Attila Olbrich.

By the time the internet became as ubiquitous as electricity, life at the car parts wholesaler had changed dramatically. The once-rewritten catalogue software was now outdated again, as everyone—and I mean everyone—was plugging into the web. Fun fact: there was a time when “sex” was the most searched term online. Thankfully, internet culture matured, and so did our catalogue software.

The new version? An online application. Not browser-based yet, but the database now lived on a central server. The desktop app connected over the web. A step in the right direction!

Enter the WebShop

One of our retail clients had big ambitions. They wanted to sell car parts online and insisted the company refer them to me. Challenge accepted. My tools of choice? HTML, CSS, PHP, and trusty MySQL—the same database we used for the catalogue.

The first hurdle?

Licensing. The German database was incredible but priced for wholesale giants, not small retailers. Negotiations dragged on forever, but eventually, the Hungarian rep offered a deal that didn’t break the bank.

With licensing secured, I got to work. No cloud back then, just a Linux server humming away in a co-hosting farm. Apache was up, and the first fruits of my labor appeared on the screen: the glorious words “Hello World”. Success!

Building the Beast

Many late nights and countless cups of coffee later, the webshop began to take shape. Users could search vehicle models, drill down to submodels, and browse product categories. The magical “Order Now” button glimmered like a trophy. The system was sleek, fast (thanks to my prior database optimization tricks), and ready to roll.

But there was one problem: no customers.

The SEO Rabbit Hole The annual license fee loomed over us like a dark cloud. No sales meant no income, and no income meant trouble. What now? That’s when I discovered SEO—search engine optimization. At the time, I had no clue what it was, but it seemed important.

I dove headfirst into learning. Books were ordered, seminars attended, and I even joined a webshop association to stay ahead of the curve.

Then came the grind:

link building. Back then, it was all about quantity over quality, and I built links like a man possessed (a strategy that would now get you slammed by search engines). Slowly but surely, traffic started to trickle in:

And then, like flipping a switch, we hit 12,000 unique visitors per day.

The webshop had arrived. Customers were rolling in, the database was humming, and for the first time, the internet felt like a goldmine waiting to be tapped.

The Unexpected Twist

But just as things were looking up, bad news arrived. The German database, once a pillar of reliability, had started spreading on the black market. In response, the company made a drastic move: they stopped providing raw data. Instead, they launched a SOAP service, forcing all users to migrate.

The Hungarian distributor—the only entity still receiving raw data—quickly built their own SOAP service to support customers. They set up a sandbox for me, and I started refactoring the webshop to integrate with the new service.

Performance Problems

Here’s the catch: the SOAP service was slow. Each request took a whopping five seconds. For a fast-paced webshop, this was a disaster. Page load times would skyrocket, user experience would tank, rankings would plummet, and customers would flee. Complaints rolled in, and the distributor was overwhelmed.

Then I got the call: could I visit their office?

The Database Whisperer

When I arrived, the distributor had one burning question: “How did you make your original webshop so fast?” They were struggling to make the new service perform.

We sat down for a deep dive into database optimization. I explained that sometimes, breaking the rules is the way forward. At university, I had learned all about third normal form and the sanctity of database design. But in practice, I had done something heretical: I denormalized the database.

For the webshop, I had built a reporting database optimized for specific queries. Updates happened quarterly, so this approach was efficient and fast. I also shared techniques like ETL processes, index tuning, query profiling, sharding, and partitioning.

The conversation was a turning point. They applied some of my suggestions, and their SOAP service performance improved significantly. My refactored webshop was finally quick enough to satisfy even the most impatient customers.

A Humbling Reflection

At the time, I was proud of my work. But looking back now, I realize how much room for improvement there was. As my knowledge grows, so does my awareness of the gaps. This realization drives me forward, always learning, always improving.

But that’s a story for another time. For now, let’s return to my growing Windows side hustle—soon to undergo a transformation of its own. Stay tuned!