WordPress MU

I want to begin building my new website in MU, but would like to only release it when it's finished.

I'm going with a new hosting company; WPWebHosting.

What's the best way to do this without having my existing site go down, but still letting my explore what MU has to offer?

You mean so the general public can't see what you're doing while you play with it?

You got it. Is that possible?

I use http://wpmudevorg.wordpress.com/project/More-Privacy-Options to make the entire site "Members Only". Would be useful while you roll out to self or a few testers.

Turn it on an off with a click at
SiteAdmin-->Options->Site Privacy->"Site can be viewed by registered users of this community only."

I really like that, dsader.

What can I do about keeping my existing site functional in the mean time?

Where is the existing site in relation to the MU site? :) Same server? Same domain? Part of the WPMU site?

The existing site is on a Godaddy server, at the domain Zerflin.com
The new site will be on WPWebHosting, at the domain Zerflin.com

I want to set up WP in the root folder instead of in a folder like I have in the past.
...Or do you recommend against that?

I'd set it up in the root.

Well, since they're both on the same domain, it's gonna be tricky. You can't really play aroudn with WPMU while the domain is in use elsewhere.

I'd get zerflin.net, use MU on that, then when I wanted it to go live, change the domain name of the install & then change the nameservers on the .com to the new site.

Sounds like a plan. I own zerflin.us, so I'll tie that to my WPWebHost account's server.

Now, when I make the switch, I know Wordpress (regular) has an export option, to export all posts. Does Wordpress MU work the same way?

And would I have to uninstall completely and then reinstall with the new domain name?

MU has the exact same export, for each blog.

What I'd do is a search & replace on the entire database. Make sure you get all occurrences, there's a lot.

Hmmm, sounds like a tutorial post somebody should write, yes? :D

Agreed... I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Alrighty, I'm almost ready to move over my beta site to take over the main site.

What steps do I need to take to make this as smooth as possible?

- go thru the db of the beta site, change all the domain extensions to the live one. Some people download a db export, do it offline (it's easier/faster) then put the changed db back.

- change the dns of the live site to go to where the beta site is.