How to Set Up WPMU on a Shared Host Like GoDaddy.com

This tutorial will guide you through setting up WPMU on a shared host like godaddy.com. After you set this up properly, you will be able to run unlimited websites on your host, each with a different domain name and website theme. This will save you money because you can use the cheapest hosting, which usually does not allow for parking domains into separate folders. It also allows you to create a large community just like WordPress.com where you control all the plugins and themes.

If you are going to work with this example, please use Opendls.com. All the examples will be from that host. Hosting is only $3.99/month.

Prequisites:
Linux Hosting Account. WordPress will run on Window hosting account, but in the past I have had trouble with setting up PHP in a windows environment. I think you have to use IIS7 in order to install php on your host, but then you lose Frontpage extensions… Not that you need Frontpage extension… My point is just use linux, much easier. Also when you set up the hosting account make sure you are using PHP 5.0

The Database is set up and you know the location, username, password, and database name. Most shared hosting accounts come with Mysql, and allow for around 10 databases. You should be familiar with PHPMyAdmin (database manager)

we will assume that the host is set up with domain name aaa.com.
we will be adding bbb.com

Steps:

1. Go get WordPress MU
2. Unzip WPMU onto your computer and then upload to the host. The folder structure is much like normal WordPress site.
3. Once it is all uploaded go to your domain name. You should see this
   
4. Read this page and then enter you database username, password, location, etc… There are additional README’s on this page, but you should not need to read them. Your host should be set up already.
5. Click install and if everything went well, you should see a congrats page with a link to admin section or link to homepage. You will also see the username and password for the website. The username will be admin and the password will be random. If you miss it, check your email. It will get emailed to you.

Now that WPMU is set up, we need to set up some domains to use. Get the IP of the host your website is running on, this can be found by either going to your hosting manager control panel or pinging your website domain name. From windows desktop go to Start > Run > Type cmd, then in the command window type “ping yourdomain.com” you will see your IP number.

To point a second domain to your host, go to the domain manager and set the “A record” for the domain. Click on edit, then update the IP number.

After you set the “A record” it will take an hour or 2 to properly point to your host. While you are waiting, go to your hosting manager and add the second domain name to your hosting. Go to hosting manager > Settings > Domain Management. Add a new domain name. Make sure that the second domain name points to the root folder of the host. For economy hosting, the root is the only option. Click save and now you can wait until all DNS is working properly. You can go to you browser and type the second domain name. When the DNS is set up, you will see the first domain name… meaning the second is set up, but the host does not know what to do with the second domain name. This is where WPMU comes into play.

Go to the admin section of the wordpress MU install. it is located at aaa.com/wp-admin

then go to “site admin” located on the right side of the page. You will notice that “site admin” is new and only on WPMU. You can select available themes, and other site specific settings in “site admin”. Once in Site admin, go to “blogs” and add a new blog. Normal WPMU is set up for subdomains, but we are going to use Top Level Domains (TLD) for our websites. So, for the new blog, you can use any subdomain name you want. For this example just use “test” so, then enter a title (optional) and your email address.

once the subdomain name is made, you need to go into the database and update the wp-options table and change the domain name from the subdomain name to the second domain name you set earlier. There are 3 rows that need to be changed.

WPMU is different then single user in that the table prefix is wp_‹blog_id›_options. On normal wordpress is is just wp_options. So if you have only made 2 websites, go to wp_2_options table to change the submdomain to the TLD.

The 3 rows are where the site_option is:

1. siteurl – this will be the subdomain, change to “http://bbb.com”
2. home – again, change to “http://bbb.com”
3. fileupload_url – change to “http://bbb.com/files”

then go to wp_site table and add the new domain name. ID is auto-incrementing, so you only have to insert the new domain name in domain, and add “/” to the path. Click save and you will see that your new domain name is now id = 2.

go to wp_blogs and update the subdomain. set the site_id = 2 (should be 1) and change the domain name from the subdomain to “bbb.com”.

That is it, now go to bbb.com in your browser and you should see your new bbb.com website. You can set different themes for each website, and they are all separated from each other. There is a special plugin folder called “mu-plugins” where you can add plugins that handle site wide functions. In that folder you can add scripts to automatically change all the database settings so you only have to enter the new domain name, and it magically make TLD and bypasses the entire subdomain set up.

If you need any support to install WPMU on a shared host, feel free to contact me, I can get it set up quickly.