preparing your files for release.

Most people create their first torrent when they see a request that they can fill, so, the first consideration is creating the files to torrent. You might already have the files from downloading them, but assuming you haven't you'll need to create them.
Music and Movies / TV are relatively easy to share so we will just consider briefly how to create those files in a format most people require.
For music a 192Kbps VBR MP3 is a good standard to use see this guide. The most practical rip for sharing movies / TV would be an Xvid using AutoGordian Knot. You can find all the software needed for that here as well as this very straight forward guide.


naming torrents

An important consideration in releasing your files is naming them clearly. Trackers may have there own rules, but for music, if you name the directory that you wish to torrent sensibly, that is, Artist Name-Album Title(additional info)(releaser) when you create the torrent you can just accept the auto name option-note for trackers that don't allow releasers names in the title, therefore, you can just remove that part when you fill in the torrent name.
For movies Film Title (Format)(additional info)(Releaser) is a good format.

In all instances do not use special characters or punctuation. Your client might be able to cope, but, most trackers and list sites can't.
HINT do not use apostrophes. NewNova will definately not allow them.


creating your torrent

To create a torrent this guide is the clearest. Don't use Make Torrent as it is best to use a client such as Azureus, even if you don't want to seed with it, although, that is also strongly recommended. Azureus probably has the best and easiest torrent creation tool.
To be able to create your torrent you will need the URL of a tracker. See below for suggested trackers.


choice of tracker

Your choice of tracker is vital to the success of your torrent.
Things to go for
public download: choose a tracker anyone can connect to with out having to register.
fast response: if you are going to upload to lots of list sites which you need to do to torrent successfully this is vital. If a tracker is slow to respond to the sites scripts it may show as offline, therefore, your torrent will not be added and not show stats or take minutes to upload. Basically don't use an already overloaded tracker.
Also its not a bad idea to choose a tracker that doesn't allow external torrents. You can always upload to those anyway and you are effectively getting your torrent onto another site.

Some Trackers you could use (all will require you to register to upload)

Torrentbox Large stable tracker

Demonoid If you are a member or sign ups are open the tracker is not a bad choice


You can also look at the Beehive Tracker list to try and select a suitable tracker.

It is strongly recommended that you make a multiannounce torrent.
Guide for multiannounce with Azureus here

If you use multiannounce your torrent has a much better chance of lasting and can surive if one of the trackers goes down.


choice of client / configuration

Again I would recommend Azureus as the information and stats it can provide are invaluable. It is vitally important that you configure whatever client you use correctly, especially, as regards to forwarding any ports
For help with that see
this excellent guide.


how to release your torrent successfully

Your main consideration is to attract as big a swarm as possible as fast as possible.

Generally you need to upload your torrent to the tracker and then open it in your client for seeding, although, some trackers require that you are seeding your torrent before you upload it.

When your torrent shows as being seeded in your client , normally immediately or within a few minutes (couple of hours if you use prq) you can begin uploading to the list sites (see list here)

The secret is Firefox and open in tabs.
Bookmark the upload pages of all the sites and add them to one folder and then use open in tabs when you are ready to upload. It's possible with a bit of practice to do 2 torrents on twenty sites in about as many minutes. Remember that, right click, copy and paste, are your friends especially for the awkward sites that require you to fill in a name for your torrent.
Most sites have a form to fill in. To easily and rapidly fill in the torrent name click browse again on "select a torrent file to upload" your torrent will be selected and highlighted, "right click, copy" and go to the name field, "right click paste".
If a site uses auto name it's not necessary to do this.
Prepare the file description in notepad so that you can copy and paste to speed things up

To rapidly post on forums upload to, for example, Torrentreactor.to or Torrentspy and copy and paste the nicely formatted file info that they produce from your torrent


seeding hints and tricks

When posting on list sites you need to be already seeding your torrent. With a 256Kbps upload its entirely possible to upload two new torrents together and set Azureus to a maximum of 13Kb on each, however, to ensure you upload to the list sites as fast as possible it's a good idea to temporarily reduce this to say 8Kb per torrent for two.

Faster upload is not always better….some people just will not download torrents until they are well seeded but if you are uploading an album that is for example 80Mb you can expect to be able to drop it as well seeded in about 3 hours. By setting a somewhat low upload you force the swarm to share and also increase in size. This is often more effective if you upload something rapidly. Unfortunately you tend to find that some peers will quickly download your torrent and vanish. If it uploads a bit more slowly this is less likely to happen as it will be less likely that they will be there to turn it off when it completes in three hours.
On the same theme you could time your release so people start it before leaving for School / work or before they go to bed …in this way there is a higher chance that they will seed for longer.

Good guide m8, you are an expert.

excellant guide...clear explined and well concepted..congretulation

ummm... yes (cough). excellently written, easy to follow guide. nice one DS.
...only you never mentioned the shark tanks once...

great guide i know exactly where to come now thanks darkside

I'm trying to make my first torrent and this guide is pretty good but I don't get the tracker thing. What do I have to do to have a tracker... umm... track my torrent?

To have the tracker track your torrent you need to upload the torrent file you have created with your client program to the tracker. Most tracker sites have a simple form for this purpose which allows you to browse to where your torrent file is saved so it may be uploaded, generally you will select a type for your torrent .i.e. music , movie etc and possibly fill in some details , requirements varry between trackers .Zerotracker is of this type.

With Slads tracker you go to the appropriate section of the forum and simply attatch your torrent to your post for it to be tracked.


In either case you shuld open the torrent file you have created for seeding a few minuites after you have uploaded it and you should successfully connect to the tracker and then may upload your torrent to the list sites.

Yeah but how can I upload the torrent if I have no torrents? I mean, while creating torrent in Azureus, it asks for an announce URL, what am I supposed to insert there? I couldn't complete creating my torrent because of that.

