Would this be possible in WordPress?

aspe_heat · Sep 11, 2013

Hey everyone!

I have a sports website and currently, it only has NBA (basketball) content. However, since it's doing very well, I want to expand it to other sports, one by one. But I believe that making many categories and tags would make the website look messy, so I'm wondering if it's possible to have multiple WP installations on one domain, yet let them all use the same database?

Example :
domain.com/nba - would contain one WP installation with only NBA content. It would have its own categories.
domain.com/nfl - would contain separate WP installation with only NFL content and it would have its own categories.

etc.

However, both of the "websites" would use username database which is used on domain.com. So let's say someone comes on my website domain.com and he registers an account. That same account would be used on both domain.com/nba and domain.com/nfl.

Would that be possible and would it be fine with Google?
If not, is there any alternative to organize it better?

Thanks!

meikibay · Sep 11, 2013

aspe_heat said:
Hey everyone!

I have a sports website and currently, it only has NBA (basketball) content. However, since it's doing very well, I want to expand it to other sports, one by one. But I believe that making many categories and tags would make the website look messy, so I'm wondering if it's possible to have multiple WP installations on one domain, yet let them all use the same database?

Example :
domain.com/nba - would contain one WP installation with only NBA content. It would have its own categories.
domain.com/nfl - would contain separate WP installation with only NFL content and it would have its own categories.

etc.

However, both of the "websites" would use username database which is used on domain.com. So let's say someone comes on my website domain.com and he registers an account. That same account would be used on both domain.com/nba and domain.com/nfl.

Would that be possible and would it be fine with Google?
If not, is there any alternative to organize it better?

Thanks!

I guess i may not be the most knowledged guy to talk about it but it IS possible. I think at least one way to do this is to use sub-domains (based on the example you mentioned).

As for the database (i'm guessing that you're asking cause you already use one, and at a wild guess i'd say it's PHP) i'm not a programmer but shouldn't be to hard to do for most of the guys here.

As for it to be "fine" with Google it depends on what you're trying to say, if you're asking if this is something that might hit your SERP, it will depend on where you already are, but as a simple reference to give you an example, this is how one of the most hated products in the forum are doing it (empowernetwork) from what i know, they sell you sub domains that are already "ranked" from their main domain and google seems to like them (idk why).

As for alternatives i really don't know (like i said i'm not the most knowledged in the field).

Hope it helped,

Cheers

Conor · Sep 11, 2013

Hey dude, while it's possible to have one DB with multiple sites, I don't recommend it, simply because all your posts and pages are saved in the DB and it would be a mess to try configure each blog individually.

May I ask what you think would be messy about using categories? There's nothing neater in the world IMO.

Edit: Give this a read

http://justintadlock.com/archives/2008/09/20/installing-two-wordpress-blogs-with-the-same-users

aspe_heat · Sep 11, 2013

meikibay said:
I guess i may not be the most knowledged guy to talk about it but it IS possible. I think at least one way to do this is to use sub-domains (based on the example you mentioned).

As for the database (i'm guessing that you're asking cause you already use one, and at a wild guess i'd say it's PHP) i'm not a programmer but shouldn't be to hard to do for most of the guys here.

As for it to be "fine" with Google it depends on what you're trying to say, if you're asking if this is something that might hit your SERP, it will depend on where you already are, but as a simple reference to give you an example, this is how one of the most hated products in the forum are doing it (empowernetwork) from what i know, they sell you sub domains that are already "ranked" from their main domain and google seems to like them (idk why).

As for alternatives i really don't know (like i said i'm not the most knowledged in the field).

Hope it helped,

Cheers

Thanks for your reply!

Well yeah, I have a database which I use for my website. Right now my website only has NBA news, over 40 writers and around 700 articles so I wouldn't like to lose it!

