he Green Sheet's Web site, GS Online, hit a huge milestone in March 2004-achieving 2,036,547 hits in one month! Our Web site traffic has increased steadily over the past several years and grew by 34% over March of the previous year.

The number of visits (a single user loading any number of pages without a 15 minute lapse) has increased, too, and the actual raw amount of data being transferred each month has dramatically grown-doubling in a year's time.

The Green Sheet, Inc. owns multiple servers, housed at our Texas site, that handle thousands of GS Online users daily. The servers are scaled to support 20 times our current traffic levels.

We made many improvements to GS Online in 2003. In June, we redesigned the Web site's general look and feel, and we also added new category headers and regrouped the pages into more appropriate topics. We think the site not only looks better, but with its new format and intuitive design, visitors are better able to navigate through it.

In the fall, we more seamlessly integrated the login process to GS online content with the MLS Forum database and added drop-down menus for each of the general headers. All of these changes have altered (in some ways dramatically) how readers use our Web site.

While the MLS Forum remains the most visited section of GS Online-more than 11% of our online readership access it-other pages also command a great deal of attention, including News From the Wire and the GSQ.

The GSQ section is growing. With the inception of the new page design, visits nearly doubled overnight and tripled by the end of the year. The Green Sheet Resource Guide and Current Issue are also in the list of most-read pages on GS Online.

As The Green Sheet's presence in the marketplace has grown, advertisers' messages are now available-in perpetuity-by accessing GS Online. The PDF archive of all GS issues online enables readers worldwide to view the publication in its entirety. This gives our advertisers unprecedented distribution of their message.

The latest enhancement to The Green Sheet is a fully integrated and automated electronic version, "The Green Sheet Paperless Edition," which we now send, or "push," via e-mail to new online subscribers.

Current subscribers to the printed version of The Green Sheet can also receive the Paperless Edition by accessing the Subscription Change Form on GS Online and adding this feature to their subscription profile. Many have already indicated a preference for the electronic version of our magazine. Readers may opt-out of the "push" version at any time.

We have seen a significant interest in The Green Sheet Paperless Edition on the East Coast. Hundreds of people, who have been loyal readers of GS Online, are now registered subscribers to the Paperless Edition, exclusively.

Our mission at The Green Sheet has always been to support the individual sales professional in the payment-processing arena. We have consistently developed and delivered "best in class" support tools for the merchant level salesperson, available to you at no cost. We strive to bring you the Right Stuff, in the Right Way and the Right Time-Now!