Does your level affect your professions?

This is somewhat a response to my comment in wow trader six where I said based on your level you should have certain professions.

It is my belief that while questing and leveling you should have two gathering professions, so levels 1-79 you gather level 80 you can choose to do something else. The reasons for this are as follows.

1. your already out in the world, gathering allows you to increase gold/hour earnings.

2. Non gathering professions are rarely profitable until you have almost maxed them out. on top of this they requires an investment of materials to level. Gathering professions are profitable instantly. (a stack of lvl 1 herbs can sell for 10-15g easily) 

3. Non Gathering professions require that you be at a AH often to buy materials and supplies to craft items. While running around if you have to constantly stop in to visit the AH your going to slow your leveling down dramatically.

Now I know a lot of people take up one gathering and one crafting profession, usually ones that complement each other such as leather working and skinning. The argument is that by doing this you saves gold by not having to buy materials to level your leather working. This is False, the cake is a lie.

Whether you sell or use the leather the value of that leather doesn't change. So either you sell it for gold, or use X gold worth of leather for leveling your leather working. As far as leather working is concerned you have saved nothing. You however, have lost the opportunity to gather something else by using one of your slots for leather working. The result is a loss in current income for no immediate gain. 

I would also recommend that you choose mining and herbalism. while leather working is a nice skill it doesn't have as many professions that draw from it, herbalism has two and mining has two leather working has only one.

The issue with two gathering professions is the inability to see both types of nodes on the mini map at the same time. This however can be solved by using the gatherer mod and downloading the node locations.

Once you hit 80, you then have the option to simply continue gathering, at which time you will need to do the research to find out which gathering routes produce the most ore/herb per circuit or to reroll a new profession and learn how to make a profit off the auction house with that profession.