And yes, I am ranked quite well. Well, the website is like 6 months old and I get 100-200 daily visits from search engines, which I am very happy with. I'm just afraid that Google might deindex me or something because I would use more WP installations on one domain.

aspe_heat · Sep 11, 2013

Treeofl1 said:
Hey dude, while it's possible to have one DB with multiple sites, I don't recommend it, simply because all your posts and pages are saved in the DB and it would be a mess to try configure each blog individually.

May I ask what you think would be messy about using categories? There's nothing neater in the world IMO.

Well, right now my website has like 10 main categories, 5 out of them are categorized into sub-categories and then again into...sub-sub-categories?

So whenever is someone publishing an article, there are tons of categories to choose from, since I have like 50 of them in total (and I need to add a few more).

Conor · Sep 11, 2013

aspe_heat said:
Well, right now my website has like 10 main categories, 5 out of them are categorized into sub-categories and then again into...sub-sub-categories?

So whenever is someone publishing an article, there are tons of categories to choose from, since I have like 50 of them in total (and I need to add a few more).

Check my edit

Just found it, I might also make use of that info at one point in the future. Interesting stuff

aspe_heat · Sep 11, 2013

Treeofl1 said:
Check my edit Just found it, I might also make use of that info at one point in the future. Interesting stuff

Checking it out, thanks a lot for your help!

meikibay · Sep 11, 2013

aspe_heat said:
Thanks for your reply!

Well yeah, I have a database which I use for my website. Right now my website only has NBA news, over 40 writers and around 700 articles so I wouldn't like to lose it!

And yes, I am ranked quite well. Well, the website is like 6 months old and I get 100-200 daily visits from search engines, which I am very happy with. I'm just afraid that Google might deindex me or something because I would use more WP installations on one domain.

Seems like you have a good thing going on, why do you want to expand to other Sports?

Maybe you don't have a crowd willing to know about other sports other then NBA itself, don't consider it as advice cause i'm not in your shoes, but think about it...

You already know what it takes to make it work, why don't you simply get another domain a start from scratch?

If your crowd are sports fans you can just let them know, by promoting or saying in that NBA thread you just partnered with another Sports related website, followers will come if you have the content and they have the interest for it...

You would be good with a larger scale one but there's some down side to it:

Like management;
Indexing all the content;
Loading time for your readers;
Management of all the content;

Most of all (and you can really go big with it) you'd even might need to get a better hosting, it's a lot to think about, but hey, you'll only learn if you try so go for it, stick with your gut.

Cheers
P.s. Just a small tough that came to mind, why don't you create a Poll on that website you already have to see if your readers would like more info there or not (don't ask if they would like to read it elsewhere because this takes you credibility)...

aspe_heat · Sep 11, 2013

meikibay said:
Seems like you have a good thing going on, why do you want to expand to other Sports?

Maybe you don't have a crowd willing to know about other sports other then NBA itself, don't consider it as advice cause i'm not in your shoes, but think about it...

You already know what it takes to make it work, why don't you simply get another domain a start from scratch?

If your crowd are sports fans you can just let them know, by promoting or saying in that NBA thread you just partnered with another Sports related website, followers will come if you have the content and they have the interest for it...

You would be good with a larger scale one but there's some down side to it:

Like management;
Indexing all the content;
Loading time for your readers;
Management of all the content;

Most of all (and you can really go big with it) you'd even might need to get a better hosting, it's a lot to think about, but hey, you'll only learn if you try so go for it, stick with your gut.

Cheers
P.s. Just a small tough that came to mind, why don't you create a Poll on that website you already have to see if your readers would like more info there or not (don't ask if they would like to read it elsewhere because this takes you credibility)...

Thanks a lot for your concerns and suggestions!

Well, I talked to other writers and many of them can cover other sports too. They are very positive about the website and work hard to make it popular. Basically, many of us have sports pages on Facebook which we use to promote our articles. We are also members of big sports forums etc. etc. and some of our visitors suggested that we expand to other sports.

Now, this is only a plan right now, I'm not going to take any action anytime soon. The new NBA season will start in less than 2 months, so I'll see how my website is doing and how many articles it will be getting during that period. Right now it's offseason and there aren't many things to write about really. If it keeps going well and getting visitors, I'm going to expand to one more sport hopefully in January or February 2014.

