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With many of these affordable portal publishing systems, it seems that for the first time content editors, who are often writers and editors moved over from the print side with no HTML knowledge, can create the materials, approve them, and put them live without having to call the official site propellerhead to "make it so."

"We allow you to bypass bottlenecks that can occur in overloaded technical teams, enabling content creators to publish their own work," says Kenneth Clements, Dir. of Marketing for RedDot Solutions, which makes a comprehensive mid-range solution designed to support all Web content formats.

"Our core development strategy is based on the understanding that the significant majority of employees participating in web content will be non-technical personnel. To increase ROI, we focus on delivering tools that require minimal training for use by individuals with basic office application skills."

Open Sourcery

Okay... let's assume that you want to do something extremely complex, have a programmer on staff or are willing to hire one, and don't feel any of the "off the shelf" solutions quite fit the bill. What are your options, other than calling the big guys and putting another mortgage on your house?

Open source comes to the rescue! The same mentality that made the free Apache platform the defacto standard for Web servers, or Linux so popular as an alternate to Unix, also has its adherents in the portal software end of the solution matrix. Products like PHPnuke and Zope use Web industry standard programming languages like PHP and Python to create a core solution that is both extensible and well supported -- and, best of all, completely free. Zope started in 1997 as a platform for publishing newspaper content such as classified ads and auto listings.

According to Zope's co-founder Paul Everitt, "Zope comes out-of-the-box ready to turn over control to average people. The architecture presents itself in ways familiar to average people. For instance, the database isn't relational, it is an integrated object database that is structured like a file system. People add content to folders or subfolders. The content can be simple (like HTML pages, graphics, or movies), rich (discussion groups like Squishdot), or custom applications (like in-house expense reports). Everything can be managed through the Web browser."

"As recently as six months ago, industry analysts were saying that you simply couldn't do content management for under $300k, that such a price point wasn't serious. These days, very few people are willing to spend that much capital and then start paying for working the product into their own use."

Send out the Programmer

The most powerful aspect of the new solutions like SiteYard, and Macromedia's new Sitestream products is that they don't require a consultant or a host of custom hand-written scriptlets that will become useless if the programmer drops dead from too many late nights and caffeine overdoses. The new solutions use normal Web browsers to access content over the network, or even Dreamweaver, whether it's a LAN, WAN, or Internet. While some require installation on a Web server, this is a straightforward process for a server admin, and often done with click-here "wizards."

"With our unique SmartEdit user interface, editors can create or edit the content of any site designed using Web technologies (Web sites, intranets, extranets, Palm platforms, Web phone sites, etc). The interface requires no knowledge of HTML and is so intuitive, that it requires very little training," says RedDot's Clements.

"After logging into the to the RedDot system (within a Web browser), the areas of a site that the editor is authorized to edit will be marked with red dots. By clicking on any of these red dots, an editing window will appear in which the editor can modify or add text, images or other content as it pertains to the area being edited. Our system gives administrators an easy to use tree view to visualize the links and components that make up the complexities of their site, as well as to administer workflow processes, user profiles, etc."

"Any site that has to have its content updated more than monthly, is a great candidate for our type of solution," adds Zapwerk's Cougias. "Ever see a corporate communications manager that knew how to write HTML code? Ever know an HR manager that could use BBEdit? Ever see a CEO know anything technical? Probably not. But indeed it is these people who have to communicate to the outside world constantly. And it is these people that we aim our software at."

If you don't have your own Web servers, or hosted domain space, you can use an application service provider (ASP), such as Atomz, which is well known for their free site search engine service. Their new Atomz Publish Express makes advanced Web site content management available to small- and medium-sized sites for as little as $400 per year. A pro version offers features similar to SiteYard at comparable pricing. Of course, you rely on the stability of the service provider for your ability to maintain an online presence, which is not ideal for many companies.

No matter your budget, there are now a wide variety of possible choices for making your Web portal a reality. Of course, you still have to have interesting content to publish in the first place. But that's another story.

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