Paul DuBois uses MySQL where INSERT INTO tablename SET fieldname=value is allowed, I'm not sure this is so for SQL 2000.
However, in the first case, you are calling the sub with 2 parameters here

insert_item ($dbh, param ("content"));
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but the sub is written for 3, although none are initialised. I think your mistake is here

# my ($dbh, $t, $content); NOT THIS
my ($dbh, $t, $content) = @_; #
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In the second piece of code, I would temporarily change this line as follows, and display $rows in the page

#$rows = $dbh->do ($stmt, undef, @placeholder);
$rows = qq[ dbh->do ($stmt, undef, @placeholder) ];
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If all the values are "" then $stmt would be INSERT INTO prodreg SET which would be invalid.
poj