I bought PHP Galleria last week and have been working on improving the site. This is the second post in tracking its progress. Following are the latest updates (since the previous ones):

• Edited the .htaccess file to redirect http://phpgalleria.com to http://www.phpgalleria.com
• Edited the .htaccess file to redirect index.php to the root directory “/”
• Added “H1″ tag to the product pages (ex. This Day in Sports Script) for better SEO

It doesn’t seem like much but I spent a lot of time installing two add-ons and had to un-install them due to unexpected results.

This is pretty basic but I had never done it. If you do a lot of work on your website(s) you might want to exclude your own IP address from Google Analytics to ensure more accurate data.

1. Simply go to Google Analytics
2. In the bottom of the page find the link to “Filters”
3. Create a new filter based on your IP address

I bought PHP Galleria last week and plan on considerably improving the site. This is the second post in tracking its progress. (phpgalleria.com)

Malicious Malware

Yesterday I found a major problem with the files of the website. The files had a malicious malware in them. Once I uploaded the files and Google browsed it, the site got flagged and was giving malware warnings to the visitors. This would have destroyed the site and any possible income.

So I talked with the previous owner and decided the solution would be to move the site to a new domain. I agreed to keep the site and finish the escrow transfer if I could get $400 of my money back. It was a bad situation both for me and the owner. Apparently many GoDaddy site (previous hosting of the site) were attacked and that’s where the malware had come from. The owner was understanding and we made the deal.

I talked to one of my friends and he told me to fix the problem and request a review from Google instead of 301 redirecting the domain name. I did that. We’ll see if it produces any result.

Updates So Far

So far I’ve bought a new template for PHP Galleria from Template Monster. I uploaded the template and made the following changes:

• Updated the logo
• Added Google Analytics
• Added new categories and moved the products around for better store organization
• Added Timsar Solutions credentials
• Added terms of use page (required if an online store wants to process credit cards)
• Added a privacy page (required if an online store wants to process credit cards)
• Added shipping and return policy
• Install Ultimate SEO URL for osCommerce

It’s late already. I’ll work on the rest tomorrow.

Last week I bought a new website PHPGalleria.com on Flippa for $1500. It currently makes about $150 to $250 a month. I plan on substantially improving it and hopefully increase the income by a good margin. I will post updates on it here every time I make a change and on its monthly revenue.

So far the site has cost me $1545:

• $1500 Site purchase
• $20 Escrow fees for transferring the funds to the new owner
• $25 Bank fee for wiring the money to Escrow
• I host the site on my old server so no new hosting fees

My initial plan for improving the site (after I get the site and all the demos running on my server) is:

• Upgrade the site’s template: I will probably buy a pre-made template. It won’t be completely unique but close enough. This should be done before end of June.
• Do on-site and off-site SEO: The on-site SEO work should be done by end of the 4th of July weekend. I will start the off-site SEO work this week as well. Hopefully we’ll start seeing results in a month or so.
• Advertising: I will do some advertising starting in August once the above two tasks are fully done.

Following is how the site looks like right now: