Ebook Project: Releasing an Ebook as a Torrent File

Caroline, I’m a Torrent-Dummy so forgive me if this is obvious, but it seems to me there should be some way to create a dedicated seeding of a file from a web server. The mechanics of P2P seem simple enough: 2 clients, each connected to the Internet handshaking. I would think there’s got to be some way to run the client from a server, especially if it’s only to seed (or serve) files rather than receive any. Have you looked into that at all?

Caroline,
Are you able to track how many times your ebook is downloaded. Have you got any tracking in place anywhere? Links to your website, etc? I’ve not heard of many people using Torrents as a marketing distribution tactic. I’d be interested to see how well it gets your message out. Just starting reading your blog this weekend. Love it. Keep up the good work.

Cheers,
Charles

hey Caorilne,
This post is very advanced in terms of the info given on Torrents. I reckon this s pretty big in UK, as my other european friends d’t seem to use it that ofte, while I tend to get a lotta stuff from my Utorrent client. In terms of sites, apart from a very good list you have given I also like ISOHUNT and TORRENTSPY.
Of course, these sites are perfectly clean one day and sleazily clad the next.

The polite way to seed a torrent is 1 1/2 times the amount downloaded. You will need to seed for a long time because as small as the book is it will not take much time to seed 1 1/2 for the people downloading.
I second the idea of UTorrent and IsoHunt

@Scott, no that’s not something I have looked into but the whole point of peer to peer is that you don’t need a dedicated server to host your files. I left my PC on for a couple of days and there are now 20 seeders of the book so I no longer need to seed it myself.

@Charles, no unfortunately there is no way to track the downloads. I could add tracking to the download link that I host here on my blog but as I am encouraging the distribution of the PDF itself it is rather pointless as the numbers would be inaccurate. And as far as I know there is no way to track Torrent downloads.

@Hersh, I tried those two but couldn’t seem to get submission to work.

@Jim, yeah it didn’t take long to seed, I’ve seeded around 8 times but now I find that nobody is downloading from me anymore as there must be enough copies floating around now which is cool.

Hi Caroline,

Thanks for introducing the arcane topic (to me) of Torrents.
From the Dept. of Thinking Out Loud:

Given my lack of understanding of the Torrents P2P system, my visions of revisions immediately went into nightmare mode.
What happens if you revise the book, start seeding it, yet other peers continue to seed the older version(s)?

Regardless of the answer to THAT question, what kind of server hit will YOU face if tens of thousands of faithful followers seek to download revision 2.9? Will the Torrents crowd look to their beloved P2P, or will they click that PDF link and come directly to you?

Will you need to find a host for unlimited downloads? If so,
doesn’t that negate the purpose of using Torrents?

Cheers,

Mitch

Caroline, I understand that P2P is designed to bypass dedicated servers but in reading your post I assumed leaving your PC on for several days wasn’t something you were comfortable with–or would normally do? If I’m wrong (which happens a lot) forgive me. I just saw that as a minor hurdle that should be easy to get around.

I certainly wouldn’t suggest using dedicated hosting for large files as the bandwidth rates would kill you, but I can see 2 reasons why it might be worth looking into for eBooks and smaller type files.

First, to ensure around the clock seeding. Even now while it seems your eBook may be well seeded on the network, you have no control over its availability and there could be times when nobody seeding it is online. I’m a control freak with my business, so couldn’t have that looming over me.

Second, while not perfect or all-inclusive it would give you some tracking of the 1st tier downloads of your eBook. Obviously you can’t track how others share it, but this would give you some information to form better conclusions about your distribution reach.

Anyway, thank you for opening my eyes to Torrents as a delivery system and good luck with the results. I’ve never given them much thought for my business, but I’ve released a lot of niche eBooks/reports in the past, mostly involving music or entertainment and imagine they’d probably get some hits if I ever put them out over P2P.

guys, just to update you on a security update n Torrent clients, Check this techcrunch:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/17/bittorrent-clients-are-a-security-risk-riaa-probably-ecstatic/

Just about updating your torrent client. Hope its helpful.

@Mitchell, yep you can’t get around the revision problem with the Torrent system which is why I have embedded links directly into the ebook now so that should help. For your second question, it doesn’t matter how many people download it because I am no longer seeding it - the whole point of peer to peer is that people download it from each other so there is no need for a central server.

@Scott, No I wouldn’t normally leave my PC on for days but I just happened to be going away for a couple of days just hours after starting to seed the Torrent and I wanted to leave it a while longer which is why I left it on. I wouldn’t bother with a dedicated host for a Torrent because quite frankly its a rather obscure method of distribution and not one that I expect many downloads from. Just something fun to experiment with.

@Hersh, good job I use Azureus then :p

Hi Caroline,
Thanks for clearing up question #1, regarding revisions.
I didn’t make my second question very clear: while Torrent downloads are fine for whatever current version you seeded,
due to the very link embedded in the PDF, if everyone who downloaded the book clicks that link, YOU, not P2P network, will have to use your bandwidth to provide the update.

I suppose it’s really academic, since you state that it is an obscure distribution channel, anyway. I just wanted to clarify my question. :)

Cheers,

Mitch

Haha thats how I found your site!

I decided to give this technique a shot today and wrote a small 5 page ebook with some affiliate links in it.

Within 15 minutes several people downloaded my ebook it and I saw how powerful this method is…

HOWEVER…I got banned by Mininova.org for spamming and violating rule#2:
Don’t upload spam torrents like free iPod/PSP/phones/$$$ stuff.

and Rule#4:
Viruses, spyware, affiliate links and everything related is strictly prohibited.

I saw that your Ebook does contain affiliate links Caroline.

After the ban I decided to have a chat with one of the admins on IRC to explain the situation and he unbanned me.

He also warned me not to do that ever again or he will ban my IP on every other torrent site I can think of! In other words: I have to upload quality content only.

Concluding after uploading and having a chat with the admin that torrent sites are interlinked and have a shared database…so beware of what you upload.

(now that’s weird! they publish porn as well… is that quality??)

Andre’s last blog post..How to make a favicon.ico for Wordpress, Html or PhpBB

@Andre, wow that’s interesting stuff. Yes my ebook does indeed contain affiliate links but they are carefully woven into the content and I don’t think anybody would argue that the ebook offers plenty of value. How good was your ebook? :)

As with everything in the world of Internet Marketing, your number one priority with everything you do must be to DELIVER VALUE to your readers / customers.

I made a nice lay out, proper english, a simple front cover, etc.

Probably picked the wrong title: ”Make Big Money…”

(I was explaining the Big Fish Games affiliate program and how good it’s multi tier program is/sounds but tried to not make it sound like a sales pitch…) and violated rule#2!

I won’t pick such a title again which can be misinterpreted as, probably, gambling(”make big money”…). But that probably depends on the situation. I’m pretty sure the admins of mininova did not look into the booklet itself.

Quality content is ofcourse subjective:
What is real quality content? and how do you deliver quality content the best way?

Perhaps this is a good subject to research and write an article about.

If you feel inspired, go ahead:-) But its something to think about.

Andre’s last blog post..Earn Big Money With Big Fish Games™

@Andre, if the only purpose of the book was to promote that affiliate program then yeah I would call that spam too :/ You need to come up with an idea for creating something useful and find a way to weave in your affiliate program.

The way to determine good content - easy: simply ask, what will my readers get out of this? If you can’t think of anything, it needs more work!

I’m learning :-) Thank you for your advice Caroline.

Let me ”reward” you with this very handy URL:
http://www.addurl.nu/

Maybe you alread have it, but other visitors of your blog might find this handy as well:)

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