Techjournal

Are you a baseball fan? If so, you should think about spending a lot of time on the official site of Major League Baseball located at MLB.com. From the homepage you will be in heaven. Simply put, this site is all about Major League Baseball – nothing else.

From the moment you navigate to MLB.com you will be able to easily find everything you are looking for. A good portion of this page is filled with an image that is attached to one of six feature stories. With an image slideshow you can sit back and see exactly what is hot in the world of Major League Baseball. On the left sidebar, at the very top of the homepage, you will find a schedule for all the day’s action. This is perfect placement because most people don’t want to look hard to find when their favorite team is playing.

On the right sidebar, also at the top, the latest headlines are listed. Along with the features listed in the slideshow, these headlines are based around the top news stories of the day. MLB.com gives you the ability to easily customize the headlines so only news for your favorite team shows up.

Of course, the homepage is just a start. If you want to dive deeper into MLB.com you should consider clicking on one of the top navigation links. They include: Team Sites, Scoreboard, Standings, Stats, Schedule, Players, News, Audio and Video, Fantasy, Tickets, Shop, Mobile, Auction, and More. As you can see, there is so much information on MLB.com that it would take you many hours to get through it all. As you click on one link, such as Team Sites, you realize soon enough that hundreds of more pages of content and images are now available. The deeper you dig the more you find!

Are you interested in premium information and even more excitement? If so, register for your own MLB.com account. This is easy to do and free of cost. All you have to do is fill out the registration form, located at the very top of any page on MLB.com, and you will be well on your way.

For true baseball fans there are no sites better than MLB.com.

What is it about MyPyramid.gov that has made this site so popular? For one, it is an official site managed by the United States Department of Agriculture. This alone gives it plenty of credibility. Of course, this is far from the only benefit.

According to the website, it has two primary objectives:

• Advance and promote dietary guidance for all Americans
• Conduct applied research and analyses in nutrition and consumer economics

Once you take a closer look at MyPyramid.gov you will probably agree that these objectives, as well as many others, have been met and exceeded.

On the homepage you will find the latest spotlights. Some of them include: Inside the Pyramid, MyPyramid for Kids, MyPyramid for Moms, MyPyramid Menu Planner, Rate What you Ate, Podcasts, 2010 Dietary Guidelines, PSAs, and MyPyramid Tracker.

At the top of the homepage you will find categories for: About Us, News and Media, Site Help, Online Ordering, and Contact Us.

The information you probably want is located on the left sidebar. The subjects include: MyPyramid Basics, Interactive Tools, Multimedia, Specific Audiences, For Professional Use, Steps to a Healthier Weight, and Dietary Guidelines.

Its simple layout, never overdone with too many graphics or flash, makes it simple to navigate from one section to the next.

When it comes to MyPyramid.gov one thing is for sure: there is always plenty of information to be bad. With hundreds of pages of content you can easily spend hours on end perusing this site and increasing your knowledge base. To go along with this, there are many interactive tools that makes using MyPyramid.gov a lot of fun. For instance, with MyFoodapedia you can find the calories and food group for any type of food. Don’t like to read? No problem. Listen to one of the many podcasts that are available.

If you are interested in your health, more specifically your diet, you can greatly benefit from MyPyramid.gov. No matter what type of information or advice you are looking for, MyPyramid.gov can give it to you.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Website

Ghiradelli Chocolate: Moments of Timeless Pleasure. This is the first statement you see when you visit the Ghiradelli website. Even though this is just the beginning it gives you an idea of what you are about to experience.

Despite a simple design, the homepage has everything a visitor could possibly want. There is absolutely no clutter even though there is a lot of information included. On the top navigation you will find links for: Shop Now, Our Products, Bake With Us, Chocopedia, and Savor Chocolate.

As you scroll down the page, Ghiradelli does a great job of showing you what is hot. On the far left a feature item is listed with an image and a short description. Right now they are featuring their Luxe Milk line. At the end of the description a link is included that offers a $1 off coupon. This is a good move as it is sure to increase the click through rate.

Moving to the right, there are three more boxes. The first one is a recipe, the second a limited time promotion, and the third another link to the online store. Special features, those that are of interest to a large number of visitors, are located at the bottom of the homepage.

If you cannot tell by now, Ghiradelli has put a lot of time into making sure that visitors can find and buy exactly what they are looking for. When you click through to the online store another page opens. At this point you will see just how many products Ghiradelli has to offer. With the ability to shop by occasion, category, or price, you can easily find what you are looking for. New products, as well as popular promotions, are prominently displayed and are sure to catch your eye. For those who don’t know what to buy, a Top Sellers link will give you plenty of good ideas.

From the moment you visit the Ghiradelli website visions of chocolate will be racing through your mind. A clean design, both on the homepage and shopping site, make it easy to find exactly what you are looking for.

