If you are like me then the part of the site building you hate is getting all the initial installation and setup done ready to build the actual affiliate site and get things moving. I have been testing a using a neat little plugin called WP-Cloner which in a nut shell completely eliminates the time it takes to create new WordPress affiliate sites.

So what does it allow you to do?

The plugin basically does what it says on the tin; it allows you to completely clone almost every aspect of your WordPress blog. I know some of you will be asking why you would want to, well here's why:

1) Many people like to build their WordPress affiliate site away from their actual intended domain name and get things all setup before actually announcing the site.

2) If you have built a WordPress site before you will know how many plugins there are to choose from which can help enhance your site's performace, such as the All in One SEO plugin for example. However, when I build a standard WordPress e-commerce style affiliate site there is always a set of standard plugins which I use along with a main theme, main permalink settings and a few other things. Whilst it is not hard to set a site up initially, it can be quite time consuming, especially if you are setting up more than one.

The plugin gives you complete control of what you want to clone over to your new site and what you don't with a simple checkbox interface. Here are a few of the main things which you can clone below:

WordPress Settings - To include the following:
- General
- Writing
- Reading
- Discussion
- Media
- Privacy
- Permalinks
- Misc
- Active Plugins
- Active Theme
- Other Settings

WordPress Content - To include the following:
- Posts, pages & attachments
- Links
- Comments
- Categories
- Users

WordPress Files - To include the following:
- Core Files
- Plugins
- Themes
- Uploads

Other Files - To include any other files inside your /public_html directory of the site to be cloned.

How does it work?

It's really simple to use, simply add in the master site details which you wish to clone, you then go ahead and add in the details of all the sites you wish to clone too, click clone and within a few seconds your master site, along with all of the specified settings, have been cloned and you are ready to get to work on your new sites.

What do you need for the plug-in to work?

When I am using the plugin I install a copy of WordPress onto the site(s) I am cloning to which using fantastico takes around 30 seconds. You will also need spare MySQL database for the plugin to work off.

My thoughts:

Overall I think it's a great little plugin and it will save you a lot of time if you are setting up a few WordPress affiliate sites or if you want to have a base copy of the WordPress affiliate site settings you want to appear in all of your future sites, this is particuarly useful with WordPress plugins and basic settings.

Installation:

Installation of the plugin is done onto one domain. I have it set inside a sub directory of a test site I have knocking around and when I am building a new site I simply run the WP Cloner and within a few seconds my new site is ready to build on.

The installation process is not completely simple for newbies as you will need to change a few file permissions and create a database from your cpanel, this isn't hard but if you haven't done it before then it maybe more difficult at first.

Lastly, be very careful when you are using this pluign, once you clone a site you cannot undo it, therefore don't do what I did the first time I used it and clone in the wrong direction, overwriting the site I wanted to clone from. It's always worth double checking your settings before you clone and also ensuring that you have a backup of your WordPress database to hand. If you are building multiple sites then backups are something you should be making regularly anyway.

Read More Or Buy It Here

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