Just a short guide i wrote on how to start a private torrent site
Domain:
your going to need to go with a private domain registry i use http://www.katzglobal.com/hosting/anonymous-domains.html it costs alot but its worth it you don't want to use a regular domain register even with fake info because your ip is logged when you registered the domain and you still don't want to use fake details because its against ICANN policy and they will take your domain if they find out
Hosting:
First rule is to get a Dedicated server if you don't your site will not run properly and once you get some members it wont run at all because of the large amount of cpu usage a torrent site can use this can be expensive but its needed second rule is to host it offshore try to stay away from Malaysia (they have been taking down alot of torrent sites recently) and any other countries who don't like torrent sites canada can be safe if there is no music on your site but i wouldn't risk it The Netherlands is where i suggest hosting your site
Source Code:
most private torrent sites use tbdev source code which can be found at http://tbdev.net/ its good source code and has a large amount of mods on the site and you will have to install some (invite mod, snatchlist, passkey ect..) this will take a bit of coding knowledge and if you don't know how to code it will give you headaches if your planning on running a private torrent site i suggest getting a coder you will probably have to pay him but if your lucky you might be able to find someone who will work just because he wants to be a part of the site first thing your going to want to do before doing any mods is make the site secure there are alot of holes in the script which need to be fixed and if you dont fix them YOU WILL GET HACKED there are alot of hackers who use torrent sites and they will try to attack your site the most common type of attack is DDOS which can cripple a server make sure you or your coder knows how to deal with these kind of attacks i am a coder so never had a problem but if you dont know how to code and dont have someone who does you will have problems
Design:
another important thing is the design and whats great is there are alot of designers in the torrent world who will work for free this is how i got all of my designs simply start out with a nice login and signup page and make a competition on the site for the design (offer vip membership or upload credit) this way the ugly signup page and login page don't scare users off right away hehe your coder will need to integrate the design into the site and do the css coding and everything the designers in the torrent world usually dont do that they just give you a image you need to slice code and make a style sheet
Advertising:
Before advertising the site your going to want to try to find some uploaders before you do anything (content is important!!) there are a lot of people on the net (filesharing torrent forums would be great place to ask around) who have seedbox which they will upload from for you for nothing more than a shinny uploader title and special privileges now lets get back to the advertising you need to make a abbreviation to refer to your site scenetorrents.org uses SCT feedthe.net uses FTN not hard to do but important hehe never post the url anywhere and make it a rule to never post it start out as invite only make a post on a invite site saying you have invite to a new super secret torrent site that is just starting up (be as secretive as possible) and soon you will have people begging to join your site for some reason people love to join secret sites even if they don't know anything about the site or its content you may want to make a nice userbar with your abbreviation and allow users to use this in there signature basically make people think you don't want members then they will want to join
IRC:
members of private torrent sites like irc channels make sure you have one google it if you don't know how to make one its very easy
Paying Server Costs:
members of private torrent sites are usually pretty generous and you should be able to get $300+ a month with even a userbase under 1k users with donations if your not getting donations after the first month send all users a message saying you need donations try not to threaten to close the site right off the bat this may driver users away wait a few months before doing that
Domain:
your going to need to go with a private domain registry i use http://www.katzglobal.com/hosting/anonymous-domains.html it costs alot but its worth it you don't want to use a regular domain register even with fake info because your ip is logged when you registered the domain and you still don't want to use fake details because its against ICANN policy and they will take your domain if they find out
Hosting:
First rule is to get a Dedicated server if you don't your site will not run properly and once you get some members it wont run at all because of the large amount of cpu usage a torrent site can use this can be expensive but its needed second rule is to host it offshore try to stay away from Malaysia (they have been taking down alot of torrent sites recently) and any other countries who don't like torrent sites canada can be safe if there is no music on your site but i wouldn't risk it The Netherlands is where i suggest hosting your site
Source Code:
most private torrent sites use tbdev source code which can be found at http://tbdev.net/ its good source code and has a large amount of mods on the site and you will have to install some (invite mod, snatchlist, passkey ect..) this will take a bit of coding knowledge and if you don't know how to code it will give you headaches if your planning on running a private torrent site i suggest getting a coder you will probably have to pay him but if your lucky you might be able to find someone who will work just because he wants to be a part of the site first thing your going to want to do before doing any mods is make the site secure there are alot of holes in the script which need to be fixed and if you dont fix them YOU WILL GET HACKED there are alot of hackers who use torrent sites and they will try to attack your site the most common type of attack is DDOS which can cripple a server make sure you or your coder knows how to deal with these kind of attacks i am a coder so never had a problem but if you dont know how to code and dont have someone who does you will have problems
Design:
another important thing is the design and whats great is there are alot of designers in the torrent world who will work for free this is how i got all of my designs simply start out with a nice login and signup page and make a competition on the site for the design (offer vip membership or upload credit) this way the ugly signup page and login page don't scare users off right away hehe your coder will need to integrate the design into the site and do the css coding and everything the designers in the torrent world usually dont do that they just give you a image you need to slice code and make a style sheet
Advertising:
Before advertising the site your going to want to try to find some uploaders before you do anything (content is important!!) there are a lot of people on the net (filesharing torrent forums would be great place to ask around) who have seedbox which they will upload from for you for nothing more than a shinny uploader title and special privileges now lets get back to the advertising you need to make a abbreviation to refer to your site scenetorrents.org uses SCT feedthe.net uses FTN not hard to do but important hehe never post the url anywhere and make it a rule to never post it start out as invite only make a post on a invite site saying you have invite to a new super secret torrent site that is just starting up (be as secretive as possible) and soon you will have people begging to join your site for some reason people love to join secret sites even if they don't know anything about the site or its content you may want to make a nice userbar with your abbreviation and allow users to use this in there signature basically make people think you don't want members then they will want to join
IRC:
members of private torrent sites like irc channels make sure you have one google it if you don't know how to make one its very easy
Paying Server Costs:
members of private torrent sites are usually pretty generous and you should be able to get $300+ a month with even a userbase under 1k users with donations if your not getting donations after the first month send all users a message saying you need donations try not to threaten to close the site right off the bat this may driver users away wait a few months before doing that
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