Hey, they can clone sheep, right? (see Dolly left) Why cant you clone WordPress blogs? Have you ever had a time where you have done the perfect installation of WordPress, and it was just that good that you wished that you wished that you knew how to clone a WordPress blog, so that you could create that perfect blog every time? Sounds complex doesn’t it? I am going to promise you now that cloning WordPress is complex, especially for those who are not familiar with mySQL databases, phpMYadmin, and all that complex stuff, however, I have found an easy way that will allow you to do all the work un well under ten minutes. Check out the video below to see how easy it really is.
Did you see how easy that was? Using WPtwin (grab your copy here), I am able to create my perfect installation of WordPress, and deploy it on as many domains as I like without so much as 2 minutes of work. Here’s the real sweetener though… this software doesn’t just clone a blog, it also clones all of your plugins, themes, customizations, and more. No downloading databases, no messing around with your hosting account, simply upload and install. At the cost of the software (which is extremely modest), this really is an effective way to not just clone wordpress, but how to deploy your perfect installation across multiple domains, even if you dont know how to mess around with code or anything else confusing like that.
WP Twin Members Get Free Stuff!
This software does so much more, and as a paid member, you will receive a ton of bonuses from the great guys at WPtwin. First, bonus is a unique clone that Jason (the product owner) has created that contains a huge amount of custom designed sales letter templates that you can use at your disposal, plus a few other WordPress customizations that will help you get your next product or affiliate promotion up and running. You can even use the sales letter to promote WPtwin as an affiliate, and make the cost of the script back. You also get access to the marketplace, where others have created their own clone wordpress installations for you to use. So, even if you cant be bothered creating your own clone, chances are someone else has done it already, and it is at your disposal.
But I Dont Want A Script…
That’s fine, I have created an in depth tutorial on how to manually clone WordPress blogs below, however, this is time consuming, and transferring of plugins, comments, customizations, and more can be a little buggy. This is exactly why I use WPtwin, as every clone has worked with ease for me so far. Here’s my perfect WordPress clone so that you can give it a test run for yourself.
In the meantime, I recommend that you can grab your own copy at www.wptwin.net (Highly Recommended!)
How To Clone WordPress Manually
So, for those who are not all that keen on using software to clone WordPress installations, I have created a short tutorial on how to create a copy of your WordPress blog to transfer it to a new host, or install on a new domain. Get started by watching the video below
Once you have done this a few times, it will get easier as time goes on, just remember, if you do encounter any 404 errors, or other PHP related errors, you may need to refer to the creators of your plugins to ensure that you have set your permissions correctly so that everything will function correctly. You may also need to check your media locations in your WP-Admin area to make sure that the directories match your current root directory for your domain.
To make it even more clear, here are the steps that I take:
Step One: Compress your entire WordPress install into one zip file, then move it to the new directory for the new domain.
Step Two: Create a new mySQL database, and attach a user to it with all privileges
Step Three: Backup your SQL database using phpmyadmin
Step Four: Import the backed up SQL database into the new database in phpmyadmin and check to make sure that all tables have been imported.
Step Five: Enter the new database details into your wp-config file, plus add the following line of code to the file (see video for where this goes)
define('WP_HOME','http://example.com');
define('WP_SITEURL','http://example.com');
Step Six: Save your file, and test your new domain. If its working, then all is good. If not, check for spelling errors.
It is also worth noting that if for some reason, this does not work – as in, some page and post URL’s are not redirecting to the new domain, just enter the following piece of code in your config file, then access your WP-Login.php page:
define('RELOCATE',true);
Just remember to delete that code when you have logged in, as it poses a serious security risk to your blog if left as is.
Remember, There Is A Faster & Easier Method
I used to clone WordPress installations manually. My specialty is website brokering, as part of this, I can at times transfer large numbers of websites to new owners, and this can prove to be quite time consuming, and difficult especially if I am working on the clock. This is why I now exclusively use WPtwin to clone WordPress installations, and transfer them to new owners, or even use existing installations on new domains or projects.
Using WPtwin will make your life much easier when either creating new websites, or transferring sites to a new host, as such, I recommend that you go and grab yourself a copy at www.wptwin.net
Oh, and if you happen to grab a copy of WPtwin using any of the links on this page, contact me, and I will send you the very clone that I use for deploying mini sites, plus some training to use the clone – this is a super advantage in its own right. Just be sure to purchase WPtwin using this link.
Hi
This is a really great tutorial. I love the fact youve added a walk through video very nice work. Ill link to you from some of the fourums i post on. and ofcourse use this process in my business.
