Multiple Web Sites with Personal Domain Names - Overview

Question

I have read through the last 10 pages of these discussions and have almost worked this out, but I need some help.
Problem:
I want to publish and edit two separate web sites with their own, individual, personal web addresses
from the same user account on the same Mac using iWeb '08 (2.0.2) and my .Mac account
_So far:_
I have purchased and registered the two domain names (with Cheap-DomainRegistration.com)
I have configured the CNAME to point to web.mac.com, and "Set up a Personal Domain" in iWeb successfully, but using a separate Mac for each web site.
The two sites work great.
_What (I think) I need to know:_
(excuse me for copying these posts out, but I can't find a way to link them to this post)
1) Should I be using iWebSites as suggested by Old Toad (posted Jan 24 in response to StAnNe's "Multiple Websites--HELP!!!")?
I use iWebSites to manage multiple sites.. It lets me create multiple sites and multiple domain files.
2) Should I be using Mireille's approach (also posted Jan 24 in response to StAnNe's "Multiple Websites--HELP!!!")?
Yes you are correct in the thought that with a family pack you can use different accounts and that is the easiest way to upload with one click to .mac. But it is still possible to publish differents sites to one .mac account if that is all one has. Even if the sites are in one domain file each purchased mysite.com domain name purchased can be pointed to a different page in the site
Look at it this way
Original Poster has
site1 page 1 page 2 and so on
then he/she has brothersite page 1 and so on.
They each have a domain name purchase wherever
then site1domain.com is forwarded to site 1 page1
and brotherdomain.com is forwarded to brothersite page 1.
Even though both sites are in the same file they do not have anything to do with each other.
This is one possibility there are others but for a novice user this could be the way to go for simplicity.
(Mireille, if you're there, can you clarify what you said - thank you)
3) Would I use Roddy's fix (posted Jan 23 in response to canadensis' "Publishing Multiple Websites?")?
Here's an example of how you can separate two websites that are on the same domain file.
Quit iWeb
Create a new folder on your desktop and call it "iWeb Sites".
Inside this folder create two more - Website A, Website B.
Go to Home Folder/Library/Application Support/iWeb and copy your domain file - command C
Paste this into folders A and B - command V - and also paste a copy of it somewhere else - like in Docs - in case you make a mistake!
Double click the domain file in the folder Website A - this will launch iWeb.
In the left column, delete site B, save and quit iWeb.
Double click the domain file in the folder Website B to launch iWeb.
Delete website A, save and quit.
Drop the iWeb sites folder into your Home Folder.
If you want quick access to this folder you can highlight it and do command L to create an alias to leave on the desktop.
From now on, to launch any site in iWeb you open its folder in the iWebsites folder and double click the domain file.
This is not necessary when you are working on only one site as iWeb saves the domain file of the last site you were working on to Home Folder/Library/Application Support/iWeb. When you open the iWeb application, the last site you worked on will be launched.
Summary:
I'm not sure if some of the answers in previous discussions allow for personal domain names, which is what I need.
I would be very grateful for any suggestions as I'm getting bogged down.
Many Thanks,
Jeff

Answer 1

When you said, "you don't need to do CNAME for both sites…", would this method still allow me to use personal web addresses for both sites?
Yes. With "Ordinary Forwarding" you normally just type your .Mac url (web.mac.com/username/sitename) into a form at the place where you have your name.
I thought I was using 'web.mac.com' as the 'www' CNAME (alias) for my personal domain name (web address), so that when someone typed in my personal domain name they would 'go' to the domain registration location, which would then pass it on to the .Mac server, where my web site is hosted.
That's exactly right. It's just not the only way to do that. Ordinary Forwarding is another way, but it differs in terms of what appears in the address bar of the browser. Either you will see web.mac.com/username/.... or, if you add "masking", you will see your personal name for all pages. The CNAME method results in a address bar that reads www.myname.com/sitename/pagename.html.
Am I way off?
All help gratefully received,
Jeff