Wordpress MU Dilema

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alexa7

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Apr 7, 2008
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I have about 15 domains that need to be doing something so I installed WP MU to give them all sites.

During install I got bogged with the 'subdomain' or 'subfolder' question. Since these are all my own blogs and want to ultimately monetize them all, which is the better structure.

WP recommends subdomains, which seems the best way if you were farming out blogs to outside users. Is that still the best if all the blogs are 'in house' and they will all have their own domain?

Getting the structure of things right the first time is stressful, because I am sure changing down the road when you find things are inadequate is a royal pain.

Thanks.
 


Did you do a MU install for each domain? Or are you pointing each domain to a singular MU install blog? I'm confused. And why MU - google "multiple wordpress blogs single install" and you'll see lots of ways (some better than others) to do it with Wordpress - no messing around with MU. I ran about 30 sites like that and it was easy.

But if you're doing MU - go with subdomains.
 
I'm talking about a single WPMU install with dozens of my sites looking like they belong to dozens of different users.

I figured I could save time in admin stuff if the core was common. Maybe spam myself a little easier.

I have wordpress sites all on single installs scattered all over the place, as well as joomla installs. Tweeking individually is a pain. Upgrading is a pain.

Maybe I have the wrong concept of MU. But from the blurb on the MU homepage is sounded good and I have seen a few blog about it being nice.

Maybe that's less muddy.
 
Sorry my search wasn't more fruitful. I now find this MU thread. I haven't read it yet, so I don't know if it has the answer. Searching on this forum is an art, evidently.
 
WPMU is difficult to have multiple domains. It can be done but usually is done for like two options for url names.

This may not be what you want. You may want multiple Wordpress installs.
 
I use wordpress MU for one of my freehosts, but I don't use the subdomains feature. If I was going to set it up, I would probably just install mu as normal, but use mod_rewrite to redirect user.domain.com to domain.com/user/

Though, that might just screw up the SEO benefits of it all.
 
Thanks guys. I went ahead and installed it to play around with it. Many people really recommend it. I did already learn that if you make any mistakes in setup you have to delete the wp_config because it won't overwrite it automatically.

I've done much more joomla than wordpress.
 
Does WordPress MU at a different domain name benefit linking?

I have a website directory which has high rankings in Google and would like to allow members that are listed on the website to set up a blog using WordPress MU.

I believe that it is best to use subdomains for each of the directory members. My main question is whether I should install WordPress MU in a subdirectory of the website or if I should install WordPress MU at a new domain name?

My question is mainly with a view towards SEO and increasing incoming links to original-branded-directory.com. I am wondering if it would be more beneficial to set up WordPress MU at a different domain name.

Which one should I use?
1) blog1.original-branded-directory.com/WordPressMU
2) blog1.different-domain-name.com (where WordPressMU could be installed in the root directory)

Also, my existing website directory is in a shared hosting account which allows add-on domains. If the answer is to install WordPress MU under a new domain name, would it be beneficial to use a separate hosting account?

Thanks.
 
@Alexa7 : I'm using WP MU to manage multiple domains and it's working great so far. Initial time investement can be quite big to setup everything properly ( WP MU with subdomains option, wildcard DNS + apache domain alias, a couple dozen plugins ), proper plugin management, learning how to set it up for other domains etc. but after that initial investment the management of your websites will be ... dream-like :P .

I certainly recommend going that route if you care about updating and maintaining your sites over time.

PS: really do get plugin management tools ( to easily install/upgrade plugins via admin interface and to mass enable/disable them for all blogs ). Think 6 months into the future how easy management will be ;) .

Have fun!
 
I have a question along these lines

So Wordpress MU is more for subdomains or wildcat subdomains? Is there a blog organizing platform for regular domains? And is there anything that could organize different types of blogs, such as wordpress and blogger? Hope you don't mind me asking this here.

Thanks
Andy
 
Backup your shit at each stage of development - sort of like creating restore points. If you're doing a lot with a single MU install, you may go off on a tangent that could hose everything up - with a "restore point" you won't have to go back to zero.
 
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