@ipstenu – thank you for your kind and considered response. Returning to this now, I find myself still confused. When you say “Make four sub-sites”, can you give examples of the structure of the URL(s) in this case.
Please note, I am interested in producing five sites, namely blog.a.com and blog.b.com and blog.c.com and blog.d.com and blog.e.com all running off a single WordPress install (Multisite) at x.com
What I don’t want is a.com/blog/ and b.com/blog/…
I also don’t want x.com/blog1/ and x.com/blog2/
I also don’t want blog1.x.com and blog2.x.com….
Thanks in advance. Your assistance is much appreciated.