How I use Subdomains with WordPress MU on Bluehost

on Saturday, March 1st, 2008

For those who don’t know:

WordPress MU is a multi-user version of WordPress Blogging Software that allows to create multiple blogs using a single WordPress installation.
WordPress.com runs WordPress MU
WordPress MU provides the option to have a subdomain or a subdirectory for each blog.

Benefits of WordPress MU

Single sign on for multiple blogs
Single installation for multiple blogs
Add Themes and Plugins to all blogs with a single upload
No need to update WordPress & Plugins for each blog individually

Why I chose WordPress MU?
Even though I had enough web space to create a separate WordPress installation for each blog on my hosting account, I preferred to have a single sign-on for all my blogs. WordPress MU seemed to be the best choice.

Why I chose Bluehost?
Bluehost offers one of the most impressive web hosting packages (1,500 Gigabyte hosting space, 15,000 GIGS of Transfer per month, unlimited domains, unlimited subdomains, free domain privacy, 1 free domain for life and lots more i.e. as long as you host with them) for just $6.95 per month. I had shortlisted Bluehost, DreamHost and 1and1. I heard DreamHost oversells (more users per server) causing slowdowns. 1and1 offered great prices but their hosting space and bandwidth limit was not that impressive. I had also read a lot of negative reviews about 1and1. Bluehost on the other hand had a lot of good reviews to back up its great offering.

So what is the issue with using subdomains with WordPress MU on Bluehost?
In order to use subdomains with WordPress MU, you don’t have to create a separate DNS record for each subdomain. You just create one wildcard DNS entry (*.yourdomain.tld) and set it up to redirect to the domain or subdomain where you have WordPress installed. Now whenever someone visits a subdomain under “yourdomain.tld” that does not have it’s own DNS entry will be forwarded to the domain or subdomain where you have WordPress installed. WordPress will then automatically detect the subdomain from which the request has been redirected and display the blog accordingly. The benefit of this is that you can create N number of blogs with their own individual subdomain on the fly using WordPress without the need to access the DNS control panel and create a subdomain for each blog.

The issue is most hosting providers, including Bluehost, do not allow a wildcard DNS record supposedly due to some technical/security reasons.

In my case, creating blogs on the fly was not an issue. As I never planned to have an open system like WordPress.com where people would sign up and create their own blogs. So here comes the solution.

Create a blog in WordPress MU (Site Admin > Blogs)
Go to your Bluehost cPanel X
Click on Subdomains under Domains
Create a subdomain for your blog (the one that you entered in WordPress)
Set the document root to the directory where you have WordPress installed. For example if you have installed WordPress in the root directory of yourdomain.tld then it should be “/public_html”
That’s it! You’re done

Whenever I want to start a new blog, I could just create a new blog in WordPress and then create a subdomain in the control panel. Thats it!

With Bluehost everything has been instant, right from account activation, to setting up the domain, to setting up the subdomains. There has been no waiting period or delay for the domains or subdomains to start working. I got two of my blogs setup right on the first day.

Are you using Subdomains with WordPress MU on Bluehost? If yes, what do you do to get WordPress MU working with subdomains? Have you tried this trick? Did it work for you? Are you on another host using WordPress MU with Subdomains? How do you do it? Do let me know.

UPDATE (March 4, 2008): Strangely, I was able to add a wildcard (*) subdomain record in the Subdomains section of the Bluehost cPanel X. I don’t need to create a separate subdomain for each blog anymore!

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10 Responses to “How I use Subdomains with WordPress MU on Bluehost”

from Hamilton
on March 22nd, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Great post! Staight and instant like blue host. Congratulations
from David B.
on April 3rd, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Your blog is getting better and better! Previous posts were good, but this one is just FABULOUS.
from Andrea_R
on April 4th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Nifty trick. I’d like to see if it works for others, as it’s been reported that Bluehost won’t support the needed Apache edit. maybe it’s there already?
from Dave
on April 5th, 2008 at 1:58 am
This is a little over my head, but with this post I am GOING to figure this out. My reason is to isolate the different topics I talk about-Adsense is KILLING me with mismatched ads. So thanks!
from nanangms
on December 6th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Install WPMU with Controlpanel 11 is easy. Try this …

If your hosting work with subdomain unlimited and Control Panel 11 your hosting is ready and no need anything again to install WPMU.

