Build your own blog network with unlimited users and blogs, forums, photo galleries, and more!
- Design, develop, secure, and optimize a blog network with a single installation of WordPress
- Add unlimited users and blogs, and give different permissions on different blogs
- Add social networking features to your blogs using BuddyPress
- Create a bbPress forum for your users to communicate with each other
- Part of Packt's Beginner's Guide Series, with step-by-step, detailed instructions for building a blog network from scratch

In Detail
WordPress MU enables you to build a complete, professional blog network. Each user gets their own blog, and can choose their favorite templates and plug-ins, and develop their own content. WordPress MU powers some of the largest blog networks in the world, including the mighty WordPress.com - home to thousands of bloggers.

This book will take you through the setup of a WordPress MU-powered blogging network, using a real, working blog network as an example, so that you can follow the creation process step-by-step. Your blogging network will be complete with professional features such as friends lists, status feeds, groups, forums, photo galleries, and more, to build your own WordPress.com - a place where users can quickly come and create a blog for themselves.

The book starts with a clean install of WordPress MU, and as you work through the book, you will build the blog network, and add on more and more features, all seamlessly integrated to achieve a professional, custom-built look.

You will find new themes and plug-ins added to the site, as well as customization of the WordPress multi-user code. The book will also look at ways you can manage your community, and keep your site safe and secure, ensuring that it is a spam-free, enjoyable community for your users. In the later chapters, you will add a forum using the bbPress script, and add BuddyPress social networking components to your site.

Imagine how good you'll feel when your first WordPress multi-user blog network launches.

What you will learn from this book?
- Set up and run your own blog network using the multi-user version of the most popular open source blogging platform
- Monetize your blog network and earn revenue from using simple banner advertisements to paid upgrades and revenue sharing models
- Give users a chance to interact with each other and build community spirit by integrating a forum with your site
- Hook your blog network up to other social networking sites such as Twitter
- Increase traffic to your site with tagging, trackbacks, pings, and RSS
- Add popular features such as gravatars, polls, photo galleries, friends lists, and more
- Secure your blog network, and protect it from spam with reCAPTCHA and Bad Behaviour
- Implement backup and performance optimization techniques that will ensure that your blog network will be capable of handling large numbers of visitors

Approach
Packed with easy-to-follow examples and screenshots, this book is designed to be followed from beginning to end, although those with existing WordPress MU sites will be able to jump in at the later chapters and pick out the things that are important to them. The author's expertise with creating a wide variety of WordPress sites enables her to share insights on using WordPress effectively, in a clear and friendly way. Those interested in digging further will be given the chance to customize their site further. Throughout the book, you will build up a blog network for Vampire Slayers-SlayerCafe.com, as an example.

Who this book is written for?
If you wish to manage multiple blogs and build a blog network, then this book is for you. You are not expected to be experienced with PHP coding. Some knowledge of HTML, and some experience with the blogging and social networking world will be helpful, but not essential.

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