Running Multiple Sites with WordPress

Update 20/06/10

WordPress 3 now supports multiple blogs - so this post is for historical purposes only. Long Live WordPress!

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I’m going to tell you something and this may absolutely shock you to the core. We’ll actually I’m fibbing. Nobody is surprised by anything these days, and the best I can probably hope for is a half raised eyebrow and vague disinterest. I digress. Here it is anyway…

If you are the kind of person who likes to run multiple blogs then I definitely do not recommend that you use WordPress.

There, I said it.

“But…but…!” I hear you stammer in mock disbelief.

Wait…there’s more..

Did you know that WordPress has a big brother? He’s called WordPress MU and he can do things that his light-weight sibling cannot, which are to the advantage of people (such as me and possibly you) who have more than one idea(!), and therefore like to have the facility of being able to host more than one blog on a single installation of WordPress.

So I lied. Actually I do recommend you use WordPress for multiple blogs, WordPress MU that is!

All you potential multi-blog-owning impresarios, just think of it…

The ability to deploy a whole new blog using a subdomain, subdirectory or optionally with a whole different domain name almost at will. (wow!)

The ability to update your blog templates and have those updates flow across all of your blogs (double wow!) Only one WordPress installation to upgrade. (oh this is getting far too exciting… be still my beating heart) (Yes I know the ‘Footprint’ brigade are raising eyebrows right now saying ‘now let me tell you’ but your probably doing shady stuff anyway. I’m not at all interested in that. I’m in it for the original content long haul and generating genuine popularity, which I’m confident will win out over time.)

Oh, and I almost forgot, it plays nice with Heatmap Theme, which comes in lots of different colours, one of which is probably going to be suitable for each new blog you deploy.(**absolutely bloody brilliant!**Where do I sign up???)

“Oh but isnt WordPress MU reeeeally, reeeeally too complimacated for us non-technical, non-bearded, non unix wielding blogging types?” I hear you ask.

Once upon a time it was, and there was sticky post right there on the WordPress MU forums called “Is WordPress MU for You” that told you so in no uncertain terms. Thankfully times have changed and that excrutiating facially haired post is no longer gracing the home page anymore. Slowly and quietly MU been getting easier and easier to install, such that a trained budgie might be able to do it, with just a few extra steps required over and above a regular WordPress install, plus a couple of plugins you need you configure to get it working with add-on domains and caching so it doesn’t blow up your el-cheapo shared hosting account (which it will inevitably eventually do when your blog becomes a really big success - the lure of a dedicated server beckons).

I use a HostGator Reseller account for my various blogs and if you are considering installing MU then I heartily recommend HostGator to you. Once you know which switches to switch in the HostGator cpanel then it all works a treat. You might be interested to know that I’ve set up a short tutorial over on the HeatMap Insider just for you, to impart those little nuggets that you need to know (your mileage may vary on other cPanel based hosting accounts ).

Happy multi-blog empire building! Mu-hahahah!