed to get going. Enjoy!

1. If You Don’t Have It, Don’t Show It! I’m talking about your feed count widget. If you’re a new blogger, and you just landed your 4th subscriber, we’re all proud of you, but seriously, don’t put that little feed count widget on the front of your blog showing the world that 4 people read your RSS feed. I’m not trying to be mean, but the reason being is that if someone lands on your blog that doesn’t know you from Adam, they have no clue that it’s a new blog, and when they see that feed count widget displaying 4 readers, it’s a huge turnoff. It almost appears that no one cares to read your posts. It’s totally psychological. If they see you when you have 100+ subscribers, then it’s something to show off, and they just might subscribe for themselves – but until then, lose it. Blog readers are a lot like sheep (I mean that kindly), and they’ll use only follow the popular Shepard’s.

2. Display Your Subscribe Button Proudly These days, when your average blogger is browsing through different blogs, and they see one that they like, the first thing they usually look for is that famous orange RSS subscribe button. Blog readers, for the most part, have short attention spans, so if they can’t find it right away, you may lose them. Make sure you have your subscribe button and/or links prominently displayed and easy to find.

3. Email Subscription Option Believe it or not, there are still plenty of visitors out there that aren’t quite familiar with RSS feed readers, so giving them the option to stay updated by email is very important. Feeburner, FeedBlitz, and all the others give you an option for feed deliveries via email, and it’s also a great way to build a list! Always present the option of subscribing by email if you can.

4. Be Ad Free In Your Feeds Chances are, if you’re a blogger, you’re running a decent amount of ads or some form of advertising on your blog. The last thing people want is to receive a feed that’s also full of ads. I’ve subscribed to feeds before on some blogs I like just to avoid going to the actual site and seeing all those ads. So somewhere next to your subscribe button, proudly emphasize that they can read your feeds “ad free”. It just may be the tipping point to get them to subscribe.

5. Focus Your Writing This is more of a long term strategy, but if you’re known for writing a variety of posts that differ from topic to topic, the chances of me subscribing after reading one post is slim. The last thing I want to see in my feed reader is what you had for dinner last night. I don’t care. I subscribed to learn what you have to teach, not what you have to eat.

6. Contest Entries Here’s a cool one that may give you a boost, but you have to play it carefully. Come up with a killer contest, and make it so the primary and best way to enter the contest is to subscribe to your RSS feed. If your prize is large enough, and you promote your contest on other blogs, this could mean a huge boost in your feed count. Here’s the trick – you must be absolute sure to keep delivering top notch content, because when the contest is over, you can count on about half of those subscribers unsubscribing. But if you keep feeding them good material, you may have a chance at maintaining them.

7. Guest Blog Do you think you have what it takes to write for one of the big dogs? If so, try your hand at writing up some killer guest posts and submitting them to a-list blogs. Even if you land just one guest blogging gig, you can definitely count on an increase in RSS subs. I’ve done this before with other blogs, and have sometimes seen massive jumps in my RSS count. These new subscribers are more likely to stick around if I keep writing the content that they seek. Guest blogging is also a great way to make a name for yourself.

8. Help Out In Your Favorite Forum Do you have a forum or two that you regularly post in? I know I do, and I receive quite a bit of traffic just from the signature link in my posts that I make there. The more helpful you can be, and the more quality posts you make at your forum of choice, the more likely people are to click through to your site to see what you are all about. You could try linking to a special landing page in your forum signature that subtlety asks them to subscribe to your RSS.

9. Don’t Be Afraid To Ask! Often times, visitors who regularly read your articles are just used to coming to your blog in their daily routine, reading the material, and leaving. While they’re there, why not ask for the subscription? At the end of each post, politely say something like “If you enjoyed this post, would you mind subscribing to my RSS feed?” or whatever…bottom line, no salesman ever closed a deal without asking. Also, there are plugins that will do this for you, and when I find the name of it, I’ll add it here.

10. Network With Your Peers Getting to know your regular readers and other bloggers in your niche can often be very beneficial, not only in your efforts to boost your RSS count, but also in forming important relationships, business ventures, and all sorts of other things. Take the time to shoot a few emails to other bloggers, and in no time at all you’ll probably be subscribing to each others feeds, which brings me to my next point….

11. Don’t Be Selfish! What I mean is, don’t expect 7000 people to sign up for your feed, if you don’t subscribe to a few yourself. Here’s what you do – go subscribe to 20 blogs within your niche, and when you do, drop a comment on each blog letting them know that you subscribed, and that you would appreciate them coming over and having a look at your blog. Chances are (and because people are generally good natured) they’ll subscribe to your feed, making it a win-win situation.

12. Tell Your Readers What An RSS Subscription Is To be honest, a fair portion of your readers, depending on the niche your in, may have absolutely no idea what the heck RSS is. Write a post explaining to them the benefits of reading your articles via and RSS readers (it will save them time, easier, etc…), and that just may be all the coaxing they need to be comfortable enough to click your subscribe button.

13. The Free Ebook Or Report Bribe This is a powerful and awesome way to gain additional subscribers. Here’s what you do – take your time and write up a nice report or ebook about the subject you blog about, and offer it to your readers free. Make it so that they only way they can have access to the download is that they subscribe to your feed via email. Obviously, when they subscribe, they get an email with the download link. Point being – if your ebook takes off and gets some good publicity, it could mean hundreds or even thousands of new subscribers in a very short amount of time. People love free stuff, especially free quality information – so give it to them!

14. Lead Your Readers To Great Information Make sure that when you link out to articles on other blogs, that they’re valuable ones. When you recommend to a reader that they follow a link to another blog post with helpful content, they will often subscribe to you because they count on you to provide them with a path of good, valuable information. Even if it means them leaving your blog through a link to another one, they’ll definitely be back if you keep their best interests in mind.

15. PodCast Your Way To RSS Stardom Podcasting is still a highly sought after way of getting information. Your readers will almost always listen to a podcast if you give them the chance, and nothing is easier than asking your readers during your podcast to subscribe to your blog. Submit your podcast to podcast sites and directories, build a following, mention your RSS feed in your podcasts, and it will definitely boost your subscriber count.

