[EDITOR'S NOTE: Len McGrane is a student of Dan Ho's article marketing coaching program. We invited him to describe Dan's affiliate training from the inside.]

I don't know anything about you, but I'll bet you find it easy to get sidetracked. Like me. Like many people I know.

In fact, my guess is most Internet-based business people include a productivity clause in their New Year's resolutions - each year.

Well, Dan Ho's article marketing coaching program has sorted this one for me. Absolutely.

Suddenly it's become easy for me each day to write big meaty 600-800 word articles on two topics I knew nothing about when I joined eight weeks ago. His small monthly membership fee has been more than paid for in commissions. And I'm well on target for my first goal of a sale a week. When that's hammered down tight I'll aim for one a day.

When I signed up I was a little skeptical.

But Allan Gardyne had recommended Dan, and I remembered reading some years earlier about Dan's success promoting a health company based here in New Zealand where I live. Actually that story had been quite inspirational, although when I tried to do the same thing myself I had failed.

So I paid up.

The first thing I noticed was Dan's confident, informal, approachable manner. There was nothing I'm-the-guru about him. If anything he was self-deprecating. (New Zealanders like that.)

He'd worked with students before, while testing his program, and that showed. He was quick and clear.

Keywords provided

Another thing, from those first days. His welcome pack gave me a list of keywords to write articles about and a couple of examples. Right away I had something productive to do. If I remember correctly there were also a couple of helpful teleconferences early on. I used Skype and the calls were well timed for someone in my time zone.

A week after I joined another set of five pairs of keywords arrived; posted on the forum. And this has continued each week. They're well paired. I write each article around one main keyword and it is no trouble to weave the secondary one into the copy. The search engines credit my one article with two keywords.

Dan's affiliate training program promotes products from just two companies. Both pay recurring commissions over the lifetime of the customers. Five days after I was approved as an affiliate with one of them I got my first sale. (Incidentally, that was the same New Zealand company which I had not been able to make money from on my own when I first read Dan's story.) And writing about the same products week after week makes it fairly easy to turn out an article.

This constant supply of a few keywords based around just two product lines is the thing that helps me the most. Remember, I get sidetracked. Not with this.

In the past other people have told me how to do affiliate marketing: Dan doesn't. Instead he spoonfeeds me step by step. All I have to do is write intelligently and constructively around the keyword for the day. And if I don't want to do that, Dan has a growing group of writers who will do that for me for $7 an article, under his watchful editor's eye.

I mean, it doesn't seem possible to make this any easier. Does it?

There's a friendly forum tied in with the program. Dan and a couple of associates answer questions there and publicly critique articles when asked. The forum layout is a bit dated, but it's functional.

And really that's all it is. Keywords in - articles out - money at the bank.

Why it works for me

I've been wondering why it works so well for me, and I can think of three reasons.

A big one is Dan's generosity.

Here's a guy who has built a steady income from article marketing for products that pay lifetime commissions, and could have turned his back on, and forgotten about, those "struggle days" at the beginning when the commissions were small and infrequent. Instead he sends people like me a fresh set of keywords each week so I can do the same. Nothing flashy. Just pairs of keywords. But selected by someone who has done exactly this with exactly the same products and developed substantial recurring income.

And that's the second thing I like about the program. It's packed with quiet motivation.

Not hype. Not excited weekly teleconferences spotlighting Internet marketing gurus, blah blah blah ... Dan just keeps repeating his formula - write articles around the right keywords for a product that pays lifetime commissions and you will establish an income. I guess it's the motivation of seeing something work; something simple and repeatable. Dan's done it. I'm making commissions and so are others in the group. It sort of feels like you're on a road bike, riding in the peloton, where the effort of the group makes it easier to ride faster and longer.

Article examples is another thing that makes this tick.

For 35 years or so I've been writing for a living. So I can turn out a piece with my hands behind my back. But Dan has been doing this for several years in a specific field - the article marketing field - and the example articles he posts on the member's forum are giving me ideas and templates that work. My articles have already got almost 2000 page views on the article directory, and newsletter editors have picked up and re-published dozens of them.

One thing I've noticed about this - the article directory where we post our pieces is full of weak articles. They are frequently bland and general. So someone who learns to write even moderately well, with some specifics and a freshness in the content, is going to stand head and shoulders above the crowd in that directory.

Of course, there's a glaring downside to my story. Dan's program is putting money in my bank and lining me up for recurring commissions because I am willing to write an article a day.

It all depends on that.

So while I'd recommend Dan's modestly priced program to anyone, there is one qualification - only join if you are willing to write an article on most days, learning as you go. If you can't do this, even with a steady supply of five keywords a week to write about, and examples of how to do it, and the motivation of the others in the group making money from simply doing this, then this is probably not for you.

But for me it has seldom been this easy.

Learn more about Dan's article marketing coaching.

About the Author
In my experience, most web businesses can get on to the top of Google for the keywords serious visitors use. It's not rocket science. But it does take hard work, good content and links from sites Google trusts and respects. Put my team to work getting YOUR site on to the top of Google. Click now and see how it's done at PageOneOfGoogle.com