Two blogs, same host?

[rachelo]

Can you have more than one blog (WordPress) on the same host?
Have like different domains hosted on one host and say two or three different blogs? I am thinking of different niches served by different blogs.

[Fonz]

As far as I know you can have as many blogs as you want on one host. And niched "blogs" will get you more targeted traffic which means more chance of getting sales than general blogs.

[twn]

Originally Posted by rachelo

Can you have more than one blog (WordPress) on the same host?
Have like different domains hosted on one host and say two or three different blogs? I am thinking of different niches served by different blogs.

Yup, you can have as many blogs on one host as you like. But pay attention that you don't link them all together, cause that is something search engines aren't fond of Just do some random linking between them, that won't bring you any trouble.

[rachelo]

Ok, it sounds good, thanks.

Do I need a new db for each one? I am sure will have more questions as I go

Also twn:

What do you mean: "Just do some random linking between them"

[Fonz]

With wordpress for example you can use one database, just make sure you change the prefix in the wp_config file.

[pinkeyedjim]

You dont even need to use differnet domain names with WordPress. As long as you put every install in a different directory, there's practically no limit on how many blogs you can make with WP (unless your host limits your databases or something like that.)

[jayeff]

A couple of observations:

As has been stated, there is no practical reason you cannot (and sometimes there might be a good reason) put several sites on a single database. The only thing to bear in mind is that databases do sometimes crash and one database per site means only one site going down on such occasions. Nor is all maintenance easier: if you discontinue or change the software for a site using its own database, you only have to delete or empty the one database, not go through a potentially huge database, trying to track the relevant tables.

Secondly, although if you are careful - again as stated - you can avoid problems, there is the potential for sites on the same IP and even more in the case of sub-domains, to end up being treated by the SE's as a single site.

Unless you have a host who is mean with his IP's or very small-time, it shouldn't cost more than a dollar a month (if anything) for each IP address in a different group C. That also isn't a guarantee for no problems, but it's a (frequently) cheap and easy way to make problems a lot less likely.

[dr_montelbaun]

The only thing to bear in mind is that databases do sometimes crash and one database per site means only one site going down on such occasions.

This is certainly good advice. But if your blogs are all on the same machine, then there will be one piece of software running all the databases. If it crashes, all the databases will crash. You just gotta hope that doesn't happen.

I'm an advocate of using different databases just so you can keep them separated for ease of maintenance (like has been stated before) and also so that if a hacker manages to compromise one db (i.e. they manage to acquire the password or somesuch) then your other blogs are protected.

And I'll reiterate Jayeff's comments about SEs. They will notice that all the blogs have the same IP and they may decide to treat them as the same site. If you take twn's advice and never link the blogs to each other, however, you may avioid this.

Jayeff is also quite right to reccomend you get a different IP for each domain if you can do so without too much cost (that could be difficult -- your host has to be able to provide justification to ICANN for the extra IPs. But then I've never tried it myself...) If you do, you'll still want to keep the interlinking to a minimum, tho. Even with separate IPs, the SEs will still be able to tell that the different blogs are on the same hosting service if not the same machine. So if the blogs all seem closely affiliated with each other then the SEs may decide to treat them as if they are owned by the same person.