Try this:
from Controlpanel 11 create subdomain * (This is asterix, your subdomain like *.yourdomain.com)
Install WPMU and create database.
Chmod public_html and wpcontent and .htaccess to 777
continue install WPMU.
Finish.

WPMU work 100%. Try my test page (only for test) at http://iklani.co.cc
from manov
on July 7th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
i tried creating *.mydomain.com on bluehost. it worked, but then there was an error in the email accounts (i can’t send email to xxx@mydomain.com). i called bluehost and they said the error is due to having subdomain *.mydomain.com. They said that wildcard subdomain is not supported.

btw, what’s the main benefit of having submdoain, instead of subdiretory?
from JM
on August 26th, 2009 at 3:26 am
Jordan H. [3:52:48 PM]: Welcome to our real-time sales support chat. How can I help you today?
JM [3:52:48 PM]: I am interested in possibly using BlueHost to host a WordPress MU blog for my school. I need to know if BlueHost will install WordPress MU for me, or if I will have to do that myself (I know very little about php, Apache, MySQL, etc.).
Jordan H. [3:53:24 PM]: You will need to find another host, we do not allow wordpress mu to run on are servers.
JM [3:54:08 PM]: Since when? I just read a blog post describing one user’s experience with WPMU on bluehost
[3:54:10 PM]: http://bitsnbytes.hashout.org/2008/03/01/how-i-use-subdomains-with-wordpress-mu-on-bluehost/
Jordan H. [3:55:50 PM]: We have never allowed it.
from Stuart Liedtke
on September 5th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I’ve set up wpmu successfully on several hosts. Siteground and Hostmonster. This was mostly due to having a good relationship with the hosts and my clients being satisfied with my services. I never have set up wpmu to have multiple blogs using the tld and wildcards and your post intrigued me.

Soon, I am embarking on a venture that will require multiple blogs, using the subdomain.domain method you describe. I have a question. When you say you can instantiate a new blog, on the fly - do you mean from your existing installations dashboard, where it says “create a blog”? I suppress this on my sites because it’s not a feature I require, but will in the near future. That being said, my question revolves around how users go about creating a blog using that same method. I don’t want any user to be able to do this, but when I will want to create a new blog for a specific user, will it work as I’ve described if set up on a host as you have done. Siteground says it does support “wildcard” dns, but I’m always (awfully) careful because of all the worries I have about stability and htaccess concerns.

I think you’ve written a great post for people like me who are about to venture into the same territory you have done. Congratulations. I’d love to hear back from you on this.

Thanks in advance.
Stuart Liedtke
from Stuart Liedtke
on September 5th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Ok. I had to re read your post. Do the mySql databases handle all this properly in your experience? Are the users of the subdomain blogs kept separate in all the admin panels? Might sound like a weird question, but I’d like to make sure that the users of each blog are isolated, i.e - one blogs admin won’t be seeing users across the other blogs in their dashboard. Hope this is not a real stupid question. Thanks for your time.
from adil
on August 21st, 2010 at 2:58 am
i have just bought a domain uetblogs.com and wanted to set up WP Multisite+BuddyPress , i have installed wordpress and buddypress but i am unable to setup WP Multisite. i have read http://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network but i am unable to understand “Step 2: Setting Wildcard Subdomains” as i am not a pro

i want subdomains like username.yourdomain.com
i contacted to the support member at BlueHost (my host) he says they dont support Wild Card DNS. what can i do now?? is there any thing which can be done in this situation !!!! ??

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