• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, February 15, 2006

Sports Illustrated Tuesday launched a site dedicated to its swimsuit issue, at SI.com/Swimsuit. Beyond the standard excess of glowing skin and siren gazes, the site is loaded with enough sponsor partnerships to rival its print partner.

Budweiser, Coca-Cola's Vault--a "hybrid energy soda"--and DaimlerChrysler's Dodge brand of trucks are just a few of the site's sponsors. Visitors have the option to either watch a selection of some 40 swimsuit model videos for free with Honda Civic pre-roll ads, or purchase the video from Apple's iTunes music store for $1.99 apiece, or $8.99 for the entire video package.

Visitors also can watch and download a Kid Rock music video, which was produced to a live version of his new single, "Rock 'N Roll Pain Train," and features footage of SI's swimsuit models during the making of the 2006 issue. Viewers can also click to buy Kid Rock's new album directly on Amazon.com.

"We're expecting more than 50 million page views the first week just to that section," SI.com Managing Editor Paul Fichtenbaum said in a statement regarding the site's some 500 photos.

The site also drives viewers to additional video at Spike.com, the online extension of the lad-centric cable network.

Instant messaging "emoticons" are free, but cell phone wallpaper images cost $2 per download.

Additionally, Planters is hosting a section where visitors are asked to vote on their favorite SI swimsuit model photo of all time.

The site also carries Yahoo Search Marketing contextual ads.