What would be perfect would be able to have 1 scren to enter the date and have the app go off and do all these tasks. Opps ill use my VA instead
Steve Wyman
http://www.cloudventuresgroup.com
Thanks for the kind comments Steve.
Its a great process that I use quite a bit, and definitely saves me quite a bit of time. Also can be used for cloning a production site as well, if you are doing some serious design upgrades.
Yeah, I definitely agree with an app to do all of these tasks. If I were a coder, believe me, the product would be out by now. haha Thanks again!
Ryan,
Thanks for the awesome instructions. I was trying to follow someone else's written instructions and they were missing some KEY bits of information. I have just cloned my first site which after some adjustments will become my Master Clone for future installs.
I do want to make some serious changes on a live and somewhat active site. I can make a clone to upload elsewhere while making the changes … but how do I go about uploading all the changes back to the existing site? Instructions would be good … a video would be GREAT!
Thanks!
Hi Cindy,
That is a great point. On all of the websites of mine that are in production, I always make sure that I have a backup of that site installed on a trial domain somewhere for that very purpose.
I dont use a specific method for transferring the changes to the new site though, I generally just table everything down in order, and throw up a “maintenance mode” page for about 15 minutes while I make all of the relevant changes, but that is just my method of working.
Its easy of course with WordPress though, as its as simple as uploading a plugin, and editing any code from the backend.
Hope that helps!
wow – and i've been editing the db backup file & replacing all variables ~ messy & often inaccurate. will be using this method first thing tomorrow, and if it works as advertised, you are my new best super hero
Thanks Angstrom!
Still works really well, I use it quite a bit around here.
No super hero here though, although I am sure the idea of me in a spandex super hero outfit would scare everyone away! haha
Great Information in this blog
!!! however I have a problem regarding WP and wondered if you would have the knowledge to help me??
I have searched the forums long and hard but still no luck
. I am currently creating a website for someone to use as their biography site. The person I am creating it for has a WordPress blog on his own company’s website. He has asked me if I am able to incorporate his blog, that he currently updates through his WordPress dashboard, into the site I am creating for him. He would like his blog to update on my site, as well as his companies when he edits it in the dashboard. Any ideas on how to do this????
I am fairly new to WordPress and have created a WordPress site but now I am stuck. I'm used to building sites with simply HTML and CSS on Dreamweaver – so all this is pretty new to me.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Here is the link to the blog I am trying to incorporate into my website – http://www.parklanechampagne.co.uk/alastairschampagneblog/
Many thanks, Tom
Hi Tom,
Sounds like a bit of a tricky one, and may be a little above my head as I am certainly no coding guru.
I would believe that there may be a script available somewhere that will pull content from an RSS feed and publish it on a website, however, I wouldnt know where to start, as I generally use WordPress exclusively, and that makes such tasks extremely easy.
May not be of use to you, as you prefer to use HTML and CSS, but great information based websites can be created using WordPress, especially with the Headway Theme, or even Thesis. I have created multiple info based websites using these themes, and it really makes things so much easier, especially from the clients point of view, as they can edit and create new content without having to edit HTML or CSS.
Hope that helps, and let me know how you go!
wow thanks for the steps, and some people actually charge for just this infomation. you rock.
Anytime Andy, always happy to help!
You just saved me $77. Thanks.
Sweet! Yeah, a ton fo people will charge an arm and a leg to do this for you, but it is quite easy to do.
You Sir, are a rockstar! I’d been trying to find a way to clone my existing blog and finally came across your tutorial. And now I’m done.
Thank you very much.
haha That is great to hear! I might be adding a few more tips on to this post soon as well, as with the newer versions of WordPress, there are a few other things to keep in consideration as well. Stay tuned!
You were so right Steve. That will save me heaps!
Only one difficulty for me though, it only copied the front page of my blog.
I copied http://www.adrenafatiguesymptomsandtreatment.com to http://www.theuniversaldebriefingsystem.com/aatest/
When I hit “Previous Entries” at http://www.theuniversaldebriefingsystem.com/aatest/ I get a 4O4 message.
Why would that happen?
Not too sure why that may have happened, to be honest, I have been too busy testing other faster and easier ways to do this whole process. I have just updated this post with the method that I am now using, along with the manual method, so hoping that helps those who are having problems with their transfers.
Problems could be anything from the WP-Config modifications to the config on the new hosting account… could be a multitude of things, and hard to keep track of with the amount of changes that are happening at WordPress HQ these days.
