It goes on to say that "during February 1999 individuals went online an average of 16 different sessions, visiting 15 unique sites and spending nearly 31.5 minutes per site."

"Net users spent nearly 7.5 hours online during the month of February, or a little less than two hours per week." This statement was a surprise to me, especially when I consider how much time I spend on the net.

The following statement was the most surprising aspect of their article, "eMarketer, interviewing Nielsen/NetRating, learned that while nearly 100 million people in America have access, that doesn't mean they are getting online with any regularity, or even at all. In fact, of the 98.9 million with access, only 65%, or 64 million, get online at least once per month. And only 37%, or 36.6 million jump online at least once per week (eMarketer's definition of an active net user)."

On the surface this article reveals some very encouraging news, especially to Internet marketers. With a 43% increase in Internet users, that could mean there are 43% more potential customers, clients or associates in which you can market products, services or opportunities to. However, when you look a little closer at this article, there is an even greater revelation of an mostly overlooked potential profit center.

Statement #1:
"Out of 98.9 million users, only 64 million get on line at least once per month."

Another way to look at this statement is, "there were 34.9 million people who had access, but didn't get online in February." That's 34.9 million potential customers, clients or associates that you could not reach over the Internet that month.

Statement #2:
"Only 36.6 million jump online at least once per week."

Another way to say this is, "there are 62.3 million people with Internet access who don't even get online line at least once per week." For the Internet marketer, that's lost possibilities.

Statement #3:
"Net users spent nearly 7.5 hours online during the month of February, or a little less than two hours per week."

To sum it all up, out of the almost 99 million U.S. citizens who have Internet access, only approximately 36.6 million of them access their service at least once per week. On top of that, they only average "a little less than 2 hours per week.

When you take into consideration the millions of web sites and pages constantly competing for the surfer's attention, less than 2 hours per week is not much time for your potential customers, clients or associates to accidentally find your products or services over the net.

Judging by the newsletters, e-zines, reports and other information I receive and find, most Internet marketing people and companies are tripping over themselves going after the 37 million users who are only online less than 2 hour per week.

What about the other 62.3 million U.S. citizens with Internet access? How many Internet marketers are making any attempt to draw them to their sites, products or services? Judging by the ads and articles I see and read from much of the off-line media, not very many.

The reason I say this is because for the past twenty or more years, I have been a student of advertising. I try to pay attention to, and take notice of, every kind of advertisement: printed, televised and radio. I look through magazines, newspapers, classified papers, shopper magazines, coupon mailings, and so on, looking for advertisements which catch my eye. I usually ask myself, "what's special about them?" "What, in my opinion, what makes them good or bad?" "What makes them effective or ineffective?" Once I got connected to the Internet, I started to pay even closer attention to these ads.

What do I see, or don't see very much of? Advertisements with e-mail or web addresses. This is even when I look through income opportunity magazines, telephone books, and city or business directories. In this day and time, this amazes me. Why? Because it wouldn't cost much more, if anything, to add a e-mail or web address to an advertisement. If a person or business don't have one or both of these services, why? You could have them both for less than $30 per month.

Remember, there are almost 100 million U.S. citizens with Internet access. That's thirty-eight percent of the U.S. population.

What does this tell me? Internet marketers, including most big businesses with a web presence, are almost totally ignoring 62.3 million possible sells. That's 62.3 million possible gold nuggets waiting to be mined.

Are you also missing out on this potential goldmine? Could a portion of these people use what you have to sell? Could they use your services? If your answer is yes, then develope a plan, then "GO FOR THE GOLD!!!"