Is multi site the best option?

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7/28/2011 9:33:42 AM

andyc

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Is multi site the best option?

Hi,

I'm just looking for a little advice here, I'm aware that mojoportal offers the facility to have multi sites from a single installation and am wondering whether this might be my best option...

Basically we have the opportunity to start doing some work with a local print company whereby they do the letterheads, bus cards etc. and we create the website which might be a good lead for us. As one of the option we need to look at doing a very small, very low budget basic website that will only be 2 - 3 pages and it seems like full seperate installations of mojoportal running on our server for (hopefully) many sites like this might be a little counterproductive and tie up server resources more than necessary.

The options I can think of as a solution are to stick with mojoportal as its great, familiar and reliable but perhaps create several of the sites using one installation, create a mojo installation for each site (not sure how many resources will be tied up here as I anticipate having to use the appkeepalive with most sites). Alternatively, as my Wife, Lorna, does most of the design work in Artisteer we can use the new features of artisteer and she can create the entire site there and upload it directly. My main concern here is ease of update and lack of mojo's additional features like forms, SEO etc etc. and generally just that I would prefer to stick with mojo! lol

Any advice on whether multi site might be the way to go or whether I'm worrying about resources when I don't need to would be great (I can upgrade the server somewhat but don't want to do that as a result of using mojo for such small sites if possible).

Cheers

Andrew

7/29/2011 10:32:30 AM

Aaron W

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Re: Is multi site the best option?

From your description I would not worry too much about resources. From a hosting stand point I would not recommend using a multi site install for multiple customers. In doing this if something were to go wrong with the mojoPortal base it would take out all your customers instead of just the one. Plus you also segment your customers information, which some clients can insist on.

7/29/2011 12:14:01 PM

Joe Audette

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Re: Is multi site the best option?

Whether to use multi sites is really a business decision that I would base on whether you intend to be able to give your customers a copy of their site and their data if they ask for it. If you do then I would use a separate installation for each customer so that the data is isolated and you can make a backup easily without including the data for other customers.

If that is not a concern then the multi site approach has some benefits, it does use less resources than installing separate IIS web sites for each site because each IIS site has some overhead of memory usage whereas in a multi site installation it is just one IIS site and one app domain. Its not a huge savings though.

It is true that if you have a problem upgrading then it affects all of your customers as Aaron said, but the counterpoint to that is that you only have one site to upgrade so it is less work to keep the sites up to date than if you have to upgrade a bunch of sites separately.

Best,

Joe

7/29/2011 3:49:56 PM

IndigoTea

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Re: Is multi site the best option?

Andy,

One other thing to keep in mind is this; they may be small, entry-level sites now, but as the client's business grows, so does the opportunity to upgrade them, and add to your revenue stream. Clients have a wide array of unique needs, so in the case of specialization or customization, a single-install may become counter-productive. Also - savvy small business owners are more aware of the benefits of a CMS; static sites are becoming more and more rare as a result, and providers of static sites are viewed less than favorably.

Think about how you want to position yourself to those small businesses, now, and in the future, as they grow, and need more advanced tools and services. It's wonderful to be able to say "sure, we can include that - no problem!" vs. "hmmm...that's going to mean re-doing your site", and watching them flinch at the sticker shock for doing so. Each one of these new sites is a seed - think about how you want to nurture and grow that business relationship.

Congratulations on the opportunity, and good luck! And lucky you, for having a wife/partner who has skills to complement your own!

7/29/2011 4:20:36 PM

andyc

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Re: Is multi site the best option?

Thanks Aaron, Joe and Carole for the input - plenty of food for thought there!

I'll have to have a think about it and weigh up the pros and cons and decide on a strategy, resources aside I'd go for individual installations so if there isn't a lot to be gained there then that should make the choice a lot easier.

Hopefully as this takes off I'll spend more time regularly working on development and with mojoportal with less frustrating - forgotten the basics - gaps in between doing sites - who knows I might even learn to be a proper coder at some point!

Thanks once again for the input, hope you all have a great weekend,

Cheers

Andrew

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