Finally, there is a study that looks at the impact of mobile Internet usage on online traffic. Not surprising to me, mobile web sites, according to Nielsen, increase the audience of many online sites on average by 13%.

I suspected that all along by examining the behavior of users of Crisp-powered sites from mLogic usage reports. For example, readers of USA TODAY Mobile, yours truly included, frequently use the Email Story option, a clipping feature of sorts, to email articles they like to themselves or to their friends. Invariably, this drives online usage and attracts new readers, mobile or otherwise.

The results of the study, however illuminating, made me think of other questions that I would love Nielsen to answer. I must add that I am yet to read the report. My questions might have been answered but I will list them nonetheless.

1. If audience begets traffic, and traffic begets advertising, and advertising begets revenue, doesn’t mobile drive more online revenue? I bet it does. That seems almost too obvious.

2. How much additional traffic is created from mobile-first visitors rather than those who have been traditionally visiting online sites? In other words, how many users started frequenting online sites after using their mobile counterparts? I bet many.

3. Is the audience increase greater for publishers that built and launched WAP sites, i.e., sites specifically optimized for mobile? I bet it is much greater. Sites that have not been optimized for mobile are simply unusable. Accessing non-optimized sites even on the iPhone is painful.

And lastly, do the findings of this report provide yet another argument that publishers derive considerable tangible benefits from mobile optimized sites?