You need to check the trackersite for that announce URL first -- their uploadpage will probably list it. And you can add multiple announce URLs from different trackers and enable DHT (trackerless) support to the torrent, to make sure that it stays alive if one tracker goes down (check ABB's multi-announce torrentcreation guide) :ssmile:

Thanks you guys! I successfully made my first torrent yesterday :)

Some suggestions

#1 DON'T zip files that you put in a torrent. People will unzip it and throw them away. Does not seeding
#2 you might want to choose for running your own tracker so being able to stop tracker and killing of the torrent. When a new version comes out. (yes I know of the existence of DHT)

eddie4 the administrator of eddie4.nl
http://www.eddie4.nl:6969 (you can't upload torrent's here)

Just a quick question about naming torrents,
Should i put (darkside rg) at the end of the name or do i have to be a proper member here?

The Darkside_RG tag should only be used by the members of the releasegroup

You can include a link to here in an .nfo or .txt file or .html file if you want to, though, but make sure you don't edit the textfile after creating the torrent. Because of this a .url file is not recommended as it gets changed by the system to count the clicks when it's used to open a webpage.

Cheers, will do.

Ok I am stuck again, I have created a file and torrent, so I go to pirate bay and hit upload torrent the first box is labeled torrent: and has a browse button. What goes in here, everything I try is wrong file. I thought is was the torrent location created by Azureus, but again wrong file.

1st glad to see you trying
2nd MAKE THAT SIG SMALLER
3rd you need to 'browse' to the .torrent file that you have just created, i cant tell you where this is as you have created and saved it to a location on your HD. Then if you want to change the name of the torrent put it in the next box(default is the same name of the torrent file), then you say what type it is in the drop down box and finally a brief description of the torrent, this can be a track listing or a software description

if you cant find the file that you have created then save it in the folder where the stuff that you are uploading is held, i personally have a folder called RELEASE that i copy the file to before i create the torrent so i know where everything is

If you need any further help just ask

Nice guide mate, good few tips, well presented nice1 :)

Thanks Mate ! for the Guide

Great guide, i wish i could've read it, before i tried it, for the first time. Thanks for the info. It's helped a lot.

Tnanks for the tips. . .Well. . .i always do slow uploading. . .

I succefully made the torrent and im seeding it trough azareus BUT....... When i try to upload it to The Pirate Bay it says " Invalid tracker ". I've tried multiple trackers wich have been declared online and stable. what am i doing wrong ?

edit: i think i figured it out, pirate bay provides a tracker url for you to fill in on your torrent.

Thanks for the guide, have been having trouble creating a torrent.....this is a great help.

i dont quite think that the guide is active or working
could use help :)

hey darkside I've heard when you make a torrent with Azureus only the people with the same client can veiw the file. i made 2 on demonoid and 1 of the torrents got deleted because no one could veiw the file, is this true.

Damn amazing how you can stumble on necessary things here ... and again!

I would like to try and contribute something here real soon..

you guys are awesome for all the work you put into this!

Thanks

Thank you very very easy to understand ( )

Mad as this is a sick guide thanks SVIP's Vip's site Admin's and Moderator's for all the help cant wait to start uploading


There's No Side Like The Darkside

Thanks for the great guide. It will help to get me going.

Ok i read the help and i think i will give it a go thank you darkside release group

Yes much appreciated for the walk through on this - cheers

Excellant guide, clear and well explained. Thanks a lot.

thanks for the guide I will endeaver to becom an upload master

yeah that'll work ..... cheers/

Thank you for being able to explain it so that even I could understand.

How does one _thank_ you DarkSide?-}

I am amazed that places like this continue to exist. I pray this place never goes away.. or I'll cryyy...

Mommy!!

this part was most helpful, thanks

Great guide!! I'm gonna start working on a torrent now.

Nice easy guide - sure could have used when I first started putting torrents out there

I think I might almost be ready now! I've been wanting to join the ranks of the uploaders, as I hate feeling like a sponge, lol, and now think I might be ready to give it a go!
Thanks Darkside

Many MANY thanks Darkside for the information. I was wondering about your thoughts on on the latest release of Azureus. A lot of people are uninstalling it and using other clients like uTorrent. I am a long time advocate of Azureus, but lately, I'm feeling like Azureus is "going corporate". Am I just being paranoid? Thanks in advance for any thoughts you may have...

thanx bro for this helpful topic...Now i can create & seed & be a useful darksider

Thanx for the info very handy

Thanks for the info it will sure help me dominate the universe.

I was looking but can't find the info. What info do I need to include when I post the torrent?

Second question: I notice that some movie/torrent files have brackets, dots and stuff in them. Is that necessary?

Just finished reading...very good guide; glad to know also that I have been doing everything right! lol

thanks for helping me learn how to share back with the comunity.
awsome guide!!!

Thank You.

right i have a collection of torrents that i got thru out time (i have not made my very own torrent iv always dled) iv seen members asking for torrents that i have dl and i would love to help them out, furtheremore isnt it better to answer requests by posting torrents in our wonderful little community?? (a form of site nationalism) rather than giving ursl to other sites???. i will try to apply the great advice iv seen in this toipic but i am still a little confused about trackers, yes im a peev (swiss word for noob). if iv understood correctly to add multi trackers i would need to find sites that have the same torrent that i dl using size as a criteria correct? what if the file name is different will this affect the trackers?? and what if iv lost the original trackers that came with the torrent, is there a way i can use the darkside as a tracker??

im a utorrent client user

thx and remember the euro starts tomorrow and switzerland is going to win ALL!!!!!!

Thanks to this guide, I am the release that I am!

Cheerz for this