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Register New Domains With One-Click Setup and Integration on WPMU DEV

Register, manage, and connect unlimited affordable domains directly from WPMU DEV – making creating websites for you and your clients easier than ever!

Domain registration is all done right from WPMU DEV’s Hub. It just takes a few clicks, with unlimited options for picking top-level domains.

As you’ll see, domain management has been streamlined for web developers on our Agency Plan. Especially when managing domains for multiple clients.

In this article, we cover everything you need to know about using domains with WPMU DEV, including:

If you’re a member, you can get started here. Not a member yet? Get started with a trial of our Agency plan today!

Now that you’re ready to go let’s…

Register a New Domain

Registering a New Domain is quick and simple. Whatever domain you’re looking for, we have 120+ extensions — whether it be .com, .org, .shop — you name it! They’re all affordable. (And P.S. — We’ll be adding another 100-150 TLDs VERY soon.)

It’s also important to note that domains are for Agency Plan members ONLY. We can only offer this kind of service at wholesale pricing by making it exclusive (just as we did with Quantum hosting).

We provide domains purely at cost (purchase and renewal), with no margin for us (except to cover transaction fees) so that you can resell them to your clients with your own markup and save money on your existing provider.

The costs for new domains.
Every domain type has a different cost. You can also request a domain extension if you have another extension in mind!

So, now that you know the gist of our domains, here’s…

Where to Begin

Registering a new domain starts from the Domains tab and Register New Domain. Just type the domain name you want to use.

Where you register a new domain.
Whatever domain suits your needs, type it in.

Once you type in the domain name you prefer, a list of options will appear with various prices.

In this example, I’d like to register the name ‘awesomewebguy.’ As you can see, many top-level domain options appeared (e.g. .org, .net, .online, etc.) under Matches.

A list of available domains.
The prices vary for all domains.

Want to see other options? Click Load More, and you’ll get others.

The load more button.
There are plenty of options to choose from.

WPMU DEV domains also have Suggestions for a new domain based on your search criteria.

Suggested domains.
More options that may be suitable for a domain.

Once you have a domain name, click Buy Now. And that’s it!

You’ll be directed to a registration page. From this page, you pick out the Registration Terms. This includes the Registration Period, Renewal Price, and Auto-Renew.

To start, select a Registration Period. This can be anywhere from one to ten years!

Choose between 1-10 years in a click.

Also, determine whether you’d like to auto-renew or not (you can always change this later – as you’ll see).

Activate renew.
Auto-renew is a hands-off approach to ensure your domain stays active.

Next, enter the Registrant information. This is information about you as the domain owner. None of this information is publicly shared or on WHOIS.

Registrant information.
Click the box to save as your default registrant information.

Once your domain is successfully registered, you can automatically add DNS records by clicking connect to a hosted site. If you don’t want to connect your domain to a hosted site – no biggie. Click Skip for Now.

Sign of a successful registration.
The registration was successful!

That being said, let’s say you want to connect domain to a hosted site. Here’s how it’s done…

Add Domain to Hosted Site

Adding a domain to a hosted site with WPMU DEV doesn’t take much at all to set up.

You can do this while creating your domain or after the domain is verified and completed. Just select from the dropdown what site you would like the domain to be hosted on.

Add domain to hosted site.
All of your hosted domains will appear here.

Add your domain to a hosted site at any time. From the Domains tab, you’ll see by your site a Link Icon.

The link icon.
Click on the link icon, and then Connect to a Hosted Site. It will bring up a dropdown (just like the image above) where you select the site to host from.

Just click Connect to a Hosted Site, and select from the dropdown what site you’d like to use.

Add domain to a hosted site.
Select any site you want to add your domain to!

Click Save, and you’ll see your domain’s DNS status. It may take a little while to complete. You can recheck your status by tapping Settings (the ellipsis).

DNS status.
It will take just a little while to get the DNS and SSL status completed.

Below this area, you’ll also see the DNS information for the site you’re using with your domain. It includes the CNAME Record, A Record, and AAAA Record.

Note: if you use the Connect Domain feature, you don’t have to manually add any DNS record.

DNS records.
All the information is clearly displayed for quick reference.

