Never mind that there's been no trial. No verdict. No sentencing.

Her comeback began yesterday, public relations experts say, with establishment of a personal Web site backing her cause. The site for Stewart — the person, not the media company — received 1.7 million hits in the first 17 hours at www.marthatalks.com.

"This is the first of many things that will be rolled out to vindicate Martha Stewart," says Bob Dilenschneider, CEO of Dilenschneider Group and former CEO of PR giant Hill & Knowlton. "It's orchestrated. It's planned. And it's very smart. If you have a big checkbook, you improve your chances of success."

By 5:30 p.m. yesterday, Stewart's site also had received 13,522 individual e-mails — the vast majority supportive, says Anna Cordasco, managing director of Citigate Sard Verbinnen, a crisis consulting firm retained by Stewart.

The purpose of the site: "It's Martha Stewart wanting to keep in touch with people who care about her," Cordasco says.

Experts say the site also could:

• Confuse the issue. "She's trying to put enough information out there that it begins to turn heads" and confuse the issue, Dilenschneider says. "This is a battle for the public mind." He estimates she'll spend $1 million to $2 million on her personal PR campaign.

• Rally the troops. There's no better, faster, easier and cheaper place to gather folks of like minds than a Web site, says Carrie Johnson, senior analyst at Forrester Research, an Internet research firm. "This type of site gives consumers an outlet," she says. "But I can assure you, she's also going to receive an awful lot of hate mail."

• Amass a database of supporters. Cordasco declined to comment on specific plans that Stewart has for the database. The site was expected to receive 2 million hits by day's end. She said the site was Stewart's personal site and information from it would not be shared with her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

• Set off a political campaign. "This isn't just a court case but a political campaign," says Barbara Brooks, president of the Strategy Group, a consulting firm. "It's now becoming the public court of opinion vs. the criminal court."

• Establish a customer list. There are no apparent constraints on how these e-mail addresses — and e-mails — can be used, Johnson says. There's no privacy disclosure on the site, something common to commercial sites.