16. Offer A Full Feed This one is more important than you think. Offering partial feeds is the easiest way to kill your subscriber count, because the whole point of someone subscribing to your feed, is so they can read the whole post in their favorite feed reader without having to visit 50 blogs to get all their daily articles read. Always offer a full feed – there really are no good reasons why you shouldn’t. It only makes people mad when they get half a feed in their inbox or feedreader.

17. Write Outstanding Articles Writing good content is perhaps the most common and popular piece of advice given by any blogger, but you know why? It’s true. Why in the world would I want to subscribe to your blog if you don’t provide me with topical, valuable, and helpful information? Take your time, and write quality stuff, and it will definitely help your chances of boosting that subscriber count. Also, make sure you continuously provide good content, or they’ll drop your feed faster than you can click “publish”.

18. Posting Frequency Counts This is one aspect of increasing your RSS subscriber count that you seriously need to be aware of. Here’s the deal, if I know you only post 2-3 new articles a week, no matter how good they are, chances are I’m not going to miss anything, and I can visit your blog at my convenience to catch up without much hassle. On the other hand, if I know you post at least once per day (if not more), then I would seriously conclude that the best way to stay on top of all the information you offer is to subscribe to your blog. That way, I can read your posts in my feedreader at my leisure, and not worry about missing anything.

19. Feedvertising Plugin This plugin is a cool one that allows you to offer specific content exclusively to your subscribers. Make it known that one of the benefits of subscribing to your feed is the fact that subscribers often have access to bonus and extra content. This is a great way to keep people subscribed, because you can offer periodic smaller contests for your subscribers only.

20. Try The “What Would Seth Godin Do” Plugin This plugin is a handy one that displays a message towards the top of your blog that asks new readers to subscribe to your feed. It only shows the message to new visitors 3 times, so that way they don’t have to see it every time they land on your blog (assuming they have cookies enabled). This makes #9 a lot easier, as you have an automatic way of asking for the subscription without being too intrusive.

21. Social Bookmarking Traffic Does Convert! Last but not least, makes sure you’re following the routine I mentioned in my “Simple Ways to Improve Traffic [http://clubblogger.com/a-few-simple-ways-to-improve-traffic-to-your-blog] to Your Blog” post. Although social bookmarking traffic can be shaky, it’s all a numbers game. Any time I get 1000 hits from StumbleUpon or whichever site, chances are I’m going to end up with a few extra subscribers. It never fails. Even if it only means a few extra subscribers per day, that really adds up when the month is over, and combined with the other methods, it’s a good supplemental way of driving up your RSS subscriber count.

I hope you’re able to use some or all of the above methods to help with your subscriber situation. It takes time to build up a respectable number, but using the above ways definitely won’t hurt. Good luck and if you have any questions, feel free to drop by ClubBlogger sometime!

Love life; it’ll love you

http://clubblogger.com

Author: Mike Paterson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Establishing a Website is not much different than a brick-and-mortar business. Open a Deli in the heart of a City and millions of potential customers will pass daily. In contrast, open the Deli in the suburbs, and there would be one quarter of the potential customers. Obviously, the City would be much more expensive to get started and maintain, but the revenue should provide for the added expense.

The same holds true in Website Promotion. However, the landscape is different. There are no streets and sidewalks customers have to use. Therefore, our businesses need to be found by customers in a variety of places. It needs to be brought to the potential customer, or viewable from wherever they may be lurking.

Where do we start with Website Promotion?

One of the topics sweeping the developer’s world is Optimization. The internet will naturally bring potential customers, if the site is optimized properly. Computers work hard on matching relevant information. This is a huge benefit to e-business owners.

Before promotion begins, or altering existing efforts, understand the Internet’s backbone. Why has the World Wide Web become popular? Most should agree, information retrieval rules. Internet users don’t have to sit down and watch television waiting for local weather. They don’t have to wait for news of interest. They don’t have to drive to find the best prices. They don’t have to look through cook-books to find a recipe. They don’t have to talk to salespeople for a car. Today it’s all on the, “information,” super highway.

As a developer, focus on information delivery before beginning promotion of a Website. If a page can be divided into two topics, make two separate pages. Over-use of graphics can present problems too. While it’s nice to make a Site pretty, most people don’t care. They want the information or products they are seeking. Sectors such as art could be an exception, but for the most part, lots of graphics are a waste. People read on the internet. Give people something to read, not just something to view.

Promotion Budget

If launching a new campaign, it may take time to decipher an effective budget. There are simple variables that should be considered with budgeting. Given the potential scope of a Website, advertising should be devoted to different areas of the site. For example, paying to promote the free portion of a Website is not logical. In contrast, a free forum may sell advertising. The advertising segment of the site should be exploited.

There is a simple formula to develop a budget. If a site is new, it takes some research and investment to draw an accurate conclusion. Put simply, consider the following; how many potential customers are required to make a sale? From each sale, how much profit is generated? Of the profits, how much is invested into advertising? This identifies the value of potential customers. If ten customers make one sale, and ten dollars are allocated towards advertising, each customer is potentially worth one dollar. However, room for growth could be made by reducing the value of a potential customer or increasing the advertising contribution. A competitive sector may force reduced profits rather than reduced value of potential customers.

Comprehensive budgeting could be applied to aspects of the business. Promote each aspect as a unique entity. For example, a Website that sells music and movies could have separate budgets for the segments. This could reveal vital information to the survival of a business. Implement effective models that assist in tracking expense and results. This is fairly simple with website statistics and tracking tools.

Free Traffic Promotion – Keywords and Phrases

When it comes to free traffic, it’s about information retrieval. People utilize tools that provide information accurately and quickly. These tools rely on the developer’s interpretation of a Website or page (On-Site Optimization). What is the Website or page about? What phrases are people looking for that want to use this site? Information retrieval is a complicated double-edge-sword between people surfing the web and people creating the web. When the people creating the web do not create clear and focused pages, people surfing the Web cannot find them.

Free traffic is a gift from creating user friendly pages, clearly focusing on a specific topic, and the result of promotion efforts. It stems from a good balance. While free traffic primarily comes from Search Engines, it also comes from referring sites. People will write about a Website in blogs, forums, or on their personal pages. People will add links to Sites they like.

