BitCoinTorrentz.com - Torrent Download Service

[molecular]

Regarding the fees and IP collection of affiliates, another way to look at it is that it's a 20% fee for the privilege of using the site 100% anonymously, instead of being required to register with an email address and associated IP address.  Obviously that's not a good marketing stance to take, but it's the way I think of it and I think it's entirely justified.

Hadn't thought of it this way... Maybe it should be possible to "delete" and affiliate account (data could be kept, except the ip-address).

[dancupid]

I've just tried this service for the first time - it seems very very cheap (the price not the quality).

A quick question - are you not worried that once someone has the link they can start distributing it on multiple websites? Perhaps even charging for it themselves? (I initially connected to your website via a VPN from China to the UK as Pirate Bay is blocked here, and then started downloading directly from China)

It's not a problem for me, and it's a great service - it saved me the time of trying several different torrents until I found one that was reasonably fast on my connection.

Edit - and I just realised- this is the first time I've bought anything with bitcoin!

[Ben Walsh (beamer)]

I reckon go with leaving that "functionality" for now and see what usage it gets, verses usage by the one registered user - consider it the "first one's free" method of advertising. Once they are hooked, they may well acquire their own account, to obtain the more (ahem) questionable content - i.e. their own personal tastes in porn.

[mjcmurfy]

Regarding the fees and IP collection of affiliates, another way to look at it is that it's a 20% fee for the privilege of using the site 100% anonymously, instead of being required to register with an email address and associated IP address.  Obviously that's not a good marketing stance to take, but it's the way I think of it and I think it's entirely justified.

Hadn't thought of it this way... Maybe it should be possible to "delete" and affiliate account (data could be kept, except the ip-address).

I have decided to just go ahead and remove the remove the IP address recording of affiliates. I want this service to be truly anonymous, so if people use the site regularly enough to want a 20% rebate, while simultaneously promoting the site, I'm totally cool with that.

I will delete the IP address table in the affiliates database, and update the affiliate registration code to reflect this. It will be part of the next live update of the site.

And thinking along these lines, it might also be a good idea to introduce a sort of "subscription" service, where regular users of the site could register and get an ID # and a password, and avail of a higher-use, lower-fee based fee structure. Say, if a user downloads a total of 10gb, they would avail of a 20% discount in the future, if they download a total of 100gb they avail of another 20% discount of their current fee, etc.

Or something along those lines. Thoughts?

I've just tried this service for the first time - it seems very very cheap (the price not the quality).

A quick question - are you not worried that once someone has the link they can start distributing it on multiple websites? Perhaps even charging for it themselves? (I initially connected to your website via a VPN from China to the UK as Pirate Bay is blocked here, and then started downloading directly from China)

It's not a problem for me, and it's a great service - it saved me the time of trying several different torrents until I found one that was reasonably fast on my connection.

Edit - and I just realised- this is the first time I've bought anything with bitcoin!

Yes, it is a very modest fee. Right now, the goal is to grow the business, and the best way to do that is to make it as inexpensive as possible. Once we have achieved sufficient volume, prices will determined at a level that the community and the shareholders agree on, and linked to the btc:usd exchange rate.

I have considered the possibility of the scenario you described; that users would redistribute the link. Right now, that isn't really a major concern, as the measures needed to implement an adequate solution would make the service less attractive to potential new users. I will reevaluate this if and when it becomes a problem that puts a large load on the server.

I'm glad to have been the one to pop your bitcoin cherry!

[Bitcoin Swami]

Regarding the fees and IP collection of affiliates, another way to look at it is that it's a 20% fee for the privilege of using the site 100% anonymously, instead of being required to register with an email address and associated IP address.  Obviously that's not a good marketing stance to take, but it's the way I think of it and I think it's entirely justified.

Hadn't thought of it this way... Maybe it should be possible to "delete" and affiliate account (data could be kept, except the ip-address).

I have decided to just go ahead and remove the remove the IP address recording of affiliates. I want this service to be truly anonymous, so if people use the site regularly enough to want a 20% rebate, while simultaneously promoting the site, I'm totally cool with that.

I will delete the IP address table in the affiliates database, and update the affiliate registration code to reflect this. It will be part of the next live update of the site.

And thinking along these lines, it might also be a good idea to introduce a sort of "subscription" service, where regular users of the site could register and get an ID # and a password, and avail of a higher-use, lower-fee based fee structure. Say, if a user downloads a total of 10gb, they would avail of a 20% discount in the future, if they download a total of 100gb they avail of another 20% discount of their current fee, etc.

Or something along those lines. Thoughts?