When you think of CoverGirl ads, images of young, vibrant women probably come to mind. Would you be surprised to hear that Ellen DeGeneres has joined the company as one of their newest models? Even though Ellen does not fit the prototypical look of a CoverGirl the company feels that she will do a great job. And to this point they have been 100 percent correct. According to the CoverGirl website, Ellen is the “face of new Simply Ageless Foundation.” It does not make sense for CoverGirl to target the older generation with young models. For this reason, they decided to bring in Ellen, a well aging older woman, to do the job. This also works in the companies favor because Ellen is such a big star – thanks in large part to her television talk show.

The Ellen – CoverGirl campaign rolled out in January 2009, and is still going strong. After such a good start promoting Simply Ageless Foundation, don’t be surprised if she sticks around for future ad spots.

Don’t think Ellen is the modeling type? Well, she had this to say after her first photo shoot: “It’s a very cool thing I’m honored and the photo shoot was ‘easy, breezy, beautiful CoverGirl.” Even though she was simply making a joke, in typical Ellen fashion, her natural talent showed through and allowed her to easily transition into this new phase of her career. Nobody would have ever thought that Ellen and CoverGirl would team up. These jobs are usually for younger professionals with modeling experience such as Tyra Banks, Brandy, and Faith Hill. Fortunately, the company was looking for somebody who could sell their Simply Ageless line, and they found the perfect fit in Ellen DeGeneres.

Disney is famous for catering to children from one side of the world to the next. Now, thanks to Club Penguin, the same children who love the theme parks can stay involved online.

What is Club Penguin? It is a virtual world in which children take on the role of a penguin and have the ability to

interact with friends, play games, learn about the newest products from Disney, and much more.

You do not have to be a genius to get involved with Club Penguin. But if you are not a child you may find the experience to be a bit dull. The first step in getting started is creating a penguin. In the virtual world, you control your penguin and do everything from chat with others, send greeting cards, take part in special events, play with pets, and much more. With new content added on a regular basis it is safe to say that there is always something exciting to take part in.

How old are those who use Club Penguin?

Generally speaking, Club Penguin is best for children in the 6 – 14 age range. That being said, it is available to children and adults of all ages.

Many people are under the impression that Club Penguin costs a lot of money – nothing could be further from the truth. Disney created this virtual world to be free to anybody with an internet connection.

There is a paid membership that gives access to exclusive content and events. Membership levels include: $5.95/month, $29.95/6 months, and $57.95/12 months.

The Advantages of Club Penguin

While Club Penguin is a great place for children to have fun and interact with others, they can learn a lot along the way as well. In other words, this is not just another game. Disney took a lot of time to ensure that users can have fun with Club Penguin, but that they also collect knowledge along the way.

As a parent, you have your own section on Club Penguin. It allows you to learn more about online safety, while also setting play hours and daily limits. In other words, you are never out of the loop after your child becomes a member of Club Penguin.

Disney’s Club Penguin is popular among children of all ages, from all over the world.

It did not take the SeaWorld communications department long to realize that they could capitalize on the success of Twitter. Not only did they jump into this head first, they did so in a creative way: by using the Twitter name @Shamu as opposed to something generic. This choice has gone a long way in drawing in thousands of followers, and giving the company a gimmick to rely on when taking advantage of Twitter and all its capabilities.

The Shamu Twitter bio says it all: I live at SeaWorld. I’m a large, athletic, black and white marine mammal. I’m not THE star of SeaWorld, I’m A star of SeaWorld. With approximately 6,200 followers and growing by the day, the SeaWorld communications team is off to a great start. This is particularly true since they only started using Twitter in June 2009.

A quick look at the Shamu Twitter account shows that updates are regular. In fact, a rough estimate shows that they send out Tweets five to ten times per day. This alone shows devotion to the service, and all but ensures that SeaWorld has been having some success with this marketing strategy.

Believe it or not, the support team for the @Shamu account has its own Twitter account – @teamshamu. Even though this account only has 200 or so followers, it is still a great way for the company to stay involved with fans, those who want to learn more about SeaWorld, etc.

The updates on the main account, @Shamu, are far from complex. After all, they are supposed to be written by a mammal. That being said, Tweets range from cool pictures to SeaWorld giveaways and much more. If you want to stay up to date with the latest out of SeaWorld, make sure you follow all of the @Shamu updates.

SeaWorld is definitely on the right track. Many companies, especially those in the entertainment industry, are using Twitter to attract customers and build an online presence. By tapping into the global popularity of Shamu, SeaWorld has taken full advantage of Twitter.

Cirque du Soleil was founded in 1984, and began to expand rapidly after the turn of the century. A lot of their recent success has to do with the company’s web presence. Just like many other organizations in the entertainment industry, Cirque du Soleil has successfully used the internet to keep fans up to date with the latest news, shows, and much more.

The number one way that Cirque du Soleil uses the internet is through their website at www. CirqueduSoleil.com. From the home page you have the ability to choose your location: Americas, Europe, Oceania, and Asia and Middle East. Those who think that Cirque du Soleil is only based in Las Vega are sadly mistaken. They host shows all over the world throughout the year.

Once you click your location you are taken to a page that offers information on tickets, jobs, how to join the Cirque Club and other important facts and tips. There is even video that gives you an inside look at the unique culture of Cirque du Soleil.