Ready to go live? We have an awesome guide that takes you through how to do it step by step.

View Your Registered Domains

Once you register a new domain, it will be located under Registered Domains. If you view it soon after registering a domain, you’ll see that its Registrant Status maybe be ‘verifying.’

Domain status.
The domain name, status, registrant, registrant status, and expiration date are displayed.

A message will appear indicating that as well.

Time verification.
Times vary, depending on several factors.

So, how do you go about verifying the registrant status?

Confirm Your Registrant Information

Once you register your domain, you’ll receive an email. This is to ensure that you are who you say you are regarding your domain ownership and to complete your registration.

Whatever email address you include in your Registrant Information is where this email will be sent. Once opened, this is what it says:

The verification email.
Your particular domain will be displayed in the body of the email.

It contains two links: one is to review ICANN’s Policy, and the other is to continue on with verification.

Where you verify your info.
Once you verify your information — you’re all set!

When verified, you’ll get notified immediately.

Confirmation of verificaiton.
Once your contact info is verified, you’ll be notified.

Please keep in mind that if you don’t verify within 15 days, the domain will be suspended until you verify it. So, make sure to complete this important step.

Domain Management in The Hub

All of your domains are in one place in The Hub under Domains. This is your one-stop area where you can new, update, manage, and more.

The active domains.
Every domain you have will be shown here, whether it be one or thousands of domains.

By clicking on the ellipsis by individual domains, you instantly have access to key features, such as:

  • Manage Domain
  • Renew Domain
  • Update Contact Information
  • Update Nameservers
  • Update DNS
The ellipsis.
Want to manage a domain? It’s quickly and easily accessible.

To make it easier for you and your clients, you can activate Auto Renew in one click.

The renewal button.
The renewal price is also indicated.

Click on the name or status of the domain to get to the Domain Overview page. From the Overview, you can view a ton of information. Everything from Domain Status, Registration Date, GDPR status- – and more!

Be sure to check out our documentation for an in-depth look.

Domain Overview

Get a 360-degree view from the Domain Overview.

This is an overlook where you can see the domain status (active or inactive), expiration date, whether auto-renew is activated – and more!

The domain overview area.
The Domain Overview gives you a whole spectrum of information about the domain.

Perform tasks from this area as well, such as renewing a domain, activating auto-renew, and implementing transfer lock.

Find out more in our documentation.

Contact Information

All the contact information regarding the domain Owner, Admin, Billing, and Tech are in the Contact Information tab. You can always adjust, add, and delete information.

The contact info area.
Need to make any changes? Just click ‘Edit Info’ – and change as needed.

Manage DNS

All of the current DNS records are located in the Manage DNS area. From you, you can add a Subdomain, email, or custom DNS records.

Manage DNS button.
All the DNS information is in one spot.

Learn a lot more in our guide on how to add a Subdomain.

Filtering Domains

Filtering domains is a way to quickly and easily find specific domains, organize the list of domains you want to view, find who’s registered for domains, and more!

Filter button.
The Filter button gets you started.

Once clicking Filter, you have options for:

  • Domain Status
  • Registrant
  • Registrant Status
  • Auto Renew
  • Hosted Site Status
Filtering options.
Click Apply to look for a specific domain.

Each option has different varibles in their dropdowns. For example, if you choose Domain Status, the dropdown includes Active, Suspended, and Expired.

Domain status search.
Filter domains by status.

Connected Domains

View all of your Connected Domains in one place. This section displays all your connected domains and their status (e.g. propagated correctly or pending).

Connected domains area.
In this example, there are two propagated domains and one pending propagation.

You can Manage DNS, Recheck DNS, and Delete on the ellipsis.

The ellipsis area.
Want to manage DNS? Just click the ellipsis.

If you click Manage DNS, you can add the Nameservers and view Records (e.g. AAAA and A). It also displays the TTL for each record.

Where you manage DNS.
DNS management is all available in one spot!

It also indicates where it directs to by each type of DNS record.

Domain Management Made Simple

You can see how simple and easy it is to set up, implement, and manage domains with WPMU DEV and The Hub! With a new domain, you can be up and running in just a few clicks.

