LESSON 03 / 14 · FREE BUSINESS COURSE
Infrastructure should support the service you promised in Lesson 2. For a website subscription business, that may mean a WordPress Multisite network. For another SaaS or online service, the equivalent is a dependable place to deliver the customer’s recurring task.
By the end: write a platform setup brief and, if you choose the WordPress track, know how to build and test a private practice network. Reading this course is free and requires no account; operating a platform can incur costs.
Choose the smallest useful foundation
Describe what your first customer must be able to do before selecting a stack. A managed website service might need site creation, content editing, billing, and support. A reporting service might begin with a repeatable manual process and a secure delivery method. Avoid treating WordPress as a requirement for every online business.
FitSite is our illustrative implementation: one network delivers fitness business websites from reusable templates. WordPress Multisite manages multiple sites in one installation, and Ultimate Multisite adds subscription and provisioning tools. This shared foundation also creates shared responsibility: a faulty network change can affect many customers.
Build a practice or staging environment before inviting paying customers. Keep test data separate from real customer information, and document how you will back up and restore the system. Do not convert an existing production installation casually; first review the WordPress network instructions and the host’s requirements.
Choose hosting around the operating model
Ask prospective hosts specific questions: do they support your planned Multisite configuration, how are backups restored, how are custom domains and certificates handled, and what resource limits apply? Request an explanation of what changes as the network grows. “Supports WordPress” alone does not answer these questions.
- Capacity: consider storage, traffic, background jobs, and the plugins that customer sites will run.
- Recovery: understand full-network and individual-site restore options, retention, and who performs recovery.
- Domain handling: confirm DNS requirements, certificate provisioning, renewals, and support for mapped customer domains.
- Operations: identify responsibility for updates, monitoring, email delivery, and incidents.
Compare the total cost of the service rather than the introductory hosting price alone. A cheap plan that requires substantial manual support may be expensive for your business. Start with capacity you can justify and a documented upgrade path; there is no universal customer count that fits every server.
Choose addresses and HTTPS deliberately
WordPress supports networks using subdomains or subdirectories. Illustrative addresses are studio.example.com and example.com/studio. Neither format is inherently more professional. Choose based on the hosting setup, the network’s history and constraints, and the customer experience you want.
Subdomain networks need suitable DNS and HTTPS configuration. A wildcard certificate is one possible approach; it is not the only way to secure individual subdomains. If customers map their own domains, those domains also need appropriate DNS, routing, and certificates. Do not assume a platform wildcard certificate covers unrelated customer domains.
Follow your provider’s current integration instructions and verify actual behavior. Create a test site, visit its public pages and login page over HTTPS, and check for certificate warnings or mixed content. Test mapped domains separately if you plan to sell that feature. A checked setting does not prove end-to-end delivery.
Follow the WordPress implementation track
For the website-platform route, first read the official WordPress “Create A Network” guide and your host’s Multisite instructions. Enable Multisite in a suitable installation, complete network setup, and apply the generated configuration steps appropriate to your server. If server configuration is outside your experience, use your host’s supported setup process.
Install the Ultimate Multisite core plugin from its official distribution and network-activate it. The core is free; do not assume that hosting, domains, optional add-ons, email services, or payment processing are free. Review current requirements and service charges before committing to a launch budget.
Use the setup workflow to establish your business identity and basic settings. Record the chosen brand name, currency, sender identity, and support contact. Exact screen labels can change; use the linked current documentation for the installed version rather than treating a course screenshot or menu path as permanent.
Keep public registration and real billing out of the practice exercise until you have tested the intended signup route. Later lessons cover checkout and launch. The objective here is a controlled foundation, not an open invitation to create live accounts.
Set customer permissions and communication
Decide what customers need to edit and which settings you must maintain centrally. In Multisite, a site administrator and a network super administrator have different responsibilities. Do not grant network-level control to ordinary customers. Test a separate customer account so you can see what it can actually access.
Write useful initial emails in the language of the customer’s task. For FitSite, a welcome message could explain how to add studio details, update class information, and contact support. For an approval service, it could point to creating a first project. Avoid claiming setup is complete before the underlying action succeeds.
Test message delivery to an address you control. Check the sender, links, reply route, and wording in both success and error cases. Keep emails truthful about availability; do not promise round-the-clock support unless you have the ability to provide it. Lesson 8 develops this into a complete onboarding experience.
Your exercise: put the lesson to work
Create a setup record before adding templates:
- Write the customer’s first useful task and why your chosen platform supports it.
- List recurring operating costs and the person responsible for each operational task.
- Record the practice environment, address format, backup approach, and restore test.
- For WordPress, create one test site and verify public pages, HTTPS, customer permissions, and email delivery.
- Record what remains untested, including custom domains or billing, before proceeding.
Illustrative FitSite result: a private practice network with one test studio, a limited customer account, working HTTPS, and a draft welcome email. This is a test setup, not evidence that the business is ready to launch.
Before you move on
- Match infrastructure to the service and test it before opening registration.
- Subdomains and subdirectories are valid choices; certificate needs depend on configuration.
- Free course access and free plugin core do not remove operating costs.
Sources and further reading
Adapted from the original website-business lesson. WordPress: Create A Network · Ultimate Multisite official plugin listing