Of course, their website is not the end all. Cirque du Soleil also extensively uses their Twitter account, @cirqueLasVegas. With more than 5k followers and growing, Twitter is a great way for the company to stay in touch with fans, to announce new shows, and to push traffic towards their website.

Cirque du Soleil even has a page on MySpace that gives fans and friends the ability to watch video clips, listen to their latest sounds, and connect with the company. With nearly 40k friends, you can only imagine how many page views the Cirque du Soleil MySpace page receives on a daily basis.

In the early years of Cirque du Soleil the internet was not around. Over the past five years things have changed quite a bit, and the company is now growing faster than ever thanks to the power of online marketing and communication.

Are you interested in keeping up with all the top celebrities? If so, you don’t have to look any further than celebrity gossip blogs. While there are hundreds of these to read, a few stand head and shoulders above the competition thanks to their images, content, layout, and overall style.

So which celebrity gossip blogs are the leaders of the pack?

• Perez Hilton. If you don’t know who Perez Hilton is you must be living under a rock. Hilton is the king of celebrity gossip, and probably will be for many years to come. There are several reasons why his blog has catapulted to the top. For one, he posts all the top stories and images. If something is going on with a famous (or not so famous) celebrity he will find out about it. To go along with this, Hilton updates his blog many times throughout the day. Once again, this goes a long way in ensuring that not one story is overlooked.
• TMZ. This site has more of a “professional” look and feel when compared to others, such as Perez Hilton. It is safe to say that TMZ is half celebrity gossip, half celebrity news. Just like all the others, they take great pride in their attempt to break the latest and greatest stories in the celebrity world. Thanks to their popular television show, TMZ has been growing exponentially over the past few months.
• Dlisted. If you are looking for celebrity gossip that gets to the point without all the fluff, you should start visiting Dlisted on a daily basis. What makes this blog different? For one, the layout is simple and uncluttered. For those of you who like to read celebrity news without having to search around for all the best information, Dlisted is the perfect choice. Dlisted also covers more celebrities than many of the other blogs in this niche. IF you enjoy reading about “D-List” celebs as much as the stars, you will find a lot of use out of this blog.

Starbucks serves the best coffee in the world, right? Well, to hear a lot of people talk this is the truth. But if you head to the site dunkinbeatstarbucks.com you will learn that these past opinions may not be 100 percent accurate. The home page says it all: In a recent national blind taste test, more Americans preferred the taste of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee over Starbucks. As you can imagine, the results of this test surprised millions of people.

This website was put together by the people at Dunkin’ Donuts to show the world that their coffee can not only compete with Starbucks, but that many people believe it is better. This is a great marketing ploy for a company that has been losing a lot of the market share to Starbucks over the past few years.

There are two main links from the home page that show you more about the test. When you click on “Spread the Truth” you are taken to a page that allows you to send an ecard to anybody who may be interested in the test taste. This move was well thought out. It allows those who are interested in Dunkin’ Donuts to spread a viral message about the contest and its results. In other words – free marketing!

The other main link is “Learn the Truth.” This link is simple, but full of information. It consists of a six block slideshow that shows why Dunkin’ Donuts is the place to go for coffee. The titles of the slides include: Why do People Love Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee, Let us Spill the Beans, Roasted to Perfection, From the Grounds Up, Fresher than Fresh, and A Free Smile with Every Cup. These six slides will tell you everything you need to know about how Dunkin’ Donuts makes great coffee and why you should drink it.

There is no denying that dunkinbeatstarbucks.com, along with its similarly themed commercial, is a great marketing strategy for Dunkin’ Donuts. The company is sure to recover some of its business as the results of the blind taste test continue to circulate.

Everybody likes to go to the movies. That being said, not everybody likes to stand in long lines or find out that the show they want to see is sold out. This is where a service such as Fandango comes into play. Fandango gives you the chance to buy movie tickets in advance via the internet. To go along with this, the site also offers useful information such as show times, reviews, trailers, top choices, and much more.

But I am never at my computer? This is why Fandango has come up with a mobile version of their website. If you have a smart phone of any kind, you can head to mobile.fandango.com to find show times, read reviews on available movies, and buy tickets. For many people, this is heaven sent. Even if you will be arriving at the theater on time, it is always a good idea to order your tickets in advance to ensure that you get what you want.

What about the Fandango iPhone app? Since its launch on March 13, 2009, the app has been downloaded more than 1.3 million times. This success has placed it in the Top 25 of the free entertainment application category since day one. At times, it has even been the top selling app in the category. Thanks to enormous amounts of fan support, Fandango has decided to release an updated app that offers users the ability to access their online account from their iPhone or iPod Touch.

Rick Butler, Chief Operating Officer of Fandango said, “With so many highly anticipated films out this summer, we expect downloads to continue at a very brisk pace.”

Fandango is one of the web’s top entertainment outlets for information on movies including reviews, trailers, and commentary, while also offering the ability to purchase advanced tickets. The company has done a great job in transitioning into other areas by offering a mobile version of its site, as well as an iPhone app. As mobile technology continues to advance, you can be rest assured that Fandango will be following closely behind.