Plus, coming soon in 2023 — you’ll essentially be able to create your own GoDaddy! More on that to come…

So, what are you waiting for? To get started, if you haven’t tried our Agency plan, start your 7 day no obligation free trial today. And if you are already an Agency member, begin registering domains immediately!

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Signed Exchanges recommended cache TTL

According to this page, Google requires "as a rule of thumb" that the SXG expiration date is less than 1 day in the future if the content is JS, or otherwise 7 days in the future.

My external Javascript files are immutable. Why should they have a 1 day cache life? Currently I am doing something similar to max-age=3600, s-maxage=604800 for HTML files, and a flat max-age=2592000 for JS.

Is this not ideal?

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How to Install WordPress on a Separate Subdomain Site (No Multisite Required)

In this post, you will learn how to set up a WordPress site on its own separate subdomain without using Multisite.

Note: This article is intended for WPMU DEV members, as it utilizes features of WPMU DEV hosting. If you are not a member yet, consider joining with our no-risk free trial.

Suppose you run a web agency (e.g. https://webagency.site) and you would like to use your main website strictly for promotional or marketing purposes but you also want to run a completely separate WordPress installation on a subdomain under the same brand as your main site (i.e. using the same domain).

For example:

  • a Learning Management System (LMS) section at https://lms.webagency.site,
  • an eCommerce store (e.g. https://store.webagency.site),
  • run events and ticket sales on https://event.webagency.site,
  • or simply show your clients a pre-launched site you’re building as part of your white label service (e.g. https://client1.webagency.site).

To do this, you would normally have to set up a WordPress multisite installation, specify subdomains (instead of subdirectories) in your setup, and then add a new WordPress site to your Multisite network.

But, what if you want to set up and run a completely separate WordPress site on a subdomain without having to go through a Multisite environment?

As this article will show you, you can easily do this by creating an additional WPMU DEV hosted site.

In this tutorial, we’ll cover the following:

Benefits and Drawbacks of Installing WordPress on a Subdomain Without Multisite

Let’s start with the benefits of setting up and maintaining a single subdomain site using the method we’ll show you further below:

  • It’s easier than installing, setting up, and maintaining an entire Multisite installation. We will effectively use The Hub as if it were the network site on an multisite setup.
  • You can set up, develop and launch WordPress subdomain sites without affecting the original main site.
  • No need to change the main hosting package size, just create a new hosting package. Also, since the site will be hosted on a separate server account, you can modify your hosting (e.g. upgrade or downgrade your plan) without touching your main site’s hosting.
  • All plugins associated with your subdomain site (e.g. LMS, events, and/or WooCommerce, etc.) are kept separate from the main site causing less server strain.
  • If your main site is more static (i.e. only has company info pages) and your subdomain site needs to be dynamic (e.g. an ecommerce site), having both sites hosted on separate accounts allows you to keep your main site relatively more stable, especially with regards to plugin updates. This can also affect caching on the more static vs dynamic site (i.e. main site experiences longer/better caching).
  • There are less chances of experiencing plugin conflicts, as you’ll only install what you require on each site.
  • Can password-protect using HTTP Authentication only.
  • It’s highly unlikely that both sites would fail at the same time if there are any server issues.
  • You can run separate backups for each site.
  • Staging can be used on each server, making adjustments even easier.

Now that we have looked at the benefits, let’s examine some of the drawbacks of installing WordPress on a subdomain without using multisite:

  • Your theme changes won’t stay ‘in sync’ automatically as they would in a multisite installation. Updates will sync the theme version only. (Note: most themes allow manual import/exporting of settings. For example, sites built using Elementor allow the export of Site Kit, which can include the entire site’s theme settings).
  • You need to maintain two sites worth of plugins (however, this is easy with The Hub, as you can update multiple sites simultaneously and update these automatically using our Automate service.)
  • Multisite lets you keep all site settings in sync (again, with Hub Configs, this is really easy).
  • There may be some additional costs compared to setting up sites on a single multisite install (depending on what packages and components you require). For example, some themes and plugins may require two sets of licences.
  • You may not be able to share ‘live data’ across your sites (e.g. a WooCommerce cart cannot be displayed on a different site).