However, I need to find a monetization method since AdSense blocked me. And I really want to start paying some of the writers since they deserve it. Besides, I also need money for website maintenance and services.

meikibay · Sep 11, 2013

Sure, no problem. If i needed some help i'd appreciate someone would tell me what to think.

You've already figured out something that works for you and that's which is hard to to for most of us so congrats on that!

As for the plan it seems to me like a good one, give it a deadline and stick to it, be concerned about the feedback you get from your readers/followers.

About the monetization, adsense is really the best method, but read around there's also some good alternatives mentioned in some threads.

Just another idea about monetizing (offline in this case): Sometime ago i wanted to get in the custom t-shirt business and i setup a game-plan to be a sponsor for local sports teams, maybe you could do the same, it wont put money in your pocket right away but it would get you more exposure and more followers, perhaps you could team-up with colleges and small town teams.
You'll always have something to write about (like featured monthly small town team or MVP of those small teams) and the team and whoever is their fan might be interested in what your doing with your website.

Just wanted to tell you that cause i'm always interested in brainstorming business ideas and monetization methods, maybe it won't make sense to you what i just said, but hey, maybe you can find some inspiration from it.

Hope i could help,
Cheers

aspe_heat · Sep 11, 2013

meikibay said:
Sure, no problem. If i needed some help i'd appreciate someone would tell me what to think.

You've already figured out something that works for you and that's which is hard to to for most of us so congrats on that!

As for the plan it seems to me like a good one, give it a deadline and stick to it, be concerned about the feedback you get from your readers/followers.

About the monetization, adsense is really the best method, but read around there's also some good alternatives mentioned in some threads.

Just another idea about monetizing (offline in this case): Sometime ago i wanted to get in the custom t-shirt business and i setup a game-plan to be a sponsor for local sports teams, maybe you could do the same, it wont put money in your pocket right away but it would get you more exposure and more followers, perhaps you could team-up with colleges and small town teams.
You'll always have something to write about (like featured monthly small town team or MVP of those small teams) and the team and whoever is their fan might be interested in what your doing with your website.

Just wanted to tell you that cause i'm always interested in brainstorming business ideas and monetization methods, maybe it won't make sense to you what i just said, but hey, maybe you can find some inspiration from it.

Hope i could help,
Cheers

I really apprecaite your help!

And yeah, AdSense is just awesome. I used to earn a lot with it (while my website was getting 3-4 times less visitors than now), but someone started sending fake traffic and...well, a BAN HAMMER!

I like the idea about sponsoring a team, but I'll need to earn more money for that. I was thinking of designing and printing t-shirts though, so people can wear them. It could get my website higher exposure. Not sure how well it would be, though.

meikibay · Sep 11, 2013

The t-shirt business isn't easy but it is a fun and profitable business if you can run it well. I didn't went for it cause it's needed some initial capital to invest, which i don't have at the moment so i was setting myself to failure for sure, but i'll do it as soon as i can afford it.

As for the sponsoring try to do it in a way that the team benefits from something you can offer, rather than yourself paying to get your info. with the team.

Example: promote tickets to their games on your website and in return you put a small URL or even a QR Code on their shirts, most likely they already have a company making equipment for them so neither you or the team would have to invest money and you would both make money of it, plus exposure, it's a win/win situation.

gooma2 · Sep 12, 2013

we did this with our site and expanded it out to cover more topics in one area. I'll make one suggestion though. If you're going to do a lot of articles in other sporting areas, you might want to think about separate databases for each area only because having thousands and thousands of articles in one database can slow your site down too.

we created 9 additional areas to our site, each with it's own database but connected and page load time is crazy fast for a very image and video heavy site.

just some thoughts, and there are some really great advertisers out there still that can give Adsense a run for their money dollarwise. If you've got great traffic with a lot from US (50% or more), you can really rake in some great money.

