how to link regional sites? ideas?

[rapturem3]

hi.

i have an online community in 1 country currently and would like to "copy" the website to another domain to cater to another country and start growing the community there as well.

currently example.cn and new domain example.tw.

what are your thoughts to linking the 2 sites? i would like to leverage upon the current database and also cater to more country specific audiences as well as content.

current site has a "news" section, forum, gallery, etc..

should i have little flags right at the top for them to click through to the other site?

next question is, what should be shared between the sites? user database? forum database? gallery? news database?

keep in mind i want to keep the site content region specific so i am thinking they shouldn't be shared. maybe except only the user database.

thanks in advance for any ideas!

[webcosmo]

You can even use subdomains
e.g. china.example.com
usa.example.com

You can use the same database for all sites if you design it properly. Which definitely would reduce lot of development and maintenance costs. However it would get more complicated.

I personally would build the site in a manner that same website can be used for any country. Content should be saved on database for each country.

You should have a professional consultation on this.

[rapturem3]

subdomains is not really an option for me as "example.com" is taken. so i cannot have a .com domain. current all i have is example.cn.

so cn.example.cn and tw.example.cn wouldn't be viable either.

i am going to copy the whole site over because i paid a lot for the current setup and also by copying i reduce a lot of development time and cost. so the sites will look EXACTLY the same.

the only difference will be the content. i want them to be country specific so it would definitely attract more users. i'm sure a .tw user wouldn't want to read local news about .cn because it has no relation to them.

you are probably right i would need to consult a professional consultant on this.

[Zorro D]

Ok.. So you have same layout with different content for different websites.
If the websites are regional websites, Its better to get new domain for new website.
In such a way optimization in individual geographic region would be easy.

Another option is using, sub directories.

[inspection]

Get new domains and if ''example.com'' it's not available try ''examples.com'.
I usually do that and it's working well so far.

[CyberToolz]

next question is, what should be shared between the sites? user database? forum database? gallery? news database?

keep in mind i want to keep the site content region specific so i am thinking they shouldn't be shared. maybe except only the user database.

The problems are:

1 we don't know what your site is or about.
2 we have no idea whats in the databases or what you want/should keep

No one here can answer your question or give you a proper suggestion without ALOT more information

[88dbsakthi]

sub domain is the best way and its because of
Adding new regions is easy as possible ( why you have to buy and setup domains for each region )
Sub domains will provides better control
Branding is easy as that