Now that we’ve looked at the benefits and drawbacks, let’s take you through how to set up a separate WordPress subdomain site without installing WordPress Multisite.

How to Install and Set Up a WordPress Subdomain Site Separately from Your Main Site

As stated in our documentation, the configuration shown below only works if both sites are hosted by WPMU DEV and you manage the DNS of the top-level domain in your Hub’s DNS Manager.

Let’s go through the steps.

First, add a new site in The Hub.

Note: Cloning your main site can be a great starting point when creating your subdomain site. So, for this tutorial, we’ll start by cloning our main site.

Hub - Clone site
Let’s add a new subdomain site by cloning our main site.

Unless you are creating a brand new site from scratch, select the website that you’d like to clone.

The Hub - Clone Website
Select your main site as your cloning source.

Next, select a hosting plan for your new site. After selecting a plan, you will then be asked to create a temporary URL for your new site. Click continue when done.

Hub - Create A Temporary URL
Enter a temporary URL for your subdomain site.

Select a server location for your new site and click the button. Your new site will be created in just a few minutes.

Hub - Clone site creation display.
You will new site will be created in minutes.

Now that you have created your site, let’s set up our subdomain.

In this example, we’ll set up a separate WordPress site under the subdomain store.webagency.site.

The key to making this work is to add an A record for the subdomain to the main site’s DNS record. This is fully explained in our documentation sections on using subdomains and how to use a subdomain as your primary domain.

Here is a summary of the steps:

First, go to The Hub, select the Hosting section of the site where you want to add your subdomain, click on Domains and copy the site’s IP address.

The Hub - Hosting - Domains
Select your subdomain site’s IP address.

Next, add a new DNS record in your main domain’s DNS section.

Enter the following information, then click the Add button:

  • Record type – Select ‘A’ Record.
  • Hostname – Enter only the subdomain name as you want it to appear in the URL. In this example, we’re creating a record with the hostname store on the domain webagency.site to create the URL store.webagency.site.
  • IPv4 Address – In this field, paste the A Record you copied from your previous step.
  • TTL – Enter a value here or leave the default.
Add a subdomain A record to your main site's DNS.
Add a subdomain A record to your main site’s DNS.

Return to the Domains tab of the site where you copied the IP address earlier, click the Add Domain button, enter the full URL of your subdomain (no http:// or https:// and do not check the Add www or Add DNS records options), then click Add Domain when done.

Add a domain
Add your subdomain as shown above, ignoring all other options.

Finally, after the DNS and SSL status are confirmed as working correctly, set your subdomain as your new site’s primary domain.

Set subdomain as primary.
Set your subdomain as primary.

That’s it! You can now manage your newly added WordPress subdomain site separately from your main site in The Hub.

The Hub - New Subdomain Site
Your new subdomain site.

Make sure to test your new site, check out our documentation section for a complete step-by-step walkthrough of using subdomains as shown above, and contact our expert support team if you need help or have any questions.

PS: You can also use the above method to migrate a multisite subsite to a single WordPress install and run the site on its own separate subdomain.

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Clean Up Your Outbox Tables With Programmatic TTL

For those familiar with the Outbox Pattern, CockroachDB provides some unique capabilities for handling these types of architectural patterns. One common method is to use Changefeeds in CockroachDB to send an acknowledgment message back to the originating service that the database transaction was committed. Changefeeds are great in this scenario in that they can be emitted on a record mutation on the table (except Import), connect to a message bus like Kafka, and emit the payload in a mildly low latent (~100ms) fashion. However, one circumstance of this pattern is having historical records build up in the Outbox table. Fortunately, we have a rather nifty solution that can clean up these Outbox tables.

So the goal in this post is to show how you can programmatically remove records from an Outbox table that have been flushed to its sink (i.e Kafka). The idea here is to create a clean-up job that removes records where the MVCC timestamp of an Outbox record is adequately past the high watermark of a Changefeed.

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How to Back Up and Move a WordPress Blog

This guest post is by Caimin Jones of Genius Startup.

Sometimes you’ll need to move your blog from one host to another. It’s a bit of a pain and might seem a daunting task if you’ve never done it before.

But transferring a site is a fairly straightforward process that you can do yourself with an FTP program and this step-by-step guide.

