Multiple SItes...One Organizer?

how do multi-site owners organize all the info from different sites

[freshfish]

Here goes another post…
I want to know how some of you run multiple websites.

- How do you organize yourselves? What sort of tricks do you do?
- Do you run all your sites on one server?
- Do you have separate folders for each site?
- Do you treat the accounting of each seperately or all together collectively?

I’m going down that path now and I see myself getting flustered down the road and need to know how you guys deal with the different stuff for each site

[mattglet]

Make a "Master Page" with links to all your sites' important info (i.e. Error Logs, signup reports, whatever else you track, etc). Make everything easy access to you (and secure).

If you can get all your sites on one server, or at least with one webhost, that makes life A LOT easier.

Keep track of EVERYTHING: usernames, passwords, client names, you name it. I have a system, I'm sure everyone else has their own. You just have to organize yourself, and stick with it.

Stay disciplined. Once you find out something doesn't work the way it should for you, fix it right then. Don't put it off, you'll only bury yourself more.

[freshfish]

Thanks for the advice.
Do you have hardcopy folders/binders for each project?

[mattglet]

Only for important info: contracts, username/passwords

Just stuff that I know would be a PITA (or impossible) to recover if my comp crashed. They all get their own manila folder in my portable filing cabinet (plastic, not metal... easy to grab in case of emergency).

[lysglimt]

Is there not some risk involved in running all sites on one server?
Even for no malicious fault of your own you could get one of your sites banned by Google, and this could transpire onto your other sites as well, or?

It seems like a good idea to spread your risks by using several servers or hosting services for your sites.

Would Google go as far as banning all sites on a particular server, or all sites owned by a particular company or individual (would Google check Whois systematically like that)?

[mattglet]

I don't think Google bans whole servers, just sites (don't quote me, that's just my opinion).

My biggest fear of having all my sites on one host is if they go down, then all your sites go down. I have a very very good relationship with my host though, which makes it more easy for me to resolve any problems that occur.

[chrisnrae]

I have an excel spreadsheet that keeps track of all pertinent info for each domain - user names, passwords, where it is hosted, when it launches - and a bunch of other fields. Seems to work for me ;).

[freshfish]

thanks for the additional info!

I just recently picked up a book called "Getting things done" by David Allen and it has helped me out tremendously although I have a long way to go...its a no frills system that seems to be working for me to organize my different things.

[vkaryl]

I use Post-It software's whiteboards. It's a more "visual" setup, with ability to set alarms for whatever (deadlines, anyone? *laughing*).

It's not expensive, it's sharable over intranet or internet, through email, or printable. You can have as many whiteboards as you need, with as many notes as you need, sorted as you prefer. I have one board for each site, with tabs for "sketch notes", "check on", "deadlines", billing info, etc. depending on the site and situation. I store links to stuff I need for a specific site (like to many of the css posts here on WebmasterWorld!), general reminders, contact info for the site's primaries....

Works for me....

[BwanaZulia]

A few tips:

- I use a CMS system, but each website does get its own "folder"

- Since the CMS has user folders in each "folder" that is where they are kept.

- I use excel spreadsheets to tackle most every thing else, combining some things like income but tracking them by website so I can make sure the time/energy I am putting in is warranted.

- I throw "stuff" in folders on my computers like images, pdfs, files, etc.

- Emails I also keep in different folders.

Generally, I find it easier to focus on one site at a time which could be in 10 minute intervals or days. If there is a lesson to be learned from one site to another I try to do it or write it down so I will do it later.

BZ

[IgotDreams]

I can help you out on this.

I have personally built well over 500 web sites over the last 7 years. It seems like a allot and it is, I have had some success in some template programs for targetted industries.

Anyways, this is simple.

On your hard drive make on folder called websites then name the folders the domain name. Then create one folder and call it support for every web site. In this support folder you store, your admin files (host, domain, email accounts in notepad) another folder called PSD (my photoshop source files), another called content (this is stuff I get from the client, I always save it), a folder for flash (flash source files and the content it took to create it), a folder called backups (this is a folder for database back ups etc.) and so on.

Here is what my external 160 hard drive looks like;

documents
resources
- stock photo
- stock video
- stock sound
- etc
Programs
- Program A
Model Web Sites (my template program)
Lawyer Web Sites (my template program)
General Web Sites
- ExampleA.com
- ExampleB.net
~ company
~ services
~ products
~ contact
~ support
- ADMIN
- BACKUPS
- PSD
- FLASH
- ExampleC.org

You see how easy it is to get to files you need? The support folder you DO NOT UPLOAD, your cheating your customer out of disk space and bandwith, because these files are so heavy.

If you use Dreamweaver for example and use the FTP feature, it has a method called cloaking. Which means you can right click on a folder and select cloaked to tell dreamweaver to ignore it.

I hope this helps.