Speed of deployment - Many inexpensive web hosting packages now come bundled with open source web content management systems. For less that $100 per year it is possible to purchase hosting with a variety of features including e-mail, cgi support and CMS like Joomla, Mambo, Geeklog, Drupal and Xoops. It literally takes less than 60 seconds to install these CMS packages. This means you can concentrate your time on developing compelling and sticky content for your web site rather than investing tens of hours worrying about look, feel and structure.

Low maintenance cost - Once the CMS is up and running it's very easy to edit text, add pictures, reorganise menus and so on. With less than an hour of instruction most people can perform basic web site editing functions. If you can use a word processor you can certainly use most CMS packages.

Online support - Unlike propriety CMS and web development applications, there is a multitude of support options when it comes to open source CMS. And most of this support is free. There are freely available manual to download for the most popular CMS packages. If you look around you can also find excellent animated tutorials for the most popular packages.

Variety of designs - There are hundreds of free web site templates for the most popular open source CMS packages. A online search for free Mambo templates will give you an idea of the range and variety. The basic CMS provided with web hosting will include several templates that can easily be customised. And if you want something unique and special, there are commercial template development companies who can design CMS templates for you for very reasonable (< $150), fees.

Powerful features - Basic features included with CMS packages include: a basic administration panel, user level access control, add and delete pages, add and delete images, menu management, web site search, contact forms and rotating banner ads. More exotic components include weather and news feeds, wiki, media galleries, blogging, CRM, form capture databases and advanced SEO features. And that's just the start.

The emergence of opens source CMS packages means that anyone can now have a professional web site that they can edit, manage and enhance at very little cost. Spend a day investigating CMS options, starting with Mambo and Joomla. You will not regret it.