Since laurel wyner Dunlea joined E! Online in May 1999, the site has enjoyed a 74% increase in traffic. Its reach online increased from 1.5 million in April 1999 to 2.7 million last January, according to Media Metrix.

"More than anything, we've put our marketing muscle behind our content distribution program with America Online and MSN," says Ms. Wyner Dunlea, VP-marketing of the entertainment news site. "We spin our content so that it appeals to our distributors and hopefully gets better play on their screens and delivers more traffic."

But while the site has enjoyed success through its content partnerships, it hasn't been without challenges.

"We are marketing ourselves by the hour to our content partners and it can be quite difficult to keep up," says Ms. Wyner Dunlea, 38.

While E! Online (eonline.com) has not done any traditional advertising to date, it is conducting a review of San Francisco and Los Angeles interactive agencies to handle its first-ever consumer campaign. Expected to break in the fourth quarter, the campaign will include online, print and out of home.

In addition to expanding the marketing department from just two to 14 people, Ms. Wyner Dunlea last Christmas spearheaded creation of a holiday gift guide which attractedadvertisers and users who previously hadn't been to E! Online. She has also focused on grass-roots marketing opportunities, such as sponsoring American pavilions at the Cannes International Film Festivaland Sundance Film Festival.

E! Online was recently chosen as a key site for Hasbro's upcoming Monopoly Dot-Com game. "We get lots of proposals, and it's our job to choose those promotions or ideas that will benefit us," says Ms. Wyner Dunlea.