Having multiple domains point to the same WordPress blog

Weâ€™re making some business changes to The Bloomery, and combining two different sites into a single WordPress blog.  The outcome we want is multiple domains all pointing to the main blog.  And we want to run it on Windows/IIS.  Out of the box, WordPress is designed for a single blog with a single domain, but there are a number of settings and plugins that we used to end up with what we wanted.

With WordPress 3.0, there is a new Multisite Network option, where multiple blogs can be created in the context of a single installation, and different domains can map to each of the child blogs.  There is the option of using subdomains (blog1.mysite.com, blog2.mysite.com) or subdirectories (mysite.com/blog1/, mysite.com/blog2/).  When you set up Multisite, you have to choose one or the other, and you canâ€™t change once youâ€™ve made your choice.  In either case, you have to make some edits to the .htaccess file for URL redirects/rewrites.  On IIS 7, there is no .htaccess file, but we can accomplish the same thing with the web.config and the URL Rewrite Module.

Make sure all your domains point to the correct hosting account, and install WordPress.  After installing WordPress, hereâ€™s what needs to be done:

1. Set up a Multisite Network using subdirectories; follow the steps at http://www.lauragentry.com/wordpress/?p=517.

2. Install the WordPress MU Domain Mapping plugin, from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/.  You need to do a manual installation, but itâ€™s easy.  For some additional information on this plugin, see http://ottopress.com/2010/wordpress-3-0-multisite-domain-mapping-tutorial/.

3. The main site is assigned a site ID of 1.  From the main siteâ€™s control panel, under the Super Admin, you want to add all your domains with a site ID of 1.  They wonâ€™t show up in the mapping, so just try and visit each of your domains to see if they all point to the main site.

Installing WordPress on DiscountASP.NET




What youâ€™ll need

  1. Hosting account
  2. Add MySQL option to your hosting account.
  3. WordPress download, from http://wordpress.org/
  4. FileZilla FTP program, from http://filezilla-project.org/.  FileZilla is the best FTP program to use with DiscountASP.NET.  Iâ€™ve tried others, but they hold connections open making directory manipulation impossible.

The Process

Provision a MySQL Database







Add a Default Document



Installing WordPress

Unzip WordPress, and follow the 5-Minute Install instructions.  The important part is the second step, where you rename the config file and edit the database information (see http://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-config.php).  Edit the file with Notepad or your favorite text editor.  You only need to change the four settings listed at the top of the help page.

Once that is done, connect to your site with FileZilla.  If you want to install WP in a subdirectory (such as www.mysite.com/blog), create the subdirectory.  Otherwise, delete the files in the root.  Then, upload all of the WordPress files to your site.

In order to populate the database tables, run the installer at www.mysite.com/wp-admin/install.php (or www.mysite.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php).  On the first page, youâ€™ll set your blogâ€™s title and create the initial user.  Make sure you keep track of this password!


If all goes well, youâ€™ll see this:

