WordPress MultiSite - would it be of benefit in this scenario?
 

Would it be of benefit to be running a Multisite for this scenario:

A WordPress website that then has unique "sales agents" that the only difference between "their" website and the main company website is that they would have their own page of their picture and products they represent. However, when the links in the menu are clicked they are to stay on the Agent's website (this is where I think Multisite would NOT work well because really its like a whole new website if the main navigation is to stay on the agent's unique page).

Background... a main website and up to 50 unique sales agent's websites... to me this sounds like a management nightmare and that Multisite would be the way to go. BUT they don't want the menu items to be clicked on for an agent site and taken back to the Home page. They want the customer to remain on the agent's site.

Other option is backup/restore a website, make the one agent page unique, and repeat.

IF it could go Multisite, would the Genesis Education theme work with Multisite, how hard is Multisite to learn, when is it best used (in what scenario).

Thanks,
CK

Having different menus is what multisite would provide you. Multisite doesn't share a menu between subsites.

Short of having multiple sites you could conditionally load different menus.

Okay so it sounds like I could have unique menus loaded for an agent site. Hmmmm.... it sounds like this may be the way to go. Any other thoughts/considerations?

Can I turn my existing Education themed site into a Multisite? Can I switch back if need be. Benefits/drawbacks of Multisite?

Otherwise 50 websites built from backing up/restoring doesn't sound so good. However I could see it being more nerve wracking doing a WordPress upgrade and breaking all of them. Yep that is what backups are for though.

CK

You can enable multisite for any WordPress installation and there are no compatibility issues with SP themes. Disabling multisite is pretty simple but you'd need to edit your DB to remove all traces.

See this for more info

Okay so I thought I would bounce off of Hostgator their thoughts of WordPress Multisite and the tech I chatted with said the following:

"We/I do not recommend WordPress Multisite. It is unstable and extremely difficult to setup and work properly."

Wow I'm surprised! Really?!

CK

Unstable? I've never had issues and it's not hard to set up at all.

Yes that is what they said... I guess I could just give it a whirl and see what happens! The alternative is 50 different backup/restore installations...UGH. I may as well try it out warning the client in the meantime. Biggest fear is an upgrade going sour and taking down 50 sites.

CK

So could I hire you for an hour of time to guide me through a conversion/setup? My thought is to backup this first, restore to another domain, do the conversion and get some guidance during this.

Please let me know!

Computerkitten

I'm not taking on clients right now but there is a list of developers you can contact here.