Pictures, man, we need pictures so we can properly assess your site and offer up suggestions on how to improve it. :-)

Seriously, you ask an interesting question that relates to the design and deployment of just about all online sites, whether they be a storefront like what you have or a purely informational site for a non-profit organization: what should be included and what should be omitted?

I believe that the key point here is to write about what your customers are interested in reading, not what you want to sell. This is tough for most entrepreneurs and marketing types because why would you write about your industry, about market news, about anything other than your wonderful - buy me - products and - buy me - the latest information - buy me - from the factory or trade - buy me - show? :-)

The answer is: because if you write about what you want to sell, you're producing a sales page or a sales site, not a site of general interest to your marketplace. I don't care if you're Boeing or Mike's Camera, if you believe that you have already captured every potential customer in your market, you're doomed to eventually fail and die. Every marketplace has potential customers who haven't yet learned about you and your service or product line.

In the modern age, the way they learn is by poking around with search engines. Curious about what companies make commercial jetliners? Your first stop will be Google. Ready to figure out what bicycle is best for mountainous terrain? Again, start at Google or your favorite search engine.

And so, let's talk about lingerie. First off, it's worth pointing out that the reason Victoria's Secret is so darn successful is because the catalog and business was initially designed to appeal to men, not women. It wasn't about selling underwear to women, but selling romance (and sex, or the potential for sex) to the men who would buy lingerie for their wives, sweethearts, significant others, etc.

This is important because it illustrates my point: if you want to be a successful online lingerie store, I believe your additional / supplemental content (hopefully a blog) should focus on addressing topics relevant to why your customers buy your wares, not on the items of clothing themselves.

If I were running a lingerie store, I'd have a blog associated with it that had a number of major topics: how to create a romantic evening, how to be/get your partner uninhibited, how to unplug your cellphone (only partially kidding on that one), dating dos and don'ts, lingerie styles to flatter any figure, how to be seductive, and even more pedestrian topics like finding the perfect bra fit, whether thongs are comfortable, why a merry widow is called a merry widow, and so on. I could also see you having a funny gift giving story of the week where you invite visitors to submit their best - or worst - experiences giving lingerie as a gift and offer up a gift certificate to each winner.

I think the key would be to keep it fun, light and amusing. Not sleazy, not tacky, not about sex, per se, but rather about the wacky, crazy and goofy things men and women do to try and find - and keep - that special someone.

Really, there are lots of potential topics for articles and/or blog entries once you think about the world and shared interests of lingerie shoppers rather than just the lingerie itself. Perhaps our readers will offer up some of their own suggestions here too [keep it clean, lads!]

Good luck with your store!