U.S. Internet users viewed 12.7 billion online videos during November 2008 alone, up more than one-third over November 2007, according to data released in January 2009 by ComScore Video Metrix.

ComScore said that more than 146 million US Internet users watched an average of 87 videos per viewer in November 2008—that’s 77 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience. EMarketer adds that the number should rise to 88 percent by 2012.

So, the question that needs to be asked is: how can all this video be monetized?

EMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman says it’s got to be ads that appear at the beginning or during the video. “Although many consumers are loath to sit through ads when watching online video, they seem even less willing to pay directly for content,” he said.

EMarketer estimates online video ad spending will reach $4.6 billion in 2013, up from $587 million in 2008.

So what is your online video publishing and advertising strategy?

Other tidbits from ComScore:

– 97 million viewers watched 5.1 billion videos on YouTube.com.
– 52.5 million viewers watched 371 million videos on MySpace.com.
– The duration of the average online video was 3.1 minutes.
– The duration of the average online video viewed at Hulu was 11.9 minutes, higher than any other video property in the top 10.
– Google sites attracted 98 million online video viewers, or approximately two out of every three Internet users who watched video during the month. Fox Interactive ranked second with 58.1 million viewers, followed by Yahoo sites (40 million) and Microsoft sites (35 million).