If developers hunt for free traffic, problems can arise. Hunting for free traffic has made developers try tricks that got the site removed from Search Engines. This can present a big problem as they are a large source of free targeted traffic. Keep free traffic in mind while promoting a Website, but don’t make it the focus of promotion. It will come naturally over time. Take it as a gift and an acknowledgement that a Website has been optimized well, presents clear information, and is promoted in the right places. Although some may argue the point, don’t anticipate quality free traffic to begin immediately. It takes extensive thought, advertising, and planning for this to happen, especially within competitive sectors.

Promoting in Directories

One place to start promoting a Website is Website Directories. Most directories are organized by topic. Some are more comprehensive than others. In addition, there are, “Niche,” directories that focus on one topic. For example, there are directories for shopping, reference, art, and automotive sites. In contrast, there are general directories that provide all the niches.

Finding an appropriate place within a directory may be difficult. Directories can a large structure. However, a comprehensive structure benefits advertisers with targeting. Comprehensive directories enable developers’ to classify a Website. For example, it maybe possible to promote a site the sells speakers, for cars, but only domestic cars, and ones that are late model. In addition, some directories may implement regional indexing. Targeting an index in a directory can be complex, but it can be a great benefit too.

Don’t expect to rush from directory to directory and establish a bunch or references. Each directory is unique. Take time to understand how the directory is structured, what they expect as a title and description, and how the suggestion process works. Seek similar sites; take note of where they appear, and how they are described.

Directories are generally affordable solutions. Most Directories are indexed by search engines. They help search engines understand a sites focus. In addition, they are a reference point for some people. It may be a good idea to seek-out one or two directories a week, or as appropriate to a budget. Finding good directories will consume a lot of time. However, once a link is added, it will remain there for a long duration.

News and Media Promotion – Public Relations

Public Relations an important factor when promoting any Business. News and Media channels are the vehicles that convey information to the public. News about a business can make a huge impact on the public. Good news can make lots of people remember a business. Some developers release news about every change or added feature to a Website. Ironically, some developers never utilize this area of promotion.

There are a variety of distribution sites that will expose news releases to numerous channels, for a modest fee. In addition, most will offer free options. It may be a good idea to utilize free options for news that is not very important. For example, adding a, “Calculator,” to a Website probably will not gain much attention. However, anything that may be important to the public needs to be announced.

If it can be added to the budget, outsource public relations efforts. PR companies have knowledge of what the media likes and contacts that make them valuable. PR specialists can be found in almost every City.

Ezine Articles – Provide Rich Content

Writing articles is a powerful promotion tool. Some developers refer to this as, “Viral Marketing”. There are Websites that require content. Content brings them traffic. Traffic builds valuable ad space.

Article Distribution sites assist promoters with circulating articles. Many Ezines rely on Distribution Sites for their content. Post an article to a distribution site and the article is, “up-for-grabs,” to anyone. The article begins to circulate the internet like a virus. Everywhere it appears, reference is given to the author and their Website.

Advertising on the Web

There are a variety of reference websites. Generally, these sites consist of Forums, Article content, and Online Chats. They rely on selling ad space as the main revenue stream. While some reference developers are, “trying to rich quick,” there are sites that offer affordable solutions to promote a Website. With free traffic in mind, seek-out text link advertising venues. Look for sites that charge a flat fee. Sites that charge per click or by the impression usually mask links for tracking. This does not build good recognition with search engines.

Seek relevant opportunities for promoting the Website. If the allows people to buy tennis shoes, a sports reference and information area may be prove beneficial. Another might be a reference site about footwear. Trial and error will reveal good advertising sources for promotion. Regardless of the site being promoted, there are reference areas that are valuable promotion tools.

Promotion Summary

The internet moves fast in certain aspects. When it comes to Website promotion, it moves slowly. Modifications that are made to a Web Page are not going to be seen the next day. Significant results appear months later. The most important area of promotion, is keeping accurate records. Website promotion is complex. Developers need to consider on-site and off-site optimization, targeting, and ad construction. The right mix can provide a significant advantage over the competition.

Michael Medeiros has an extensive background in business and advertising. He is the proprietor of the Mjmls Classifieds [http://www.mjmls.com] ([http://www.mjmls.com]), which is an open-source advertising solution for businesses and individuals.

Author: Michael Medeiros
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Affiliate Marketing Program
An affiliate marketing program is sometimes called an affiliate program, but also may be referred to as a pay-for-performance program or an associate program. An affiliate program is a marketing tool for the e-business that operates it, called merchant or advertiser and a source of revenue for the e-business that participates in it, called an affiliate or associate or publisher.

There are three ways to earn money through affiliate marketing:
1) Pay per Click or Cost-per-click affiliate programs: Every time a potential customer leaves the affiliate website by “clicking” on the link leading to the merchant’s website, a certain amount of money is deposited in the affiliate’s account. This amount can be pennies or dollars depending on the product and amount of the commission.
2) Pay per Lead or Cost-per-lead affiliate programs: The merchant pays the affiliate a set fee for each visitor who clicks through and takes and action at the merchant’s site, such as completing an online survey, registering at the site, or opting-in to receive e-mail.
3) Pay per Sale or Cost-per-sale affiliate programs: Every time a sale is made as a result of advertising on the affiliate’s website, a percentage, or commission, is deposited into the affiliate’s account.

The Amazon Story
The world’s biggest bookstore has one of the most successful examples of an affiliate program (called their associate program). Amazon now has well over 1 million affiliates! That is over 1 million websites actively promoting their products every single second of every single day. Amazon generates over 40% of its revenue through its affiliates program. That is over $3 billion in revenue every single year! As another (somewhat humble by comparison) example, Zeald generates over 50% of its revenue using its own unique affiliates program. Admittedly, not quite billions of dollars but that is definitely millions of dollars of revenue every single year.

Thousands of diverse e-businesses operate affiliate programs: E.g. barnes&nobale, dell,1-800-flowers, rackspace managed hosting etc.

