New York ? Martha Stewart, the goddess of gracious living, thanked her admirers Monday for 40,000 e-mails of praise and support that have flooded a Web site she set up just days ago to defend her name against a federal indictment.

Image consultants say it’s part of a shrewd campaign to win the battle for public opinion and influence potential jurors who may one day decide her guilt or innocence.

“This is brilliant,” said Seth Siegel, co-founder of The Beanstalk Group, a trademark licensing agency. “She is shoring up her base, and simultaneously getting ready for a trial.”

The Internet site, marthatalks.com, went up just hours after Stewart was indicted last week on five federal counts related to her sale of ImClone Systems Inc. shares just before the stock plummeted on bad news from regulators. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is due in court next week.

Stewart said Monday the site had been swamped by more than 6 million visitors, and that she was “overwhelmed by the outpouring of support.”

“I hope that those of you who have written will accept my heartfelt public thanks for your kind words and good wishes,” she said, apologizing for not having time to respond to each fan individually.

The e-mails have been roughly 98 percent positive, Stewart spokeswoman Anna Cordasco said. Some of them were posted on the site.

The Web site, designed in muted greens and adorned with attractive typefaces, features a photo of a jeans-clad Stewart mugging with her two Chow Chow dogs, named Paw Paw and Tutu.

Paul Levinson, chair of Fordham University’s media studies department, said Stewart’s campaign was designed to sway potential jurors who might assume she is guilty simply because she has been indicted.

“I’ve heard people talk cynically about the juror point — trying to soften up the jurors,” he said. “But that’s exactly what the government is doing by holding a press conference, by making it a big public issue.”