Thank you for the updates. I have been looking for an easier way to do this for a long time.
Thanks for the tutorials. Your directions are concise and easy to follow…I have not purchased wptwin yet but can see the utility in being able to do so.Because I know Google very, very well, I always have to think and research long and hard before I automate anything….I have found the less automation, the better I rank in the long run. However, in some cases, especially sites that trend in and out, automation would not be a problem.
Thanks
Thanks Chico. I have to say, you are right to be safe where Google is concerned. I used to automate a lot more than I do now, mainly social media interaction, which I can assure you is not the right way to do things! However, when it comes to installing web sites, you should be fine. Just so long as the content is unique, you should be all good.
thx for the guide
i did it and all worked ok except one big problem
when i try to enter http://www.newblog.com/wp-admin its direct me back to the admin page of the source blog
any idea?
Hi Erik, that is quite a strange error. The WPconfig.php hack that I mentioned in the post, I would just make sure that all the right code has been entered correctly, as this has given me similar results in the past, even if I add one rogue character by accident.
Apart from that, the only other thing that I have heard of is to edit your functions.php file, however, I am not even going to try and give you instruction on how to do that as I have only ever heard about it, but not had to use it.
I generally dont have to do that kind of thing anyway as I now use WPtwin to do all the work for me anyway, and it works flawlessly. If this is a task that you do regularly, I recommend that you grab a copy at http://www.ryantmalone.com/wptwin
Very good tutorial. Thanks!
Anytime Jacob, always happy to help!
Great tutorial but ONE PROBLEM. If your could please help that would be great.
I was able to clone a site from MASTER.com to CLONE.com. However, I was unable to access CLONE.com/wp-admin I want to customize the cloned site and eventually have it run as a unique site.
I know to have it block search engines in the mean time.
I took a guess, and I am installing wordpress into the CLONE root domain , and will move over the necessary files from MASTER to CLONE from there.
This may delete everything I have moved over, but i am hoping I may find a way to move over the necessary files from MASTER and still be able to run WordPress live on the on the CLONE Site.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!!
Hi Lucas, Hope I’m able to set you in the right direction.
It sounds like a possibility that you have not set the redirect in the WP-config file in your cloned installation.
You will need to add this line of code in that file as per the post:
define(‘WP_HOME’,’http://example.com‘);
define(‘WP_SITEURL’,’http://example.com‘);
Of course, replacing the example with your domain.
If that doesnt work, I might need to double check, as there is a new version of WordPress that has just been unleashed, so things may have changed.
I do recommend using WPtwin however, that is what I use here, and have not had a clone fail yet. You can see a link in the post to the product, makes real light work of the whole process.
I did do that- had i not done that I would get a DATABASE ERROR message. I will check out wptwin. Once I leave for law school, someone else will need to take over and this may be a more efficient option.
Thanks for the tutorial. My question is if you clone the site to use the template for another completely different site and you have to use the same login will both sites see the affects of any changes that are made in the clone website? Or are the websites completely separate and I can change data and info in one and it will not affect the other?
Thank you
Dani
Hey Dani, thanks for stopping by.
If you clone your WordPress blog and install it on another domain or hosting account, it will carry the same login details, as your login details are a part of the SQL database that you transfer with the site.
This happens exactly the same way if you use the manual method, or if you use WPtwin.
That said, if you want to change the user name, just create a new user in the new blog with a different user name and password, but set them up as an administrator. Once you log in to the new account, just delete out the old one.
Hope that helps.
Hi Ryan, great tutorial thanks!
You don’t mention (or not that I could see, anyway!) that some hosting companies simply don’t allow scripts like WP Twin to run.
Examples are Network Solutions in the US and Fasthost and 1-and-1 here in the UK. I use WP-Twin a LOT, for backups, and cloning sites from test to live environments for my clients, but the hosting provider for my current client just doesn’t allow it – so I’m trialling this manual method you’ve so generously written about as he wants his site duplicated to be translated.
thanks!
Tracey
PS hosting providers that are GREAT for running WPTwin are Hostgator (which I see in your video that you use) and Bluehost
Hi Tracey, you are right. The settings you are talking about are the php functions system() and exec() functions. Some hosts do not allow it by default as a safety measure, however, if you ask your host, they will in 99% of cases allow it, just so long as they know why.
I’ve seen Hostgator work fine, and have had to ask for the settings to be modified on Bluehost. Other hosts that it works fine with are MediaTemple, and KnownHost, and Namecheap hosting.
