Web development is moving so fast that it is very difficult for the amateur or beginner to master even the basics. Some businesses, especially the larger ones, obviously pay a specialist company to build a website for them, or to employ their own IT consultants. This makes good business sense.

However, for the small, home-based business it is a different story. Most people can perhaps afford to pay someone a one-off fee to design something which looks professional and does the job, but if it is a website which needs frequent updating - and most do - this can be a problem.

Self-build websites are only part of the answer. Once you get on to submitting your site to search engines, choosing keywords, placing directory entries, it is a real minefield, and it can take up far too much time for a small business. Equally, when such a business is struggling to get going, it cannot afford to pay regular sums to have someone do it for them, especially when there is no guarantee that the results will be satisfactory.

How does one find a company which will be reasonably priced and will produce an effective service?

I fell into the trap of believing that 'we will guarantee 7000 visitors per day to your site' and paid a hefty annual fee as well as monthly payments, only to find that my own really amateur efforts resulted in higher search engine rankings than those of this so-called expert company. I continue to be cold-called from time to time by a call-centre touting for further business for this company.

There is an urgent need for a really, really simple step-by-step guide. How often does the amateur follow directions on how to perform a so-called 'simple task', and then comes up against some instruction which is completely incomprehensible to him?

If you compare this situation to, for instance, learning to drive a car - some people need really basic instruction. It's no good telling a novice to put his foot on the clutch if he has no idea where it is or what it does.

Speaking as someone who found even the 'Dummies' series quite hard going - is there anyone out there who has the answer?