good luck with it. it takes some work, but it really pays off if you can keep on top of everything.

aspe_heat · Sep 12, 2013

gooma2 said:
we did this with our site and expanded it out to cover more topics in one area. I'll make one suggestion though. If you're going to do a lot of articles in other sporting areas, you might want to think about separate databases for each area only because having thousands and thousands of articles in one database can slow your site down too.

we created 9 additional areas to our site, each with it's own database but connected and page load time is crazy fast for a very image and video heavy site.

just some thoughts, and there are some really great advertisers out there still that can give Adsense a run for their money dollarwise. If you've got great traffic with a lot from US (50% or more), you can really rake in some great money.

good luck with it. it takes some work, but it really pays off if you can keep on top of everything.

Thanks for your suggestions!

I will create separate databases then since I expect many articles. And I'm not really sure about that...65-70% of my traffic is from the US and 15% is from Canada/UK/Australia, but I haven't had luck with other advertisers. I tried infolinks, Chitika and MadAdsMedia, but no luck.

hackerzonline · Sep 12, 2013

YOu can use the same database for all your wp instances. all you need to do is to specify a different database prefix in the wp-config.php. Its the same as creating a seperate database for each one.

The second option for you is wordpress network(multiblog). you can setup a network inside wordpress and you can use either subdomains or subfolders for the same.

Make sure you backup your dbs and wp-content folder before you try any enhancements. Let me know if you need any help in setting up.

gooma2 · Sep 12, 2013

Most good ad networks want the at least 50% US traffic so you're doing great there. What was interesting is that at first I was trying to also blindly find ad networks but after kissing a crapload of toads, we focused on our content. Then we started getting queries from good networks and that got us set up nicely.

Many times, the really good ones will seek you out as they are watching ComScore, Quantcast and Nielsen. Make sure you've got Quantcast code on your site as I've found a lot of advertisers watch that one too.

The separate database was a lifesaver for us and we did it by accident the first time. Our site wound up getting so big with hi-res images that it wound up saving us when we added all the additional areas. Sports is a great one to cover and when you've got a good traffic base they are very rabid fans that keep coming back.

aspe_heat said:
Thanks for your suggestions!

I will create separate databases then since I expect many articles. And I'm not really sure about that...65-70% of my traffic is from the US and 15% is from Canada/UK/Australia, but I haven't had luck with other advertisers. I tried infolinks, Chitika and MadAdsMedia, but no luck.

aspe_heat · Sep 12, 2013

gooma2 said:
Most good ad networks want the at least 50% US traffic so you're doing great there. What was interesting is that at first I was trying to also blindly find ad networks but after kissing a crapload of toads, we focused on our content. Then we started getting queries from good networks and that got us set up nicely.

Many times, the really good ones will seek you out as they are watching ComScore, Quantcast and Nielsen. Make sure you've got Quantcast code on your site as I've found a lot of advertisers watch that one too.

The separate database was a lifesaver for us and we did it by accident the first time. Our site wound up getting so big with hi-res images that it wound up saving us when we added all the additional areas. Sports is a great one to cover and when you've got a good traffic base they are very rabid fans that keep coming back.

Yeah, I guess I'll keep focusing on content and other things will come by themselves. My website is a part of MGID advertising network, but that only gets me more visitors, not money. But I can't complain, since I get many visitors from it daily. It's just too bad that I cannot use AdSense since I really liked my profit with it.

I'll probably start expanding at the start of the next year, maybe in January, so I'll write down these tips and make sure I follow them later, so thanks for your help!

Would this be possible in WordPress?

aspe_heat

Senior Member

meikibay

Newbie

Conor

Elite Member

aspe_heat

Senior Member

aspe_heat

Senior Member

Conor

Elite Member

aspe_heat

Senior Member

meikibay

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aspe_heat

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meikibay

Newbie

aspe_heat

Senior Member

meikibay

Newbie

gooma2

Power Member

aspe_heat

Senior Member

hackerzonline

Newbie

gooma2

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aspe_heat

Senior Member

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