Managing Multiple Blogs and RSS Feeds

ADMIN EDIT: This post was originally from this thread but I thought it was so good it should be posted as its own tutorial

I recalled seeing a post about managing multiple blogs (on various domain names) from one installation of wordpress and went hunting for it again. Virtual Multiblog MIGHT be part of a solution. It says you only need to install your plugins one time, and when you upgrade you just do it to the primary installation. It says you can use a different theme per blog. But I can't begin to follow the install directions, so maybe a help ticket to NatNet can get it setup for you to at least try it out.

As to getting your hand written posts sorted out to different blogs you own you can do the same thing paysite owners do for their site rss feeds:

1. Use ONE main blog for ALL post construction.

2. In this MAIN blog create a category name for each blog site you run. (ie: for the blog strokinmymeat.com you might make a category called strokin, or strokinmymeat, and so on)

*note - this also works for ONE blog website needing rss feeds to distribute all posts about their paysite for their affiliates based on say just your bareback content, or for just bear or just twink posts, and so on. This saves building a seperate blog for each category just to get an rss feed happening.

3. Create a post, and tick off ONLY the domains (now categories) you want that post to appear on. Do a preview, edit the date and time for it to post, and schedule it.

4. Go to each of your domains and use the Feedwordpress plugin OR use blogs organizer to pull in JUST THE FEED FOR THAT DOMAIN.

To easily generate the category rss links you'll need, you can add this plugin onto the master site: Category Specific RSS Menu

Just click the blog name you need the feed rss url for and copy the url (ctrl-c) and go paste (ctrl-v) it into whichever feed distributor program you are using.

*note - One thing to keep in mind is that the ‘Category Specific RSS’ plugin won’t be able to give you an RSS feed if you are using the default dynamic URL structure (eg. ?cat=7 or ?p=127 etc.)

Change your permalink structure to a fancy permalink the same day you setup the blog and before you start posting. You want some version of (eg. www.yourdomain.com/title-of-your-post instead of www.yourdomain.com/?p=12) You need this in your htaccess file in the blog root. Open Notepad, cursor down one line and paste the following into it. Save it as htaccess.txt and upload it via ftp, and then rename it to .htaccess (that's dot htaccess without the trailing .txt)

I would NOT depend on wordpress to update the htaccess correctly, even if you make it writable. It's best to just create your own file and send it up.

Code:

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RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

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You should be using fancy permalinks for Search Engine Optimization anyway. And if you have mod-rewrite enabled on your server, you can dump the links that required you to show site url/index.php/and the rest of the link information for your permalink structure.

How to use Custom Post Types and How to Create Custom Post RSS Feeds will be discussed in another thread :)

:puter:

thanks for share ;)

Here's an update on other alternatives and/or plugin information related to the original post.

When I get pulled into blog development ideas I usually end up doing more research, and inevitably, find new products or sites that may provide a better solution to a problem. Such is the case with the multiple Wordpress blog management options.

Blogs Organizer was, and still is, a great way to manage a large blog empire. It can handle new blogs built within the program as well as "remote blogs" ie:... your Wordpress blogs.

But for many of us, the price tag is a tad out of reach, the program is too complex, or, like Roy (ponyboy), you just want to hang out with the Wordpress dashboard because it's familiar. Plugins have been, and continue to be, one of the best things to come from the whole Wordpress Open Source phenomenon.

:eureka: Did you know? There are currently over 5,000 Wordpress plugins available, and more are being created as a needed new function for the Wordpress CMS system presents itself.

Here is a very recent multi-blog management option that I found during my recent research escapade.

Edit: NOTE: KishMultiPress site is no longer online. 7-19-2012

Kish Multi Pro The advantage of this plugin is that you can switch between your blogs with just one click on a single page without a page reload. It does not matter if your blogs are hosted on different servers or on different domains. You can manage any blog which is using WordPress or WordPress MU.

Install the Kish Multi Pro plugin on to any ONE of your WordPress blogs and then configure it to manage all of your blogs by entering the blog urls and the admin login details and you are in full control of all your blogs.

You can write new posts, edit existing posts, upload images for all posts, moderate comments and use feed and search features for reading and/or blogging with in realtime. Kish Multi Pro lets you concentrate on your post creations by allowing you to be more efficient and focused. Check out the video and all of the other features this plugin offers on the website.

If you want the Pretty Permalinks on an older blog I found this ... a plugin that handles letting you change your permalink structure without penalty from the search engines. Advanced Permalinks Plugin. It's free and says it has been updated to be compatible with Wordpress 3.0.


*note - do NOT use the kishmulti plugin you can find on the Wordpress.org website, as it is not working and not supported by the developer.

I came across another Wordpress Management script that lets you manage all of your Wordpress blogs from one admin. panel the other night. It's at http://managewp.com, and requires a monthly fee. There is a free trial option however, so you can give it a go without plunking down the cash right off the bat.

We can maintain multiple blogs through Wheel links.

Thanks for sharing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by woomichal

We can maintain multiple blogs through Wheel links.

Thanks for sharing.

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I'm not familiar with Wheel Links unless you mean some sort of circle jerk of links? Can you explain this a bit more please. And welcome to the GWW forum!