Affiliate Programs as a Marketing Tool
The two major Advantages to merchant
1. Tie marketing effort directly to a lead or sales.
2. The merchant pays only for results.
The two major Advantages to affiliate
1. Additional source of revenue for affiliate who also sells products/services
2. Primary source of revenue for affiliate who offers entertainment or information
Two Approaches to Operating a Successful Affiliate Marketing
1. Acquire a huge and affiliate membership. e.g. The Amazon associates programs have over 1 million members as diverse as:
- RVPart – Sells parts for recreational vehicles and motor homes.
- Dilbert – Site for view cartoons, play games, send electronic greeting cards etc
- Books for Managers – Site for business reviews and lists of the currant top-selling business-related books provided by Business week, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and other publications.
- HaperCollins – Its site to promote its authors and their books. However, like many book publishers. HaperCollins sells its books through bookstores and not directly to the public.
2. Acquire a smaller number of highly effective affiliates that have a high volume of website traffic and offer web page content, products and services that are directly related to the merchant’s products and services.

Affiliate Programs as a Revenue Source
Participating in an affiliate program and then getting the most out of your participation involves:
- Selecting the appropriate merchant and affiliate program for your e-business
- Understand the terms of the affiliate agreement
- Add custom links to merchant’s site from affiliate Web pages
- Build traffic at affiliate site to increase click-troughs to merchant site.

Top 10 Tips for Choosing the Affiliate Program That Is Right for You
1. You have to identify a product or service for which there is a need. The product should be such that you would love and enjoy promoting it. You could start by searching for “Affiliate Programs” in the Search Engines.
2. The product or service should be relevant to your website.
3. It is always wise to join an affiliate program that is long standing, safe and secure and has a good reputation in the Internet world. This can be easily verified from the Better Business Bureau or other similar organizations. Visits to Forums and Discussion Groups will also provide you with a lot of useful information.
4. Most affiliate program providers provide a commission of 5% to 50%. The commission you earn for the sale of a product is your main income. So while choosing an affiliate program you should study the commission paid out and decide on a program that pays at least 35% for you to run your business successfully.
5. There should be a proper tracking system in place to record all the clicks and sales made through the text links and banners placed on your website, e-mails and other advertisements.
6. One important factor that is often overlooked is the “hits per sale ratio”. This indicates the number of hits that have to be made to a Text Link or Banner to generate a sale. This will give you an idea as to how much traffic is needed before a sale is made.
7. How often are commissions paid? This is another important matter that should be considered. Most reputed organizations pay their affiliates monthly or when they accumulate a minimum commission of $50 to $ 100 or as indicated by you. You should avoid any program that requires too many sales to reach the minimum amount.
8. Affiliate Programs are generally single tier or two tiers. A single tier program pays you for whatever business you have generated. On the other hand a two tier program pays you for the business you have generated and also a commission for the sales generated by a sub- affiliate, you have sponsored. A two tier program is always advantageous.
9. Long standing reputed organizations provide a whole range of tools and resources such as Banners, Text Links, Brochures, Websites and training for their affiliates. When choosing look out for such organizations because they certainly make life much easier and helps you grow your home based business.
10. Finally, you must read and understand the agreement before you join as an affiliate even if it happens to be the best organization in the world.

Understanding the Affiliate Agreement
The affiliate agreement created by the merchant and agreed by the affiliate, defines all aspects of the affiliate program and typically includes:
- Types of Web sites merchant will accept into the affiliate program
- Types of links allowed and guidelines regarding their use.
- Schedule and payments terms of fees and commissions
- Terms of usage of merchant logo, name and web content
- Technical specification that your web site must meet, if any
- Restrictions on types of content that may appear on affiliate sites
- Requirements for compliance with all government laws, ordinances, rules, and regulations.

Affiliate Tracking Systems
- Allow merchant to control how it credits click-throughs
- Monitor window of time in which affiliate can get credit for a click-through
- Record and store affiliate information
- Provide commission/fee reports

Affiliate management networks
An affiliate management network is a third-party entity that recruits affiliates, manages the registration process, tracks and properly credits all of the fee and commissions and arranges for payment. In return for these services, the affiliate management network collects from the merchant a percentage of each referral transaction’s fee or commission-perhaps as much 30 percent.

Well-established affiliate management networks: Example: Commission Junction, LinkShare [2]

Affiliate tracking technologies
To achieve this we develop a strategic online relationship with advertisers to improve the creation, management, and analysis of online marketing and sales activities. These activities are supported by a scalable and reliable tracking technology. Keeping track of the click-throughs and properly crediting the affiliates is a complex programming task. Companies such as BeFree and ClickTrade sell software that automatically monitors and credits all followed links resulting in a sale. Note that ClickTrade was acquired by Microsoft and is now co-branded as part of Microsoft bCentral.

Some tracking technologies are following:
- Custom links containing affiliate information or affiliate and merchant information
- Tracking cookies
- Third-party tracking software
- Application service provider tracking service
- Sub Domain tracking
- Database record matching.

Affiliate Marketing Risks and Challenges
Affiliate marketing is not without certain risks and challenges primarily form unethical affiliates and the negative perceptions online consumers have about tracking technologies.

Unethical Affiliates
- Cookie stuffing – Multiple cookies placed on visitor’s hard drive during a single visitor affiliate site.
- Spyware – General term used to describe software that has been installed on a personal computer without the owner’s permission, its unknowingly download and install spyware when you download games, screensavers, freeware utilities and so forth.
- Parasiteware – Redirects affiliate links and Replaces content of existing tracking cookies
- Spammers – Merchant is responsible if affiliates use spam to promote sites
- Negative perception of tracking cookies – Many consumers install and use blocking software which includes Block tracking cookies and Delete tracking cookies.

Why Affiliate Marketing Is Profitable for E-Business
If you have been considering an affiliate marketing venture, there are some very good reasons why you should go with this method of generating recurring revenue. Here are some of the ways that affiliate marketing can be a lucrative means of creating income that will be stable and allow you to grow exposure over time.
- One of the first advantages of affiliate marketing for the new entrepreneur is that the startup cost is very low. Most companies that offer affiliate marketing programs do not require any type of monetary investment on the part of the affiliate.
- The second expenses are limited to what you have to pay to connect with the Internet, the software you may need to load on your computer, and a web site where the ads associated with the affiliate marketing program can be placed. With web site hosting such an inexpensive service these days, setting up your own web site for the affiliate ads will be a breeze.
- Another reason that affiliate marketing is such a moneymaker is the fact that there are so many different types of ways to set up the program. You can go with the pay per click option, which works out great when it comes to promoting special offers. Ads that lead to product review sites often are a way to allow product users to go through your portal and leave comments on the items they purchase.