I've just tried this service for the first time - it seems very very cheap (the price not the quality).

A quick question - are you not worried that once someone has the link they can start distributing it on multiple websites? Perhaps even charging for it themselves? (I initially connected to your website via a VPN from China to the UK as Pirate Bay is blocked here, and then started downloading directly from China)

It's not a problem for me, and it's a great service - it saved me the time of trying several different torrents until I found one that was reasonably fast on my connection.

Edit - and I just realised- this is the first time I've bought anything with bitcoin!

Yes, it is a very modest fee. Right now, the goal is to grow the business, and the best way to do that is to make it as inexpensive as possible. Once we have achieved sufficient volume, prices will determined at a level that the community and the shareholders agree on, and linked to the btc:usd exchange rate.

I have considered the possibility of the scenario you described; that users would redistribute the link. Right now, that isn't really a major concern, as the measures needed to implement an adequate solution would make the service less attractive to potential new users. I will reevaluate this if and when it becomes a problem that puts a large load on the server.

I'm glad to have been the one to pop your bitcoin cherry!

Would there be away to make the link expire after a certain amount of days? I'm not a programmer so I don't know how hard it would be.

[mjcmurfy]

Right now, the files will be deleted after 7 days with a highly secure, 7-pass data overwrite. But now that you mention it, reducing the duration of this "download window" could indeed help prevent the distribution of the links on forums. Great idea!

As the service is not really designed for long term storage of files, I think perhaps a 2 day limit might actually be a good idea. It shouldn't take users more than 48 hours to download their files.

But then again, that might limit the number of high-filesize users interested in the service. If someone wanted to download an archive of 10gb+ say, it might take longer than 48 hours to download that, if they have a slow connection.

Maybe 3 is the lucky number?

[nhodges]

Right now, the files will be deleted after 7 days with a highly secure, 7-pass data overwrite. But now that you mention it, reducing the duration of this "download window" could indeed help prevent the distribution of the links on forums. Great idea!

As the service is not really designed for long term storage of files, I think perhaps a 2 day limit might actually be a good idea. It shouldn't take users more than 48 hours to download their files.

But then again, that might limit the number of high-filesize users interested in the service. If someone wanted to download an archive of 10gb+ say, it might take longer than 48 hours to download that, if they have a slow connection.

Maybe 3 is the lucky number?

Maybe several modes of offering downloads:

a) I don't care about how long this stays up - delete it after seven days.
b) I don't want anyone downloading this except my guy - expire it after 4 hours, uploader must refresh link for downloader
c) 24 hours?

[molecular]

I'm glad to have been the one to pop your bitcoin cherry!

lmao. This has to go in the books. I think I'll make it a thread: "Who popped your bitcoin cherry?". Nice one.

[molecular]

Another use case: Sitting in hostel in Korea and downloading pretty large file from bitcointorrentz. Would not be possible without, because of limited access obviously and also because I use a very old netbook (first asus eee-pc). Nice!

[mjcmurfy]

I have made some significant changes to the BitCoinTorrentz code, that anyone who is interested should check out.

I have completely removed IP recording of new registrations, and combined user registration with affiliate registration. When users register, they get an immediate 20% discount from the base guest user rate. They then get a subsequent 10% discount off their fee for every further 20GB they download, until they reach a net 50% discount, at which point their fee remains static at this level.

If a user chooses not to register, they do not have to, but are charged the base guest rate of 0.05 btc/gb.

I have also created a new "Members Area" instead of the referral program page I had before. This page tracks (completely anonymously... of course) the volume of your downloads, your current discount rate and percentage, as well as your referral statistics. I have also added a convenient "Logout" button at the top right that you can use to clear your session.

Note: existing affiliates can log in with the same username (i.e. their email address) and password as before, to avail of the 20% discount, and monitor their referral statistics. All IP addresses that had been stored for affiliates have now been deleted from the database.

I have changed around the look a little of the site too, padded out the FAQ and did some major tinkering under the hood. I did lot of work today... I feel like I need a bloody holiday myself now! What is Korea like this time of year molecular?

So yeah, just have a look at the new layout, and if you have any, I would appreciate any and all feedback from both users and shareholders alike. The financial statistics feature is the next thing on my to-do list.

[dancupid]

I have made some significant changes to the BitCoinTorrentz code, that anyone who is interested should check out.

I have completely removed IP recording of new registrations, and combined user registration with affiliate registration. When users register, they get an immediate 20% discount from the base guest user rate. They then get a subsequent 10% discount off their fee for every further 20GB they download, until they reach a net 50% discount, at which point their fee remains static at this level.

