Countless marketers are trying to build their businesses by publishing articles online, at ezines, as well as in hard copy formats such as newspapers, trade journals, and magazines.

But there is a threshold question many of these marketers fail to ask before investing their effort: "Do my customers and clients actually READ?"

They would be shocked to learn that at a recent time it was known that only 3% of the American population reads books, says Dr. Gary S. Goodman, best-selling author, sales, service and success consultant, and President of Customersatisfaction.com and The Goodman Organization.

And, according to a well placed editor at a publishing company, most of those folks who are reading today's books are women.

It's generally known that conventional newspaper readership has plummeted during the past two decades. Increasing numbers of people prefer to get their information from radio and TV.

Almost every business to business marketer would love to get the attention of business leaders and people who have the title, "President," "CEO" and "COO." But the critical question is, how and from what sources do they get their information?

Are they reading THE WALL STREET JOURNAL and GOLF MAGAZINE?

Possibly, but it's tough to get your articles into these publications. Likewise, if you can write an article that gets published and reprinted from THE HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, it might give your career a real boost, especially if you're in consulting.

But breaking into print there is about as easy as breaking into Fort Knox.

So, even if your potential buyers are readers of these publications, your message may not be carried in them.

Thus, the choice seems to be to publish where it's easy, such as in ezines, but where your market ISN'T, or to try to reach people through messengers and media that will kill your message instead of carrying it to the right eyeballs.

Given this conundrum, are marketers better advised to be direct and to pinpoint exactly whom they wish to impress, and then to try to reach them with phone calls, direct mailers, personal visits, through networking, seminars, speeches, and other means?

After publishing nearly 600 original articles, I'm inclined to not only say, but to shout, "Heck, yes!"