21/02: Using Torrent Files To Promote Your Business

A lot of people overlook this obvious free promotional and distribution method so hopefully this article will help those who are unfamiliar with torrents and file sharing applications and introduce a new promotional avenue for your online business.

If you've heard of viral marketing and viral ebooks, you will soon see how using torrents can get your viral marketing products out to a much larger audience.

Most people think of torrent sites as places for sharing music, software and movies illegally, and they are very popular for these purposes, but there also plenty of legitimate file downloads available too. We'll assume that you are not at all familiar with torrents and take this step by step. 

There is a short list of things you are going to need before you can start making and sharing torrent files:-

1) Software to make torrent files -  I use MakeTorrent v2.0 which is a free download and very small.

2) A File Sharing Client - there are several to choose from but I recommend UTorrent 

3) An account with a torrent hosting site such as ThePirateBay.org (again there are lots of others but this will do fine to get you started).

OK, let's assume you have a viral ebook that you want to distribute to the world at large. You have edited the book to include all your referral links, affiliate programs etc. and your raw PDF file is sitting there waiting for you to take action.

Firstly, it is a good idea to compress the book into a zip file. With windows this is very simple, just right click on the file and from the pop up menu select "Send To" and then "Compressed (zipped) Folder". Save the file with the name of your choosing and you're done.

The next thing to do is make a torrent file from the folder you have just zipped. Open MakeTorrent and you will see a screen like the one below.

Select the "Create Torrent" tab and check the "Classic" option. Click on file or dir to navigate your way to the zipped file you just created and ensure the radio button is checked as shown above.

OK, it is vital that before going any further, you put the correct tracker code in the box provided. You will get this from your PirateBay account and you can find the available trackers by logging in and selecting "upload torrent" at the site. You will then see the trackers available. Copy and paste one into the Tracker field in MakeTorrent as shown above. 

Once all this is in order, just click on the "Create Torrent Now" button and presto, you have created your first torrent - congratulations. Save it somewhere safe along with the compressed file.

Next, log into the PirateBay if you aren't already, find and click on "upload torrent" and fill in all the required information. A good description is useful for those searching for files so be descriptive.

As soon as you have successfully uploaded the file, download it. Just click the download link that appears on the site after it is successfully uploaded. uTorrent should automatically open, provided you have associated it with torrent files and this should have been done automatically when you installed the program. 

When UTorrent asks where to save the file, you MUST specify the exact location on your hard drive where you saved the original torrent file. As soon as you do so, the file should show in Utorrent as 100% complete and "seeding" - this means that you are making the file available to others on the web. You must leave uTorrent running to enable others to start downloading the file. If you do not, nobody will be able to get it and start seeding it for others. If your torrent proves popular, you can normally let others take over the seeding after a while, but you should check periodically to make sure that there are not loads of people trying to get it and no seeds available. As the creator of the torrent, it's your job to make it as accessible as possible.

In a nutshell, that's it - your file will now continue to be downloaded and passed around the internet. Hopefully it will bring you traffic, referrals, sales or whatever you hoped to achieve, all virally and with little effort on your part after the initial setup.