I am assuming Arduino does have power the LED is lit; The middle pad and +5v are now solder together. I was able to program the mini using an Arduino Mega but now I am using the Mega for a permanent project and thats why I bought the FTDI programmer. More than likely the FTDI programmer is a clone.
Using a meter I verified TX pin to TX on the IC and the same for RX. I check both on the FTDI chip and the atmega328.