First Thing’s First-Avoid These Silly Affiliate Marketing Mistakes!
While affiliate marketing is a great way to earn a living, the fact is that many people become discouraged and drop out of programs. In many instances, the failure to be successful with affiliate marketing has to do with making a few simple mistakes. Here are some examples of those mistakes and why they should be avoided.
- A low-quality website with no original content and tossing in some affiliate links. While it is certainly true that you need to have a web site up and running in order to participate in an affiliate program, there is also the need to apply some effort to getting the word out about your site. Otherwise, the chances of people visiting your web site and clicking on one of the links are pretty slim.
- Another mistake many affiliate partners make is not choosing products that have some relevance to the content of your web site.
- Keeping your site content and the ads more or less relevant to one another will make it easier to generate revenue, and not fail as an affiliate marketer. Now, this may seem intuitive – but many make this mistake in subtle ways (i.e. they mismatch their customers with products).
- One final mistake that many affiliate marketers make is not sprucing up their web sites from time to time. Keeping the content fresh is one way of building and keeping a loyal reading audience because keeping the same old look and the same old text with nothing new to entice people back is a sure way to limit your chances at being a successful affiliate marketer. The fact is that you do have to proactively promote your site, keep the content fresh, and make sure the ads have some connection to the subject matter of your site.

What You Need Before Getting Started and Affiliated Marketing
While there is not a lot of expense in starting up as an affiliate marketer, there are a few things that you need to do if you really want to make money marketing other people’s products.
Here are some basic tips to help you line up all your things to do before you ever sign up for that first affiliate program.
- One of the basic needs for any successful affiliate program is to have a web site of your own. While it is possible to purchase ad space on sites and to advertise through Google Adwords, this is short term strategy setting up a basic web site that has a particular focus will make all the difference in the world to the success of your program. Keep in mind that your web site does not have to be complicated with a lot of flash media, animation or other fancy bells and whistles.
- In fact, if you plan on focusing your attention on affiliate marketing strategies that target the home consumer, you are better off with a basic site that will load quickly on a dial up connection. After all, dial-up is still extremely popular in a number of locations.
- Online payments are a great way to easily receive your affiliate payments and keep track of your earnings. From this angel, you may want to look into opening an account with one of the more popular online services that send and receive funds. i.g PayPal
- Another important aspect is determining just what your contact information will be, regarding communication with your affiliate program. This would include an email Address and physical mailing address. The email address should be one you have set aside specifically for your marketing business.

How to Pick the Best Product with the Best Payout and Great Demand
- One of the first things to think in terms of when it comes to affiliate marketing is determining where your talents and expertise happen to reside. One of the keys to picking the best products for your particular situation have to do with what you know and how much you know about it. As an example, a person that has worked in telecommunications for a number of years will probably know a great deal about telephony, related services, and technology that are used within that industry.
- Another aspect about setting up with the right products to promote has to do with where you see a niche to fill in. Finding a population or business sector that appears to be largely ignored in the marketing process can provide the inspiration you need to create a successful affiliate marketing program.
- Do not allow yourself to get discouraged simply because everything is not crystal clear as you begin this part of the process. Practicing some patience and giving yourself time to find the right products to promote as part of the program will only serve to make you more dedicated to the success of the program
In the end, you will find the products that will lead to a very successful affiliate marketing scheme and provide you with not only a handsome revenue stream, but also a lot of personal satisfaction.

Recommended Top Affiliate Networks on the Internet
When you decide to enter the world of affiliate marketing, there are a number of markets that are worthy of consideration. Here are three programs that have captured the attention of a lot of people, simply because of their stability and reliability.

1. Perhaps the best known of the three programs is Click Bank: clickbank. There a number of reasons why people find ClickBank such an attractive option when it comes to affiliate programs. One aspect is that the revenue generated by any purchase made through the ad portal is credited to your account within two minutes of the completion of the transaction. Because Click Bank provides such a comprehensive tracking program.
2. pavdotcom is also an excellent choice as an affiliate network. Just as with ClickBank, PayDotCom provides an easy to use affiliate interface that allows you to view your numbers in real time. You can easily track such data as the number of clicks on the ads and the amount of commissions you have made by directing visitors over to the marketplace through the portal on your web site. One of the advantages of PayDotCom is that this program will interface with your PayPal account, which means that vendors can send your monthly commission directly to your PayPal account. It is important to note that not all vendors will use PayPal as a payment method, so you may still receive payments by check as well.
3. shareasale is a third option that is rapidly gaining recognition among affiliate marketers. As a program that is designed to match up to the content of your existing web site, Share sale is free to join as an affiliate.

Rising to the Super Affiliate Level – What Constitutes a Super Affiliate?
A super affiliate is a marketing affiliate that has created a network that provides a high volume of traffic to affiliate products and a high percentage of completed sales from that traffic. The super affiliate is not one who reaches this level once, or even once in a great while.
- Creativity is an hallmark of a super affiliate. The ability to present the same old information is new ways will keep people interested. Super affiliates know how to look at products from a variety of different angles, determine a series of ways to present the product, and then go out and find an audience to match up with each one of those ways. For the super affiliate, there is always one more way to draw attention to a product, and find a larger audience than ever before.
- Another characteristic of a super affiliate is the desire and ability to master technology. This does not necessarily involve becoming an expert in information technology. But it does involve learning enough about existing technology to make good use of avenues already open on the Internet to promote products.
- Making the most of your status as a super affiliate means enjoying the opportunities that come to you through word of mouth; additionally, it means taking matters into your own hands and promoting your status in such a way that you increase your visibility.

The Super Affiliate Marketing Tactics Exposed!
So what is it that allows a super affiliate to make hundreds or even thousands of sales when you struggle to make 5 sales of the same product? Why is that super affiliates rake in the cash while you struggle to get by? Think about this carefully: you are both selling the exact same product. The only possible difference is the tactics you use to market it. Below, we have included a couple tactics that we should use to sell more like super affiliates. Try to incorporate them into your strategy.

