Thanks to Otto, we managed to get WordPress 3 multisite working! Check it out (I am sure our kids don’t mind):

1. Site #1 (maggiemycroft.com, site has gone now)
2. Site #2 (zoemycroft.com, site has gone now)

What’s the big deal, I hear you ask? Well, both sites can be updated from one single installation of WordPress 3 using its less-than-obvious “multisite” feature. This is a major step forward for web designers and developers but more importantly, for clients, saving them money on web hosting and making life a lot easier.

It only took us a week to figure it out but figure it out we did! It was a bit of a “Eureka” moment (I actually pumped my fist), to be honest, as Site #2 became visible on its own domain name!

Our Situation

1. Site #1 (the dominant site – maggiemycroft.com) is hosted at 1and1
2. Domain name #1 (the dominant domain name – maggiemycroft.com) is hosted at Go Daddy but the DNS hosting is with 1and1
3. Domain name #2 (the domain name for site #2 – zoemycroft.com) was hosted and parked at Go Daddy

Rather than describe the initial steps we went through, here is a good video tutorial on YouTube on setting up the initial sub-directory or sub-domain.

Two Domain Names

The way that you get 2 different domain names to display (rather than maggiemycroft.com and maggiemycroft.com/zoe) is to adjust the A Record (for me, in Go Daddy) of domain name #2 (zoemycroft.com) to point to the IP address for domain name #1 (maggiemycroft.com).

Under your Super Admin/Domain Mapping control palette in WordPress( in the dominant maggiemycroft.com Admin), insert the IP address. Then add domain name #2 (zoemycroft.com) under Tools/Domain Mapping (in the zoemycroft.com Admin) control palette.

You should then be able to set your domains:

Once the DNS changes to the A Record propagate, you should see 2 different domain names.

Notes

You MUST have a static IP address for this to work! If it’s dynamic (sometimes on shared hosting), domain name #2 will go down when the IP address changes.

We had a lot of trouble identifying the IP address of domain name #1. We also had trouble getting the A Record change in Go Daddy to work. Our solution was simply to change the name servers of domain name #2 in Go Daddy to point to the name servers for domain name #1 at 1and1.

However, if you want email for domain name #2, you must only change the records for the website, not email as well.

Hope this works for you because it’s a great addition to WordPress.