This is only of interest for you, if you want to make money on Facebook or Instagram.
The product is called Castaway Commissions, and it consists of two handy ebooks and a series of shorter videos, containing the same content.
And what does that content teach you?
In short, how you can use your posts on either or both of these social networks to make money. That part is good. I’ve tried it on Facebook, and if I’d chosen to have a bigger group of “friends” I would surely have made an income.
There’s a lot of tips about how to get engagement and lots of likes and shares.
I loved their list of best times to post on Facebook.
Those were things I liked.
Now, let’s go on to the things I don’t like about Castaway Commissions:
- The way they tell you to use videos on Facebook. It’s unethical. They tell you to download videos from YouTube and share on your wall. Facebook are totally fine about it, but I don’t compare my sense of ethics to Facebook’s. What Ben teaches here is theft, and that Facebook approves of theft, too, doesn’t make it any better.
- The promotion of another product inside this one. I haven’t looked at that product, but it’s my impression that it’s MLM or something. My intuition says I should stay away from it, but Ben Martin and Anji Long, the creators of Castaway Commissions, make money with it. And when I approached Ben about it, he replied: “One of the main affiliate offers I’ve been making money with recently has been that. So I wanted people to be able to set up with that. Often in a course they won’t even share what offers they used to make money.” That makes sense, but I wanted to tell you what I thought about it, too.
Conclusion
Good things about it for sure. Great advice on how to get engagement and make money.
If you stay away from using their video tip, or if you don’t mind, and if you don’t jump blindly into buying that product they promote, the MLM, then you should be fine, too.
Feel free to ask me questions.
Always. If you’re in doubt of whether or not a product can help you in your specific situation, send me a mail.
If you have any questions at all about a product, just ask. I go through them, so I know what they contain, but if I’m not able to answer, I have access to the vendors and can ask them.
Check out Castaway Commissions here Castaway Commissions is no longer availabley
I would like to categorically refute some of the things that Britt says here. First off, I do not encourage theft in my product. There is something called a creative commons license on YouTube, that allows you to legally use some videos.
Perhaps (as I spent 3 months putting so much effort into Castaway Commissions) that slipped my mind.
Secondly, I do not promote MLM inside the members area. The offer Britt mentioned is called IM Exclusive. I have a documented conversation with Britt, where I told her this was an affiliate system. Not MLM.
It’s very sad that Britt did not get her facts right here. And one has to consider what action to take when mistruths are published about them and their product.
Thanks for your comment, Ben.
Yes, you can use creative commons videos from YouTube. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get the impression that those were the ones you were talking about. When you look for creative commons videos, the procedure is quite different. The videos you mentioned, you found through searches inside the video part, and not inside the creative commons. And no, you didn’t mention the word creative commons anywhere in the product. That would have been fine if you did.
Yes, that’s true that you said it was an affiliate system. I quoted what you told me, as you can see. The way it worked looked to me as if it was MLM, because you were selling entrances. They might call it something else, and it might be a completely fine product. I just didn’t like it, and I told you so up front.
Please let “one” consider whatever action “one” finds relevant. If you can point out where you make it obvious that you’re talking about Creative Commons, and where you tell your readers to make sure not to take videos from people who are making money with them on YouTube from ads to serve your own means, you might even have a case.
Openly calling a decent guy a thief is not the actions of someone who has any class whatsoever. You’re just like a journalist, looking for dirt on a guy who’s honest, and has six years of great reputation to prove it.
After me confirming that it wasn’t an MLM, you had no reason to write and make it look like it was. Terrible way to treat people.
Shame on you.
I didn’t call you a thief. I said, and I quote: “What Ben teaches here is theft”. Big difference.
Inside Castaway Commissions, you tell people to go to YouTube and search for a video using your special keywords. (Not a word about Creative Commons here.)
Then you say: “Here’s what you do when you find a good video: Click on the video – Grab the url and download it to your computer using [tool name here]. You’ll then upload that video directly to your Facebook page with an attention grabbing caption that causes people to stop.”
You show an example. It’s easy to look up that video on YouTube. The license? “Standard YouTube License”.
But instead of admitting to your mistake, you say that I’m not a decent person, and that I treat people in a terrible way, and then finishes it with “shame on you.”
Well, I’m not ashamed of telling the truth to my list. I think they deserve that. Are you lying to your list? Or withholding truth?
Like I said, I don’t find that ethical. People are making money with their videos on YouTube. Taking them away and showing them as your own on Facebook is. not. ethical.
I never asked you if it was MLM. It was a thought that came to me while writing the mail in which I promoted your product. Seeing your reaction to an honest review makes me regret that decision by the way, but that’s another story. I even defended it when a subscriber mailed me and asked a question.
Anyway, what I wrote to you about IM Exclusive was:
Still, I admit that I could be wrong about this being MLM. Not that MLM is not illegal in any way, by the way. So this is just another affiliate product. And it’s made by… hm… the sales page doesn’t say. And it can be bought through one of the frequently used affiliate portals like JVZoo, WarriorPlus, or Clickbank? Checking… No. The creator has his own portal. That alone is something that makes me stay away from becoming an affiliate. But you’re not validating my words to my subscribers, my list. You’re focusing on the word MLM only. The words I used were: “I haven’t looked at that product, but it’s my impression that it’s MLM or something.”
I think we can agree to it being “something” at least, right? You say an affiliate offer. The sales page doesn’t mention the word “affiliate” anywhere. It just says you get a funnel, coaching, webinar funnels, and tripwire funnels. It doesn’t say what the funnels are about. And then it has a false scarcity at the top. That counter is resetting the next time you visit the site. I don’t like things that are fake like that.
Besides, when I sign up to promote a product as an affiliate, I don’t have to pay an entrance first. That’s a thing you do with MLM. Maybe that’s why I thought of MLM when I checked that product.
Hi Ben,
Please note that YouTube’s Creative Commons rules allows you to edit, change and use videos of YouTube FOR THE YOUTBUE COMMUNITY. Not for use on Facebook or anywhere else.
(Link here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2797468?hl=en&ref_topic=2778546)
It is against YouTube’s ToS to download the videos on YouTube, Creative Commons or not.
What you advice people to do here is against the rules stated by YouTube.
Regards,
Cyril
Thanks for making it clear 🙂
Thank you for the honest review, Britt.
Well done!
Thank you, Barry 🙂
Thank you for the honest review, Britt!
If Ben is smart, he’s frantically re-recording his videos right now to make them compliant with YouTube’s use policies so that he doesn’t get his customers banned or sued.
It’s bad enough that he’s giving people advice that will get them in trouble…worse that he doesn’t seem to care in his comments here on your blog.
I agree. Thank you for your comment 🙂