After following setup instructions, ads do not display; site will not validate

After following the setup instructions to the letter, the ads do not display, and the site will not validate. I've tried variations, but none works. (I'm supposed to be a software engineer, yet I can't make it work!)

1. I put 'ad_network_431.php' and a blank 'ad_network_ads_431.txt' (with 'write' permission) in the 'public_html' directory at http://www.WorldWideNewsArticles.com.

2.a. I added
<?php
ini_set ("include_path", ini_get ("include_path") . ':../:../../:../../../:../../../../');
include ('ad_network_431.php');
echo $ad_network;
?>
in my file 'http://www.WorldWideNewsArticles.com/BreakingNews/files/footer.php', but the ads didn't appear in the footer of the default 'index.php' at 'http://www.WorldWideNewsArticles.com/BreakingNews/'

2.b. I changed the code above from
include ('ad_network_431.php');
to
include ('../../ad_network_431.php');
and to
include ('../ad_network_431.php');
to specify the relative path in case that caused the problem, but that didn't work either.

3. There was a (blank) '.htaccess' already in 'public_html'; so, I didn't touch that (according to the instructions). Because that didn't work, I put "AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .htm .html" into the file, but that didn't work. A forum member suggested removing the "application/", which I did, but that didn't work either.

4. I tried to validate both 'http://www.WorldWideNewsArticles.com' and 'http://www.WorldWideNewsArticles.com/BreakingNews/', but neither gets validated.

5. The DigitalPoint page always says "Account not not yet activated." As I've received no "activation" e-mail after creating my account, I assume that validating the web site activates it. Right or wrong? Or is it a "Catch 22" situation?

Overall, the ad-sharing is a great idea, if only it worked! Or, if it does work, if only the instructions were clearer!