As the saying goes, information wants to be free. Unfortunately, many of the tools needed to publish that information are not.

The rush to the Web has recently given rise to an avalanche of low-cost online publishing options. If you know what you are doing, you can post a professional quality site for less than a $500 investment — and you can get by for next to nothing if you're willing to live without some of the extras. What's most important is that you commit to investing the necessary dollars to produce a high-quality, well-designed and well-written web site.