multiple sites / domains in one CMSMS instance - idea

[uptoeleven]

Hi,

This is just something I thought I would throw out there as it looks like a gap that CMSMS could fill effortlessly.

THE HORRID IRRELEVANT BIT:

In my effort to make a bit of extra cash I started to get into building niche sites to target Google keywords to try to make some Adsense money. It's all pretty hideous but with at least some of the sites I can provide content that is useful...

Anyway - everyone who builds these niche sites does so in Wordpress because it's quick and dirty. You install Wordpress, take out all the dates (so it looks like a website not a blog) select an "optimised" theme and hope to god you'll come up in Google. Naturally you need to have quite a few of these sites to make any money at all and it is a LOT of work but then that's life. Here's the thing:

One install of Wordpress is 8 database tables. You need about 100 domains to start making any kind of decent money. Suddenly everything gets pretty awful to manage.

1.) Wordpress is horrid. The way it throws content and layout and function all in together is just nasty. The way it randomly switches stuff off because it isn't well thought through is alarming. The image upload is nice, installation is easy enough, the rest is just awful.

2.) Wordpress is blog software. These niche sites should be sites.

THE CMS MADE SIMPLE BIT

I think CMS Made Simple could be the system to usurp Wordpress in this. I believe v2 of CMSMS running on silk can run across domains, is this correct?. If so this would make it the killer app for niche sites and SEO in general.

Here's what I envisage:

1.) creation of a "distro" of CMSMS that has all the modules that people will need to build really basic sites, along with whatever is needed to make CMSMS run across domains plus some very, very simple, easy, well thought out install scripts - not that the current ones are bad but they're aimed at people who know how to install software. Also the facility for automatic updating would be necessary.

An alternative way to do this would be to provide a "server in a box" solution similar to XAMPP then set up a company that can host that "server in a box" at a competitive rate - easy because we'd know what optimisations could be made to the server to make it run better with limited investment.

2.) creation of some basic "optimised" templates - compared to Wordpress, building templates for CMSMS is dead easy and we have much more fine grained control over what goes in and where. Enable people to download and install the same on their CMSMS "distro"s.

SITE AUTHOR'S PERSPECTIVE:

CMSMS is a one-time install, doesn't need maintenance and will run faster than Wordpress because having 1 central installation as opposed to 100 tiny separate installations all with their own database connectors is going to be a lot less resource-intensive.

Templates and layouts mean sites don't HAVE to look "like a Wordpress site". Total control over the layout and template also makes SEO much easier and in terms of adding Adsense, it goes precisely where it needs to, when it needs to and not elsewhere.

From the perspective of anyone viewing the pages, they will look a lot nicer, a lot more individual and a lot less "spammy" than Wordpress sites, they should also load faster and run better.

What do you all think?

[calguy1000]

The development team has discussed this at length..

and 'multi-site' support, no matter which way you shake it, is 'out of scope' for CMSMS.  Therefore,  we're not gonna do it.

[scooter]

Hi,

I actually think multi-site management would be a very useful tool for some users of CMSMS.  I think there are a few points that need to be addressed, regarding a definition and implementation.

1. Is this the management of multiple domains on one server (highly probable)
2. Is this the management of multiple servers with individual sites (less likely, but still useful)
3. Is it both of the above?
4. Its not on the roadmap - so what way forward if this is something people need?

Maybe it would be possible to create a multi-site management application that sits above CMSMS and provides (initially limited) functionality to help manage these multiple instances.  CMSMS manages the processes relating to site content and styling, thats what its good at, but the multi-site management app would focus on the application management - install, upgrade etc.

Anyway, this would be of great interest to me, I don't see this affecting the core development of CMSMS, 1.7 or 2, but maybe a sibling project could at least be considered.

Does anyone else think this is feasible?

Must sleep now....

[calguy1000]

either way... not a subject for this forum.... it's a closed issue as far as I care.

[boby]

It would be nice in the future: one language per subdomain.

Hence the url would have the keywords relevent to the language. It would increase placement in google search