Tactic #1: Play the Long Game
Whenever some new launch is coming up, they will throw together a promotional website; and try to direct traffic to it using pay per click search engine advertisements or solo ads. But there is a major flaw with this approach: almost without exception, people will purchase a “big launch” product from an Internet marketer they already know this is why you have to play the long game, rather than focusing on each individual launch, prepare an approach that will work consistently for years to make more sales.
Tactic #2: Steal from Super Affiliates Whenever Possible
Many super affiliates are also big name Internet marketers. They have public personas that we can follow quite easily. We can find their user ld’s, blogs, mailing lists and their web site’s. Through this approach we can learn from each of them.
Tactic #3: Ignore Talk; Look for Revealed Preference
Talk is just that: talk. Many Internet marketers will talk about all sorts of different methods you can use to make money. They will tell you to advertise using Google Adwords or to build a list or to create viral reports. While some of this information may be useful and legitimate, we should ignore what they say and watch what they do. This is called “revealed preference.
Tactic #4: Make Friends with the Seller
Believe it or not, the seller wants you to be successful, too. So contact him ahead of time, make friends with him; and see if he has any particular advice for you on selling the product. Keep in mind that he talks to a lot of affiliates on a regular basis (especially around big launches) and has the best understanding of the tactics they actually use.

Become a Supreme Affiliate Marketing: Additional Supreme Affiliate Marketing Tips
If you want to make a six figure income – and possibly a seven figure income – then you have to do something that is truly different than what you are doing now. The big question is “how can I do this”? Here’s following suggestion:

Tip #1: Start Acting Like a Business Owner
If you want to be a successful affiliate product marketer, you have to find people who can augment your weakness (and, trust me, no matter how smart you are, you have plenty of weaknesses). Additionally, affiliate marketers do not work in isolation. Most of them are friends with the marketers they sell products for; and this gives them far more leverage and information than you have access to. So start thinking of yourself as a business owner, rather than a completely self-sufficient Internet marketer.
Tip #2: Concentrate on Regular Sales
Regular sales are easier to quantify and predict; and, for this reason, it is far easier to continually ramp up small, regular sales until you are making hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars each year. So don’t worry if you’re the top affiliate for some major new product launch. Instead, focus on regular sales and regular increases in sales.
Tip #3: Do What They Do – Not What They Say
Observe the channels of marketer through which he promotes his product. Watch carefully to determine what methods he’s using to make sales, so you can replicate his successes, rather than chasing after dreams he’s written about.

Conclusion

We may conclude that choosing an Affiliate Program that is right for you might be time consuming but a worth while process. Going through the above whole process will also be a learning curve for new entrepreneurs who are serious about starting a successful home based business. So there is an opportunity for business students and young entrepreneur to develop a simple website with limited budget that can be arranged easily through their own personal savings. This website can be developed with only $100 to $200 (Approximately). You can increase your business growth through adopting the approach where you can affiliate your business with different websites having relevancy with your business and internet heavy traffic as well.

Finally there’s no single path to affiliate marketing riches – and that’s a good thing. Instead, there are many pathways through which you can make your millions. So scout carefully, look for functional methods you can use, and implement them in your own efforts. You may be surprised with the results. But whatever you do – don’t continue to use strategies that haven’t worked in the past. Always think like super affiliates because they use a range of tactics and adopt different ways in order to consistently outperform other affiliates. But one thing you should always play the long game and build lists, create forums, and secure a captive audience in advance of product releases.

Aknowledgement

The Author indebted to Ms.Umera Imtinan, Lecturer Comsats Unversity,Lahore for her suggestion to write this article.

References

1. Napier Albert. “Book: Creating a Winning E-Business”, 2nd edition, p256-257
2. Article, “Affiliate marketing”,zeald.com/Services”.
3. Article, “Affiliate Marketing Strategy for E-Business”, “resources.alibaba.com”.
4. Article, “Affiliate tracking”, “kleindesigns.com”.
5. Online Book, “Super Affiliate Marketing Secrets: Gain the Edge You Need to Become a Super Affiliate Marketer” “free-ebooks”.
6. Internet Article, “Top 10 Tips for Choosing the Affiliate Program That Is Right for You”,” articlesbase.com”

Author: Muhammad Shahzad Naveed
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Steps to Creating an RSS feed

1.) Build a Feed

There are a number of desktop and web applications available that make feed creation easy. I would encourage anyone creating a feed to use one. Though not overly complicated, hand-coding an RSS feed can become a bit confusing and time-consuming. Most desktop software applications for building a feed include a wizard and contact-sensitive help, simplifying the process of creating a feed. Following a few simple steps in a wizard generally will produce an RSS feed in just a few minutes.

Publishers control what information is syndicated in the RSS feed, so ultimately it is the publisher’s decision as to whether to include teaser copy or full articles. Consider what you are trying to accomplish and who your target audience is when building the feed.

Software to Build a Feed – http://www.feedforall.com

Tutorial for Creating Feed by Hand using XML-
http://www.make-rss-feeds.com

2.) Transfer the Feed Onto Your Server

Once you have constructed an RSS feed you will need to transfer the feed to your server. This can be done using a standard FTP client (if it is not built into the feed creation software). The feed is usually placed in the domain’s root directory like this:

[http://www.mydomain.com/nameoffeed.xml], but as long as you know where it is it doesn’t really matter.

3.) Display the Feed on Your Website Using a Graphic of Some Sort

In order to signal to website visitors that an RSS feed containing content related to the website is available, include a colorful graphic on the website. It has become a standard that nearly all websites that have RSS feeds available use colorful graphics such as flags as indicators that RSS feeds are available for specific content. The flags were initially bright orange rectangles but as the popularity has grown, webmasters have bent the rules a bit. NotePage has made a free online RSS graphic tool available that allows users to quickly customize buttons by selecting the text on the button and the color scheme of the button. Once the color and text is entered, a custom graphic is instantly created. Webmasters can easily match the style of the RSS button to a website’s theme. Graphics experience is not required. Simply select alternative colors and insert text to personalize RSS feed graphics. The RSS graphics tool can be used by clicking the following URL

http://www.feedforall.com/public/rss-graphic-tool.htm or choose ready made graphics fom: http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-graphics.htm

4.) Include Information in the HTML of the Web Page So RSS Readers Auto-Detect Your Feed

After publishing an RSS feed it is important to let visitors know that the feed exists. Aggregators will automatically detect RSS on a website if you add a small bit of code in the header field of an HTML page.

