Need help with structure of “multi-blog” site

  • I’m setting up a site to host podcasts and need some help with how to best structure the site.

    My idea for the site structure is this:

    “Home” – Standard WP Blog with each post being a description and RSS feed to each episode of the podcast

    “About” – Standard WP Page

    “Sponsors” – Standard WP Page

    “Blog” – Standard WP Blog with each post having content related to the theme of the podcast in general

    “Shownotes” – Standard WP Blog with each post being notes and links relating to topics in the associated podcast episode

    (I’d like to keep the Shownotes posts separate from the actual feed posts.)

    The Pages are, of course, not a problem.
    My dilemma arises with the notion that I want “Blog” and “Shownotes” to work as ‘sub-blogs’ of the main blog “Home”. That is, I effectively need 3 blogs within the one WP installation.

    So, my questions:

    1. Is what I outlined above possible within a single WP installation? I’d like to avoid building it on plugins, if at all possible, to avoid the possibility of them breaking in a future WP upgrade.

    2. Should I do it by setting up separate WP installations in subdirectories of “Home” (i.e. Home/Blog and Home/Shownotes) and link them?

    3. Or should I really bite the bullet and look at setting up a WP multisite network installation? (I note that this is not recommended on shared hosting, which I currently have with DreamHost.)

    All advice and recommendations will be most gratefully received!

    WP version: 3.0.1
    Theme: Suffusion
    Hosting: DreamHost

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • Gmac,

    I think that the Multi site is the way to go. I’m a developer and theres nothing better than spinning off a “test” site or a clients mock up and test site right under my main domain.

    I think for multiple podcasting sites (where your domain is “awesomecasts.com” and a show is called “coolcast”) this is perfect. It allows you to allocate a separate system to your podcast hosts/creators while keeping it under one branch. Rather than having multiple wordpress sites, one network allows you to blanket upgrade and manipulate all the sites (think of having 15 wordpress sites that all need upgrading!)

    But maybe I’m just a big fan of the networking abilities of WP.

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    ?????? Advisor and Activist

    “Blog” – Standard WP Blog with each post having content related to the theme of the podcast in general

    “Shownotes” – Standard WP Blog with each post being notes and links relating to topics in the associated podcast episode

    MultiSite can do this, sure, but remember that Multisite is for running separate sites. It’s like running your own wp.com install ??

    You could get the same effect with custom theme’d template pages for the Blog and ShowNotes pages, having them pull in specific categories. Or just use categories…

    Thread Starter GMacSpark

    (@gmacspark)

    Many thanks for the responses!

    @tm3909 – I completely take on board what you’re saying about the beauty of managing all the sites through one Super Admin master interface. Unfortunately, if I’m completely honest with myself, I don’t think I’m really up to the task of installing and maintaining a WP Multisite project (I’m definitely not a developer – more of a “geeky creative”).
    I certainly see the elegance of the system, though, and, who knows, if the venture grows as I hope it will, I may be able to hire a developer to implement WP Multisite sometime in the future. ;^)

    @ipstenu – I’ll definitely take a look at using custom themed template pages to pull in specific categories. I think that may be a solution for the Shownotes page, but I’d like the Blog page to have full blog functionality i.e. ability to take comments etc., which I’m not sure would be possible by diverting posts to a custom page. (?)
    Another thought: If I can divert certain posts by Category to, say, the Shownotes page, is there any way to prevent WP from showing those posts on the main blog page? (i.e. they ONLY show up on the Shownotes page, not the Home page).

    Again, much appreciated for your time and thought!

    I have a similar problem. i am using the amazing suffusion theme template.

    I am trying to make a site for myself, and creating different pages. A magazine landing page, a page with book covers I design, a page with my artwork and a page with my blog.
    Now I used the post template for the last three, the two not taking comments and the last taking comments.
    My question is, how do I control where everything goes when I create a new post?
    My assumption would be through categories, and then possibly linking each category with each page design?

    Please lend me your thoughts.
    Thanks

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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