WordPress MU

Sorry if this has been asked a thousands times already, but your guidance would be appreciated. I have been pointed to wordpress MU by members of webmaster world forums after I asked a question there about using multiple blogs as a cms for my current static html website which is growing in size daily.

I want to use several (10-15) installations of wordpress to run my site which has 10-15 categories. So each wp installation will run a site category. Each category is already the size of a decent sized website on its own standing - hence the need for cms.

I want to use wordpress as I have a reasonable understanding of the system and am able to add plugins, change themes and I have the ability to tinker a little with html, and css. So, Is MU for me ? should I just run several installations of wp in subfolders. Or maybe you think I should use a different CMS entirely.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and thankyou in advance for any answers.

"I want to use several (10-15) installations of wordpress to run my site which has 10-15 categories. So each wp installation will run a site category. Each category is already the size of a decent sized website on its own standing - hence the need for cms."

Unless each category is substantially different and has unique needs, I see no reason to use WPMU when single WP should do.

Yes, single WP can be used as a CMS. It's not "just a blog".

We have a couple of installs that use wpmu to run their own multiple blogs. We also have folks using a plugin like the following on regular wp to change their catgeories into subdomains:

http://blog.youontop.com/wordpress/wordpress-category-as-subdomain-plugin-41.html

(I think there's a couple more of those out there. We use something we created internally.)

I'd lean more towards wpmu in your case though as it sounds like you;re using completely separate sites with different themes. Doing multiple themes on regular wp would require you to jump through hoops.

MU is potentially right for you.

There are some key differences between wpmu and standalone wordpress that are implemented for security reasons with the assumption that you're using wpmu to host blogs for untrusted users. Things like not allowing the use of script or embed tags in your posts and removing the template editors in the admin. Some of these can be changed through the addition of custom plugins.

Another approach to the sites in categories, is the Blog Topics plugin. It's available for download from here. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/blog-topics/ . And I think wpmudev.org has something similar in their premium membership plugins.