One Members Area - Multiple Tours/Sites - How To Set This Up?

[Lee]

So im currently working on a new project and im going to use a single members area for a bunch of different sites however, im having a problem figuring out the logistics of how to set this thing up on the server.

Right now, im going to have single members area database with a bunch of different niches of content in it with multiple niche specific domains feeding traffic in to that content area.

My question is this, how do you think the best way of handling this so far as the server setup and CCBill goes?

Should i setup a shared sub folder within each of the sites feeding in to the members area so that, to the surfer it looks like domain.com/members or do you think it would be better on the tours to link to membersareadomain.com as the actual link members will click on?

Also, how hard would it be to setup in terms of CCBill processing each of the tours as individual sites all feeding in to the main members area?

Your thoughts?

Regards,

Lee

[Chilihost]

you can setup multiple sites using the same content with awiz, the content resides in one spot but all sites can be built to look differently. Or you can setup a common unbranded members area, or better yet, use php includes to setup a header and then pull in the common php code for the main part of the site's pages. Or if you want to be lazy about it, setup a totally separate domain and alias members.domain1.com, members.domain2.com, etc, and have your ccbill scripts post userids/passwords to the same single .htpasswd file.

there are prolly another 50 ways to do this too, like use frames or use gateway entry pages plus strongbox to jump to the common site, or setup a megasite and have all paysites back onto it...want me to keep going?

[raymor]

Should i setup a shared sub folder within each of the sites feeding in to the members area so that, to the surfer it looks like domain.com/members or do you think it would be better on the tours to link to membersareadomain.com as the actual link members will click on?

Also, how hard would it be to setup in terms of CCBill processing each of the tours as individual sites all feeding in to the main members area?

Either using membersareadomain.com or using symlinks to create eachsite.com/members/shared/
works well. Using symlinks so that each site has it's own seperate members' area URL
is more flexible, allowing the sites to have some pages, graphics, etc. that are different
more easily. You can even pull different graphics and CSS using the exact same html,
so the exact same HTML page looks totally different on the different sites.
Just link to ../sitestyle.css and ../images/logo.png, for example, for the site specific
styling info and logo. On the other hand using membersareadomain.com keeps things
extremely simple since you can manage that one members' site as just one site.
So the choice, I think, is between flexible and simple. If it were me, I would assume
that in the future I may want some new feature or have some new idea that would
work best with the felixibility of a symlinked shared folder. Both are fine options, though.

You can also do a hybrid. eachsite.com/members/ can have several navigation links
to main sections like like ./diary/ http://membersareadomain.com/forum/ .
The main members' page(s) are specific to each site, but they link to big shared sections
such as a shared video gallery. We can help you with a system that let's them go from
one site to another without having to log in again or things like the ability for them to buy
a membership to either just one site or the whole group of sites.

Setting this up with CCBill is a nobrainer. For a single shared members' area, the individual
sites are just sales pitch pages selling the same actual site. You just have all of the
subaccounts point to the same member management script on the members' site.
For s symlinked shraed directory like site1.com/members/shared/, you can set it
up pretty much the same way if you want any member to be able to log into any
of the front ends. Just set the user management URL the same on all of the sites
and have them all read the same password file. (Or with Strongbox they CAN be
seperate password files sicne Strongbox can read multiple password files.)
If you want members to only be able to log in to the site they joined from, just set
them all up individually like you would set up any site, paying no attention to the
fact that some or all of the content is shared.

Shoot me an email if I can be of any further assistance, either with setting up the whole
sharing thing or especially dealing with people logging in to the system and the CCBill
password file stuff.

Oh I forgot to mention the one thing that you probably do NOT want to do because
it causes all sorts fo problems down the road. Do NOT have seperate gallery pages
on each site loading seperate thumbnails that link to shared images and videos.
A thumbnail page or similar page or group of pages should call images that are stored
together with that page, and the content those thumbs represent should also be stored
together as a logical package.

[Baghdad Bob]

do something like a byot setup that way you can have as many site tours as you like