Hi again Ryan,
I’ve made a copy of my clients site onto a test domain of mine (on Hostgator). This was about 16 hours ago. I can log in to the wp-admin area & edit/update pages, and see the home page of the site, but every other page I try to navigate to from the home page is giving me a “500 Internal Server Error” – have you or anyone else experienced this before?
Screenshot: http://screencast.com/t/CXLBzwMjN4
I have triple-checked my spelling of DB name, user, pwd – the fact that I can log in & perforom admin functions tells me that’s ok anyway…
The only thing that could possibly be causing the issue is that the test domain I am using is an “add on ” domain in my hosting account – in the screenshot above, the created email address shows as being a ..com – anyone got any ideas??
Apart from this, the copy process worked brilliantly!
thanks…
sorry – email address in last long paragraph didn’t come out properly, as I used great-then/less-than icons.
… the email address shows as a combo of the “add-on-domain.primary-domain.com” which suggested to me that might be a cause of a problem.. not having done something like this before I’m a bit lost!
I just had a quick look, and from what I gather, you are trying to deploy a clone on the balance-your-life domain, right?
If that is the case, and you are using WPtwin, you will need to deploy it on that domain. For example, you will need to point that domain at your hosting account first (if it is a dot com domain, then from what I can see, it is not pointing anywhere at the moment), then you will need to point your browser at balance-your-life.com/wptwindeploy.php for it to work properly.
If it is done that way, it will install based on where you are browsing, so you shouldnt have any errors loading other pages on the blog.
If that fails, it might be worthwhile chasing up the WPtwin support, as there are a few other workarounds that I am sure they are better at teaching than I am.
Good luck with it, hope it gets up and running quick!
Hi Ryan,
No, I’m using the manual method described in your tutorial as the site I was copying from a hosting provider that doesn’t permit WPTwin to run.
(I have no problems using WPTwin – in fact I wish every host would permit it
thanks again
Tracey
Ahh, not too sure what would be doing that.
Then again, it has been some time since I have had to do it manually.
The only thing that i can suggest is to have a chat to your host, and see if they can alter the php functions system() and exec() functions for you so that you can run WPtwin. That might be an easier way to do it.
Other than that, the only thing that I can suggest is that you make sure that you are changing the URL in the WPconfig file. A good way to do this, which I havent mentioned in this post yet is to add the following line to the WPconfig file, and the log in as normal to the backend using the domain that you want to use to access the site (very important!):
define(‘RELOCATE’,true);
What that will do is, it will set the URL in your database as the one that is being used to access the site, and will fix up any issues with pages not loading, etc.
That might very well be the problem that you are encountering.
great, maybe i’ll try it to my site, hopefully this work guys.
Great, let me know how you go!
The fact that im 16 making 4 figures from affiliate marketing should be enough haha but its not let me get this software to tripple my income email me bro!
The fact that you are 16 and making that kind of cash with affiliate marketing is just downright impressive. Congrats to you Brendon – here’s to an awesome career ahead of you.
Hello ( I am the 16 year old affiliate)I was very surprised that you replyed back because you and me both know that when it comes to making money online people will leave you left for dead anywayz Thank for showing how to clone a word press even know This is my first time really dealing with them! I am just so happy that there are honest people that will help! the little that I knew i learned it my self and lost hundreds of bucks and many hours stressing ect not to menton learning about seo ,list biulding ,traffic ,hosting …by my self! This is my dream career yeah a lot of kids want to becaome a lawyer or something I rather wake up late during the day and a not worry about bosses! Why am I telling you all this? As I said before I never knew any one honestly will help some one with this matter without asking for credit card of pay pal info…I basically need a mentor! I not so experienced but I have a few tricks under my sleeve and trust me I will use the word press clone tactics I go to beverly hills high in california…??? I NEED MORE CASH!!! Thanks for your help!
If you gave me a link the last by email it didnt work i just book marked this page thanks.
Hello There,
I am WP Designer for last 2 years. & seeking a clone solution from 6 month. Thanks Ryan i learned from You.
Anytime Sohel!
YEHEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for this tutorial Ryan. It solved my problem..very.
Twinning is very hassle-free but some hosting don’t recognize exec() and system() function for security reasons. And the manual transfer you’ve teach me is such a Great HELP!
Thanks soooo muccccchhhh!
Cheers,
Romel
Hi Romel, glad to hear that you have had some success with it! With the exec() and system() issues, this does happen with some hosting configurations, but is generally fixable from the end of the hosting provider within a matter of minutes.
Glad to have helped!