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WPMU Multisite - Command Centers?

by TerriL
7 replies
Hi All,

I feel like I am late to the party here, but I was looking into new WP themes and membership plugin options and stumbled upon WPMU Dev's site that offers 140 WP Plugins and like 160 WP themes...

Honestly, I had never heard of a multisite command center, or multiple blogs, or multisite set up before.

Am I to understand WPMU (for example) will enable me to create several blogs with 'automatic' installs using the same theme, plugins, layout etc...? and control them from one centralized dashboard?

If so, what if I want to change certain variables like create 1 membership site, and 5 blogs, and maybe 5 niche sites... How does this work?

Forgive my ignorance here, again, I have never heard of managing multiple sites before, and this seems quite overwhelming (and interesting) to me.

Would you recommend WPMU (Yearly cost is like $235 per year) and considering my distaste for the new Optimize Press theme (which I recently purchased the unlimited site package $297 through an affiliate link here on WF, and saved $83) I am considering refunding and investing that money into WPMU.

Any advice from people who have or have had a subscription with WPMU would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a Bunch,

Terri

PS- My other choice was Elegant Themes "Divi" with content builder which is considerably cheaper, but limited by comparison to the "overwhelming" amount of stuff WPMU is offering.
#centers #command #multisite #wpmu
  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    OK. For the "multisite feature" in itself -don't invest anything. It is there, built-in, since version 3.0 (approx. since the summer of 2010!)
    Details: Create A Network « WordPress Codex

    Anybody with some basic understanding of WP and willingness to read the Codex should be able to set up WP MS.

    However, if you want acces to their themes and plugins + SUPPORT... then sign up.

    I don't have subscription, but I bought occasionally plugins from them and for all my pre- and post-sale questions I got prompt answers. (They are pros...)

    Name clarifications:
    WP MU used to be the WordPress MultiUser version what the creators of the script had on their wordpress.com site (where you sign up for a free bloog... that you don't own )
    And there was the simple WP script at wordpressorg.

    So, the site you are asking about started as something maintained by Multi-User WordPress developers.

    Since v.3.0 the two script (one user wordpress and multiuser WP) were merged and now it is called MultiSite (MS) feature - See the link above about building a network with it.
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    • Profile picture of the author TerriL
      Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath View Post

      OK. For the "multisite feature" in itself -don't invest anything. It is there, built-in, since version 3.0 (approx. since the summer of 2010!)
      Details: Create A Network « WordPress Codex

      Anybody with some basic understanding of WP and willingness to read the Codex should be able to set up WP MS.

      However, if you want acces to their themes and plugins + SUPPORT... then sign up.

      I don't have subscription, but I bought occasionally plugins from them and for all my pre- and post-sale questions I got prompt answers. (They are pros...)

      Name clarifications:
      WP MU used to be the WordPress MultiUser version what the creators of the script had on their wordpress.com site (where you sign up for a free bloog... that you don't own )
      And there was the simple WP script at wordpressorg.

      So, the site you are asking about started as something maintained by Multi-User WordPress developers.

      Since v.3.0 the two script (one user wordpress and multiuser WP) were merged and now it is called MultiSite (MS) feature - See the link above about building a network with it.
      Thank You Istvan.

      You seem very well informed, and that was very educational.

      Off to explore the link above.
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      • Profile picture of the author TSDMike
        I've been a subscriber for a couple years. I can't comment on multisite since I don't do anything with that... but I can provide a little feedback on the organization as a whole.

        Their service is top-end. My support threads are always answered by multiple admins within hours... sometimes even within an hour.

        Their themes require a little more patience in terms of customization than some others I've worked with - namely the ones from elegantthemes.com. The css files aren't available for editing through the dashboard - and there are usually many more template files than a typical WP theme has.
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        Web Marketing, SEO & Wordpress Site Development in Grand Rapids, MI
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  • Profile picture of the author TerriL
    Thanks Mike,

    Good to know there support is solid, as that is often overlooked. At least with my experience in some recent purchases regarding software and themes.

    Interesting to know their themes have more template files than most wp themes, and that some actually come from or are supplied by elegant themes. Learning a lot tonight.
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    • Profile picture of the author TSDMike
      "some actually come from or are supplied by elegant themes."

      Not sure what you mean by that. As to the template and css files, you can still access and edit them, you just need access to the file manager through the cpanel or whatever the hosting platform offers.
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      Web Marketing, SEO & Wordpress Site Development in Grand Rapids, MI
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      • Profile picture of the author TerriL
        [QUOTE=TSDMike;9022410]"some actually come from or are supplied by elegant themes."

        Not sure what you mean by that. QUOTE]

        That was my fault, misunderstood your above reference that editing the themes in WPMU is much more difficult than that of ET.

        Sounds to me like MS is more for people who have extensive experience and would include hosting for members on a VPS for larger memberships or networks. Thus, creating sub-domains for each user on a large scale...

        I am certainly not quite ready for all that yet, lol.

        Honestly, all I want is a simple membership that allows full access to a library of content. No drip feeding, no restricted levels or limited access based on membership levels, etc...

        Something simple, whereby only paid members can access the content without restrictions and can download directly from the pages... nothing too fancy.

        I was trying to use Optimize Press 2.0, and after creating my member login page, along with 46 other pages - integrating my payment processor through PayPal, and getting my autoresponder API in place... Optimize Press 2.0 proved way too unstable to rely on in its current state. It was a disaster!

        Thus, I was seeking simple alternatives for a membership site without having to do too much code or scripting as I am not that experienced with php or css.

        Any who, I'm leaning towards experimenting with S2 Members Lite and either Elegant Themes or maybe even just using OP 1.63 as my WP theme for the membership layout since I already own that version as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author affiliatez
    I have followed the guide at Create A Network « WordPress Codex a month ago and here is the review:

    Pros:
    Manage all the blog in one place, all the themes, plugins,...

    Cons
    1. You need to config both the Domain DNS and on the Nginx VPS server, Its some complicated if you've never used VPS before
    2. Only the admin account can edit the theme, plugin
    3. Use so much CPU resource -> need high RAM, Disk space and cpu

    Final though, I think this is a great way if you would like to open a blog service like wordpress.com, If you only need to build website, Its much easier to install wp on shared hosting like normal.
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