Be sure to replace http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml with the URL to the RSS feed.

5.) Display the Feed’s Content on a Website

Contents contained in an RSS feed can be added to a website, providing site visitors an alternative method for viewing the content. The information will also help increase search engine interest. Displaying the feed as HTML can be accomplished. Providing fresh content on a regular basis will encourage site visitors return.

Tutorial for Displaying Feeds – http://www.small-business-software.net/display-rss.htm

6.) Submit the Feed to RSS Directories and Search Engines

As a rapidly increasing number of content sources, new and old, migrate or add RSS as a key distribution channel, and as more people utilize RSS newsreaders and aggregators to keep themselves informed, the ability to maintain high exposure and visibility is gradually shifted from complete attention to major search engines and content optimization techniques to an increasing awareness of RSS feed directories and search tools.

In order to increase exposure of an RSS feed it should be submitted to RSS search engines and directories. This can be done manually. Just as you would submit the URL of a website or web page to a search engine you will need to submit the link of the actual feed located on your website to the RSS directories. There is a large list of RSS directories at http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm. If you prefer to automate the submission process try RSS Submit at:

http://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html. An evaluation version is available.

About the Author:

Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

Author: S. Housley
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Perhaps you have even used it to catch up on your daily news from your favorite websites. Great free resources like the Google Reader makes it a breeze to keep up with the latest happenings on topics of interest to you.

But there is another side to RSS I would like to discuss with you today, and that’s RSS syndication also known as RSS submission which is the process of using this technology to get better page rankings in the search engines and increase web traffic to your website.

I am going to suggest to you that this is a vital process for you to understand and start using as the vast majority of your competition (other web sites) are not leveraging this technology. So using feed submission is a great way to assist you in leapfrogging your competition.

But lets take a step back and understand how the process works. Firstly in order to use RSS like this, you need an RSS feed.

Think of an RSS feed as just a description of one or more pages on a website. It’s a standard format that can be read by literally millions of programs on the internet.

You see computers being what they are, they cannot understand a particular piece of information unless they understand the structure. Because RSS is a documented format, it means all these programs that use RSS can then understand how to read an RSS feed, and how to process the contents in the file.

Many websites have this technology built in. If you are running a wordpress blog you automatically have this technology built in to every post you make on the website.

And even if your using a static website without RSS feeds, you can invest in an inexpensive RSS script to product RSS feeds for your website.

As I mentioned previously RSS technology has mainly been used to retrieve information for a group of websites (news, new content, etc). It has not really been used to assist you in getting visitors to your website or ranking better in google.

But new exciting software is coming out to leverage the power of RSS to get the word out about your website.

Entire websites are developed and being developed as RSS Aggregators, in other words sites dedicated to receiving information about the content that is on other websites. And guess what? They use RSS technology as well.

Google, the premier search engine itself invested million purchasing a major RSS website called feedburner. Further they then added to their AdSense program a module for RSS Feeds. AdSense is the most widely used technology to put advertisements on websites that we know of today.

I am hoping your starting to see where I am going with this, if entire sites are setting themselves up to use RSS exclusively and Google themselves are heavily investing in RSS technology, then this is something that internet marketers should be looking at.

Google realize that RSS is all about tracking content changes, because anytime a website adds content to their website (if they are using RSS technology) then their RSS feed is updated automatically.

And with RSS aggregator websites actively seeking new content via RSS feeds, almost always allowing website owners to “send” their RSS feed for free, the time is ripe for you to start using this in your internet marketing.

You see any time you submit RSS feed files to these websites, they store the file on their servers and provide a backlink (a link back to your website). And because google love new content, they visit these sites often, and as a result they rank these websites more prominently in the search engines, meaning more visitors find that content.

The end result is your website gets found by more visitors, either indirectly by the link on the RSS aggregator website, or directly in the search engines because your website now ranks better because of the links from the RSS aggregator sites.

In the past it has been rather time consuming to manually submit RSS feeds to these websites. But great software is constantly coming out that will automate this process.

Early versions of the software would require you to create your own RSS feed and to specify which sites to submit to, and it although quicker than a pure manual process would still be a time consuming process.

More recent versions of the software actually create RSS feeds automatically and submit automatically to the RSS aggregator websites every time you post. There are versions of the software that work as a desktop application, or on a server. There are even versions of the software that work with the most popular blog platform on the internet, WordPress.

Still more versions of the software allow you to merge feeds (create a new RSS feed from two or more existing RSS feeds) and to then allow you to submit that for more backlinks and more rankings!

So make sure you take the time to investigate the best RSS submit technology available and take the time to under RSS feeds. Your web site will thank you in the form of extra web traffic and better rankings in Google.

Remember, if Google thinks enough of the technology to be sinking millions into it, it’s not a fad, but it’s here to stay!

Author: Tim Buchalka
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Channel Title
The channel title in your RSS Feed is the most important part of it. It should contain your most important keywords. Avoid using any HTML in channel title to maximize compatibility with RSS readers. Your channel title is the first thing that catches the eye of a user. It should, therefore, create a positive impression. Search engines often use the information contained in the feed’s channel title to index the feed. As far as possible avoid using your blog/site name in the channel title as it will reduce your keyword density. If you must, put it at the end of the title.

Channel Description
Use the channel description field to give a compelling overview of your article. It should contain related keywords and phrases. But it still needs to be written in such a way that it attracts visitors. SEO optimization of the content is fine as long as it is not at the expense of the reader.

RSS Feed Item Titles
The Feed item titles can be 50-75 characters long. Avoid using any HTML to increase compatibility with feed readers. The item titles serve the same purpose headlines serve on a webpage. It should be compelling so that people will want to click on the link. It should also include relevant keywords and phrases.

