A system and method are provided for publishing certain advertising information on-line. Presence indicators are incorporated into merchant advertisements published online. The presence indicators are preferably active hyper-links that are configured to allow a consumer to send a request to a merchant for initiation of a 2-way real time communications session. The system provides for adding one of a pool of merchant representatives to an opened communications session with the consumer. Advertisements may be selectively published or withheld from publication based upon the availability status of an associated merchant.