$hits //$hits is replaced by a running tally of hits
$last_hit // timestamp of last logged hit
$last_ip //ip address of last hit

Figure 1 - Flat file data storage system

               ------Flat file1.inc
              /
index.php-----
              \
               ------Flat File2.inc

######################################################

Figure 2 - MySQL data storage system

               ------mySql Table 1
              /
index.php-----
              \
               ------mySql Table 2

 <?php
$myfile = "totalhits.txt";
//Assigns file name to the variable we'll use to handle it
if(file_exists($myfile))//if the file exists
    {                    // runs counter script
    $var = fopen( $myfile,'r+');
    //opens in read and write mode for file
    $visits = fread($var,filesize($myfile));
    //puts the content of the file for its whole length
    rewind( $var );
    //resets the file position indicator to the beginning
    $visits++; //increments the actual number of vists by 1
    fwrite($var, $visits);
    //writes on the variable the actual (incremented) value
    fclose($var);//closes our file reference
    }
else
    {
        print "File $myfile doesn't exist...";
        Die();
//if the file doesn't exist prompts a warning and kills the script        
    }
$message = sprintf("Total Hits: %s",$visits);
//saves our visits message in a variable ($message) that will be used as output
print $message;
?> 

<?php include 'totalhits.php'; ?>