Optimize RSS
Optimize your feed for both search engines and your readers. Use proper grammar and spelling in your feed. While putting relevant keywords in your feed is a good idea, you are not supposed to overdo it. Don’t forget that it is the quality of the content in your feed, and not the keyword density, that will make people want to click. If you put links in the description, use an anchor text that has relevant keywords and phrases. Search engines often use anchor text to determine a site’s ranking for specific keywords and phrases.

Limit the size of your feed
Routinely remove old feed items from your RSS Feeds. Limit the number of Feed items so that the feed will load quickly in RSS readers.

Add an Image to your feed
You can add a small image to your feed as it will enhance your feed’s appearance in RSS readers. Most RSS readers are capable of showing images. You can also add images in the feed description field. Don’t forget to refer to the full URL of the image.

Instant visibility

RSS Feeds help both start-ups and established websites. The biggest problem faced by all start-up websites is the lack of traffic. You have just started a website and no one knows about it. Google is going to take sometime to acknowledge your existence. So how do you quickly generate some traffic? Well, publish a feed and then submit it to the feed aggregators. There are several feed aggregators and they all receive a large number of visitors. So by adding your feed to these aggregators you will instantly improve your visibility on the internet. If you give good content, people will subscribe to your feed which will eventually result in a constant stream of traffic. Both start-ups and established websites can build their brand and visitor loyalty through their feeds.

Having some subscribers is a valid reason to publish more content. And whenever you add content, your subscribers will automatically be updated. So you don’t have to worry about having no one to read your posts.

Unlike email marketing, which most of us have tried at least once, feed marketing isn’t considered spam. Feeds are sent to only those people who have subscribed to them. And since feeds are always delivered by a trusted service like Feedburner, you don’t have to worry about your feed not reaching your subscriber.

RSS Feeds are also an efficient means of retaining visitors by reminding them of your site’s existence and encouraging them to make a visit.

How do I make the Feed work for me?

To get the most out of your feed you should give it a suitable title and description. The link should point to the webpage that contains the content.

Validate your RSS Feed. RSS Feeds are written in a special language called XML. By validating your feed you will be able to know whether your feed conforms to the RSS format standard.
Put a link to your feed on your webpage where it is visible to everybody. This will encourage more visitors to subscribe to your feed.

Add your feed to as many feed aggregators as possible.
Give subscribers the option of adding the feed to the reader of their choice. You needn’t limit this to iGoogle and My Yahoo. Several feed readers are available and many of them are quite popular.
Update your feed as soon as you add new content. The purpose of a feed is to keep visitors up-to-date with the content. To make this possible you need to update your feed regularly.

Why should I publish a feed?
Well, I am glad you asked. You need to publish a feed for two reasons. The first one is that your competition (rival websites) may be publishing feeds. In that case if you do not publish feeds you will lag behind them. The second reason is that your competition may not be publishing feeds. In that case if you use feeds you can leapfrog your competition. In either case publishing a feed is a great marketing strategy.

How can I start feed marketing?
The first thing you need to do is to publish a feed. An RSS feed is written in a special language called XML. Several programs on the internet can read this language. Many modern websites have this technology built in. For instance, blogging platforms like blogger and WordPress will automatically generate a feed every time you add a post. If you have a static html site, you will need to create a feed using xml. RSS feed scripts can be coded easily so that shouldn’t prevent you from feed marketing.

RSS is not a new technology. It has been around for a while. But in the early days, it was not used with the objective of generating traffic. Today the situation has changed. Dedicated websites are now being with the sole objective of receiving and delivering feeds. Not so long ago, Google spent millions to acquire FeedBurner a very popular service that delivers feeds via email and feed readers. They also built the popular feed reader iGoogle. And now Google even lets ad sense publishers show ads on their feeds. So if your feed has a good fan-following you will make some money just by showing ads on them.

The major players on the internet have discovered the potential of feeds. It is time you started using this technology to your advantage.

Why search engines love feeds
Feeds are all about changing content on a website. And since feed aggregators store feeds of various sites, search engines spider them more often. As you probably know when your feed gets added to an aggregator you get a back link from them. Most feed aggregators receive a large number of visitors making it possible for your feed to be seen by more people. The end result is that your website gets found by more visitors. You get visitors through the links on the aggregator sites. You also get visitors through search engines because of improved search rankings due to the back links from aggregator sites.

How to submit your feed to aggregators?
In the past manual submission was the only option. While this is possible to a certain extent, it is a huge waste of time. Now sophisticated automated submission tools are available. Before you choose one take time to investigate the latest RSS submit technology. New Feed Aggregators arrive all the time. The submission tool you use should be able to catch up with them.

RSS Feeds are an effective method of syndicating your content all over the internet. They are very powerful in driving traffic to your site. To get the most out of your feed you need to submit it to as many RSS feed directories as possible. Here are a few tips on RSS Feed Submission.

Where to submit?

You have heard of article directories where people submit their articles to get a back link in return. An example is the hugely successful Ezine Articles. Similarly there are RSS Feed Directories. An RSS Feed Directory is a website that contains a huge database of RSS Feeds submitted by users.

Popular feed directories attract a large number of visitors. Your feed will appear when they search through the tags you specified while submitting your feed. If they find your content helpful they will subscribe to it. Another advantage of feed submission is the instant availability of a back-link. When your feed gets added to one of these directories you also receive a back-link from them. And since Google puts too much emphasis on link popularity your search rankings will suddenly rise.

How to submit your feed?

To submit your feeds, you need to locate the popular feed directories. There are several of them. Do a quick Google search. Many feed directories will require you to sign up for an account before you can submit your feed. You can submit your feed manually. The only problem with this mode of submission is that it takes a lot of time. You can also use a feed submission service to get your feed submitted to several feed directories all at once. There are several free submission services. Many of these services will allow you to submit your feed to 20-30 feed directories at the same time.

To get your feed submitted to feed directories you need the following information.

Your site/blog name
Your site/blog description
Your site/blog URL
Your feed URL (This is the URL that appears in the address bar of your browser when you view the feed).

There are some paid submission tools too. Many of them offer value for money. But do your homework before you choose one.