Marketers and analysts seem to recognize this trend and are beginning to respond. Jupiter's research suggests people visit a few sites regularly, perhaps six or seven, and spin off to a link or two. Jim Sanches, a marketing manager in Sacramento, estimates he visits about a dozen sites regularly. . I go to the Billboard site every week to play their music trivia game. But time spent surfing aimlessly is minimal, he adds.
People watch a handful of TV shows, read a few magazines and one newspaper.
Getting users to designate a Web site as their portal is the only way to guarantee that a user will visit a site every time he or she logs on. But the problem is more complex. It's tricky, Hoffman says. If we don't recognize that we have to make it easy for the newbies at the same time its challenging for the experienced users, there's a danger we'll lose the newbies before they even get on. Theories point to 'imprinting' One way to sidestep the issue is to get to users first.