Once upon a time this was a dream market requiring a tiny software investment with massive prices, meaning an unbelievable profit margin.

This is no longer true. The market is saturated, with many companies based in developing countries with low wage costs. There is no room in the market for anyone from North America or Europe to make a profit.

Is it worth learning web design? - Yes, up to a point.

If you have a business, either traditional or online, and need a website you could consider designing it yourself. However, website design requires a specialist body of knowledge that you would have to spend many months acquiring. You need to ask youself if this is a wise investment of your time, or if your energy would be better employed on developing your business in other ways and outsource your website design.

It will be useful if you know how to update and make small site modifications yourself, but that is a much smaller task than learning how to build websites from scratch. Tell your site designer that you want to be able to do this yourself and it the facility will be included in your site.

When specifying your site you need to bear the following points in mind:

* The site must be fast to load. Graphics rich sites take longer to load.

* Use of video and Javascript will make your site slower and inaccessible to a fraction of your audience.

* Many users loathe sites that require Macromedia's Flash graphics

* Your site needs to be enable you to accept online credit card payments. 90% of shoppers expect to be able to use their credit card. If you don't accept it, they will go to another site that does.

* Your site needs to capture visitors contact details, so that you can add them to your email list and contact them in the future.

* If your site is to be a showplace for your range of goods, then it will be database driven and you should make it clear to the developer the number of different items you will be selling on the website, so that the database can be properly designed.

* The more you ask for the more the site will cost, but the points above are essentials and not optional.