Hosting hundreds or thousands of blogs can sometimes be a challenging task. WordPress MU can make that task a breeze. Choosing the right hosting solution for your WordPress installation can also be challenging. If you want to setup a blogging environment ideal for hosting, running, and maintaining multiple blogs for your company, your end users, or even your customers, you need WordPress MU. Combine WordPress MU with WordPress MU hosting and you have a powerful blog hosting solution you can use to run thousands of blogs.

You may be new to the idea of running multiple blogs at the same time or you may already be managing multiple blogs, but want to start your own blog hosting platform. So how do you get started? Which hosting provider do you choose? This article defines WordPress MU and WordPress MU hosting, provides tips on what is needed to successfully run a WordPress MU installation, explores requirements for a hosting provider and plan, and tells you exactly what you need to know before you choose your WordPress MU hosting provider and WordPress MU hosting plan.

What exactly is WordPress MU?

WordPress MU is a multi-user version of WordPress and is based on the WordPress code platform. WordPress MU virtualizes multiple blogs, which allows you to run unlimited blogs with unlimited authors on each blog. WordPress MU is ideal for companies or people who want to run multiple blogs or want to offer blog hosting services to their users and customers.

WordPress MU is a highly popular and trusted open source platform used for powering WordPress.com hosted blogging service as well as many other corporate, educational, private, and even government websites and blogs including Best Buy, AMD, NY Times, America.gov, Reuters, Mozilla, University of Maine, and many other leading and familiar brands throughout the world.

WordPress MU-specific features include:

• Opportunity to provide free hosting as an alternative to paid hosting.
• Unlimited blogs.
• Unlimited authors on each blog.
• Users can have more than one blog (or none).
• Users can be assigned different roles on different blogs.
• Blogs can use different plugins and different themes.
• Blogs can be hosted on subdomains or reside in subdirectories.

The above list describes only some of the powerful features available with WordPress MU. WordPress MU is only as powerful as the WordPress MU hosting platform you choose. With the right combination of hosting, WordPress MU can save you significant time, money, and resources.

Why WordPress MU

If you need to run multiple blogs on the same domain, using WordPress MU will save you time and resources because you won’t have to install and set up a separate WordPress blog for each user. With WordPress MU all your blogs are stored in the same database and run off one single installation. This way you only have to update one WordPress MU installation when new versions are available. Additionally, whenever you need to edit source code or upload plugins, you only have to make edits once and changes will be applied across your blog network automatically.

WordPress MU can be further extended with hundreds of free plugins, widgets, and themes from a vast WordPress community. With so many resources available, you have access to a tremendous range of features and designs you can use to enhance your blogging experience. And if you have any programming skills, you can easily create your own designs and code new features for your website.

What it takes to host WordPress MU

Hosting WordPress MU depends on how many blogs you want to host and how much traffic you expect to get. Basically, any blogging platform is able to handle only as much traffic as allowed by the hardware it runs on. Processor and network limitations can prevent your WordPress MU blogs from handling an increased volume of traffic. In order to accommodate dozens, even hundreds or thousands of blog users, or serve high-traffic websites, the site server and software you use need to be sufficient to handle multiple users and high-traffic loads.

If you do not have a large number of blogs or high-traffic, a shared hosting account will work perfectly. However, if you need to run high-traffic WordPress MU sites, you will need sufficient processor power, memory resources and plenty of bandwidth, which typically requires more power and features available with shared hosting.

There are benefits to using a VPS or a dedicated server instead of a shared web hosting account. First, you have the ability to tweak your database configuration and other settings according to your requirements. Next, you will not be influenced by other accounts on your server. If you do not need the flexibility to modify your databases and configuration settings or you do not mind sharing your server with other users, a shared hosting account is ideal for the vast majority of WordPress MU users. In order to enjoy hassle free WordPress MU hosting service, you really want to look for a special WordPress hosting package from a reliable WordPress Mu hosting provider.

Things to consider before you choose your WordPress MU hosting provider and WordPress MU hosting plan

Hosting one blog is relatively easy, but when you want to host hundreds or thousands of blogs using one WordPress MU installation, you need to be careful when choosing your web hosting provider and hosting plan. Why? If your WordPress MU hosting service is down for an indefinite period of time or your account gets suspended due to exceeding bandwidth or CPU usage limits set by your hosting provider, your users will leave and look elsewhere for blog hosting services. Plan wisely and choose your WordPress MU hosting provider accordingly so you can maintain maximum uptime and experience a reliable blog hosting experience.

Here are some basic tips you may find helpful when choosing your WordPress MU hosting provider and plan:

1. First, if you plan on having dozens of users, shared hosting will do, but if you expect to have hundreds or thousands of users, or expect a high volume of traffic, you should consider getting a plan with a dedicated server and be prepared to quickly scale up in order for your blog hosting service to run successfully.
2. Find a provider that offers a special WordPress MU hosting solution. This way you can be sure you will have the software and hardware that meet WordPress MU requirements and the requirements of your website.
3. Look for a plan with no limits on disk space and bandwidth so your account does not get suspended in case you go beyond the allocated limits. Otherwise your users will look elsewhere for blog hosting services.
4. Make sure the web hosting provider you choose is reliable and provides what they claim. Choose a hosting provider that offers maximum uptime and timely backups so that you and your users can access your blogs anytime without having to worry about data loss.
5. Finally, choose a hosting provider with solid and timely expert customer support who can answer your questions and support tickets in minutes, not hours or days.

Take the above tips into consideration before you choose your WordPress MU hosting provider. Making the right choice will save you time, money, and above all, frustration.

Get an exclusive WordPress MU hosting package from Certified Hosting

Certified Hosting provides web hosting to Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, and individuals around the globe. We are dedicated to tailoring our services to meet our clients’ specific needs. So if you are looking for a special WordPress MU hosting solution, Certified Hosting offers an exclusive WordPress MU hosting package with free WordPress MU installation, free upgrades, free templates, and free module installation. Certified Hosting has everything you need to successfully run your WordPress MU website. You also get a full set of WordPress tools to help you build your own WordPress website from scratch in seconds. Additionally, if you already run a WordPress MU website but plan on switching your hosting provider, Certified Hosting will migrate your existing website and WordPress MU installation free.

Hassle free web hosting means our customers do not have to worry if they have the required space and resources available, which is especially true if you run hundreds or thousands of blogs on your WordPress MU installation. We hate throttling as much as you do. Therefore, Certified Hosting has absolutely no limits on bandwidth and disk space so you will always have the data and internal resources you need. We are also happy to offer our customers an Uptime Guarantee, which means that we guarantee there will be no downtime for you and your users’ WordPress MU websites.

Hassle free web hosting also means customers do not have to wait for days to get their questions answered and problems resolved. Certified Hosting’s team of experts is available 24/7 to answer your inquiries and reply to your support tickets.

Learn more about our exclusive WordPress MU hosting package or contact a service representative today at 1-800-547-9995 (U.S. & Canada) or 1-909-498-4415 (worldwide).