If a user chooses not to register, they do not have to, but are charged the base guest rate of 0.05 btc/gb.

I have also created a new "Members Area" instead of the referral program page I had before. This page tracks (completely anonymously... of course) the volume of your downloads, your current discount rate and percentage, as well as your referral statistics. I have also added a convenient "Logout" button at the top right that you can use to clear your session.

Note: existing affiliates can log in with the same username (i.e. their email address) and password as before, to avail of the 20% discount, and monitor their referral statistics.

I have changed around the look a little of the site too, padded out the FAQ and did some major tinkering under the hood. I did lot of work today... I feel like I need a bloody holiday myself now! What is Korea like this time of year molecular?

So yeah, just have a look at the new layout, and if you have any, I would appreciate any and all feedback from both users and shareholders alike. The financial statistics feature is the next thing on my to-do list.

Just FYI

Part of the 'How does it work' list on the top right is cut off when I view it in firefox::

[mjcmurfy]

I have made some significant changes to the BitCoinTorrentz code, that anyone who is interested should check out.

I have completely removed IP recording of new registrations, and combined user registration with affiliate registration. When users register, they get an immediate 20% discount from the base guest user rate. They then get a subsequent 10% discount off their fee for every further 20GB they download, until they reach a net 50% discount, at which point their fee remains static at this level.

If a user chooses not to register, they do not have to, but are charged the base guest rate of 0.05 btc/gb.

I have also created a new "Members Area" instead of the referral program page I had before. This page tracks (completely anonymously... of course) the volume of your downloads, your current discount rate and percentage, as well as your referral statistics. I have also added a convenient "Logout" button at the top right that you can use to clear your session.

Note: existing affiliates can log in with the same username (i.e. their email address) and password as before, to avail of the 20% discount, and monitor their referral statistics.

I have changed around the look a little of the site too, padded out the FAQ and did some major tinkering under the hood. I did lot of work today... I feel like I need a bloody holiday myself now! What is Korea like this time of year molecular?

So yeah, just have a look at the new layout, and if you have any, I would appreciate any and all feedback from both users and shareholders alike. The financial statistics feature is the next thing on my to-do list.

Just FYI

Part of the 'How does it work' list on the top right is cut off when I view it in firefox::

Thanks for that mate. Will have a look at it.

[mjcmurfy]

That should be fixed now, along with a few other minor bugs I found while browsing using firefox.
I have been using mainly Safari to test it at the moment.

[HostFat]

[mjcmurfy]

What screen resolution are you using?
I have made the navigation bar shorter, how does it look now?

I didn't deliberately put the logout link right below the donations tab for psychological reasons,
just to clear that up!

[HostFat]

1280x1024

Anyway, now it's ok

[mjcmurfy]

1280x1024

Anyway, now it's ok

Thanks for pointing it out to me mate!

On another note, I have started are rather vigorous Operation Fabulous advertising campaign. Not sure how OF stacks up against other advertising platforms. Thought I'd give it a shot anyway, since they accept bitcoin!

I have also made some new banners for the affiliate program, which will be uploaded to the members area soon. These are the current banners that I am running on the operation fabulous campaign.

A 468x60 Banner: http://www.bitcointorrentz.com/images/btcbanner_468x60.png


A 125x125 Square: http://www.bitcointorrentz.com/images/bct_square_125_125.png


And a 117x30 Button: http://www.bitcointorrentz.com/images/bct_button_117_30.png

[HostFat]

Idea:

I'm sure that you have seen Dailybitcoins.
What do you think about doing quite the same thing?

You could offer banner spaces ( buyable with Bitcoin ) around the website.
Than you will be able to offer also some free trials, every days! ( few MBs or no more then 1 GB, you will do your math )

You are also offering a streaming service, you could add a banner/videoad here ( as youtube does ), before showing the streming video/link.

If you do some good math, you will be able to give an even cheaper service ( more customers, more ads ... )

If someone doesn't like at all these ads, he can just pay to disable them.

[mjcmurfy]

I like the suggestion of using advertising revenue to subsidize free trials of the service. Very interesting indeed. I may put up a listing on operation fabulous, where advertisers can bid for ad-space though their platform, saving me from having to implement a whole section of the website for potential advertisers.

I don't like the idea of having too many gaudy advertisements on a fee-paying website though.
But like you said, you could remove the ads for registered users.

Thanks once again HostFat! You are full of good suggestions.
I will get out my calculator...

[mjcmurfy]

And for interested shareholders, the service has generated total earnings of 4.01679 btc since launch (12 days ago).
This is WAY above my initial growth targets, so we are well on track.