Before trying the DIY method, it’s worth checking to see whether your new hosting company offers a site transfer service for new customers. Many do—but check whether there’s a cost involved. I’ve seen free services for this, but I’ve also seen prices around $300!

If you just need to learn how to make a simple backup of your posts, and don’t need to move hosts, take a look at this ProBlogger post.

But if you’re ready to back up and move your blog, let’s do it.

What you need to begin

To get stated, you’ll need:

  1. an FTP program (two good, free ones are FileZilla or FireFTP which works as a Firefox add-on)
  2. the FTP login information for your current host
  3. the FTP login information for your new host
  4. the MySQL username, password, and host name for your new server
  5. the nameserver information for your new host—there are usually two host names, sometimes more
  6. the login details for the registrar with which your domain name is registered.

It’s best to move hosts during a quiet time of the week for your blog, which probably means over the weekend. Check that support is available at your new host, and have the number handy. If something doesn’t work as it should, you’ll be glad you don’t have to go looking for that phone number.

Two preliminary steps to make life easier

If you’re using a cache plugin like Total Cache or WP Super Cache, deactivate and completely remove the plugin before you start the move process.

Cache plugins store file settings on the server, and these will be different for your new host, so you need to do a new install for those types of plugins. Most other types of plugins won’t need to be re-installed using the process I’m outlining here.

Secondly, it’s highly recommended go to your domain registrar or hosting company and lower the TTL value on your domain to something like 300 seconds, or the lowest value allowed.

TTL stands for Time To Live. It’s the number of seconds browsers should wait before refreshing the DNS information that connects domain names with web servers. Setting it to a low value means you won’t have to wait more than a few minutes for your host switching to take effect.

You’ll find the TTL as a setting under a DNS Zone file. For example, it looks like this in Media Temple:

TTL settings

And it looks like this in Go Daddy:

TTL settings GoDaddy

Make sure you change the TTL at least 12 hours before you plan to switch web hosts, so that the newer, faster refresh time has updated around the internet.

Making the move

Step 1. Install WordPress on the new hosting company

If the new host has a one-click install feature, use that to install WordPress—you’ll save yourself quite a bit of time and hassle.

If you have to install it manually, take a look at the official installation guide.

Step 2. Back up the database

The easiest way to make a complete database backup is to install the WP-DBManager plugin .

Once it’s installed, go to Database > Backup Database and click the Backup button. If you have a lot of posts or comments, this might take a few seconds.

When you see the message that the backup has been created, go to Database > Manage Backup DB and check the backup file is definitely there.

Step 3. Back up all the files from your old server

Using your FTP program, log in to your old host and navigate to your wp-content directory. Download everything in that directory to your computer.

At this stage you have a complete copy of your entire blog—and you’re halfway there.

Downloading the copy

Step 4. Upload your files to the new server

Now, it’s back to your FTP program. Log in to the new server and navigate to the wp-content directory.

Before you take the next step, double-check that you really are logged in to the new server and not the old one.

Now delete everything in the wp-content directory.

Then upload everything in the wp-content copy on your computer to your new host.

Step 5. Change nameservers

You’re nearly there! Now you need to log in to your domain name registrar and change the nameservers to those of your new hosting company.

Changing the nameservers

Changes to domain nameservers can take a few hours or more to propagate through the internet, so it may be a while before your blog is being served from its new home. However, if you followed the tip to reduce the TTL value before you began, you’ll only need to wait a few minutes for the changes to take effect.

Sep 6. Make the finishing touches

Visit your blog homepage and refresh it every few minutes until you see the WordPress install page (if you manually installed WordPress) or an empty blog using the standard theme (if you used a one-click install option).

Don’t panic! Log in to the Admin area and go to Database > Manage BackupDB. You should see the backup file you made on your old server. Select it and click Restore.

Now check your blog homepage and you should see a fully working blog, with posts, comments, theme, and plugins working correctly.

If everything looks good, you can now reinstall your cache plugin, if you were using one. I’d also say you’ve also earned a glass of your favorite beverage!

Caimin Jones is founder of Genius Startup which gives bloggers and small startups no fluff, practical strategies to build a successful web business.

The post How to Back Up and Move a WordPress Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

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