Call it the preference test. Call it the blind taste test. Or even call it what many in Internet marketing call it today: A/B testing. Whatever the term, it’s one of the oldest ways in which organizations determine what their customers prefer.

The concept is simple: You put two or more variations of a product in front of a customer, and they decide which one they like better. For Web sites, the concept is similar: Present two versions of the same page to users and determine which layout is more effective (i.e. better user experience, lower bounce rate, higher conversion rate, etc.)

So, for the first time since the TOG Solutions site went up, we’re adding this to our ongoing effort to improve our site to allow you to better understand our services and how we can best benefit you either as an individual or as an organization.

Ideally, this new project will help everyone; you, the customer, will have a better overall experience and will be interested in working with us.

At the very least, it’ll be just one more Internet marketing concept we’ve learned, and perhaps can use it in the future.

That, of course, makes it a win-win either way.

If you wish to see what we’re trying to do, please visit both our current site:

http://www.togsolutions.com/index.html

And our updated site:

http://www.togsolutions.com/index-2.php

Over the years, I’ve fielded countless phone calls about our services. Until the recent phone number changeover, I always answered with my name. And nine times out of 10, this response followed my greeting:

“Yes, is this Tog Solutions?”

OK, the confusion is totally understandable. We really don’t have an explanation of the reasoning behind the TOG Solutions name, nor have we mentioned that TOG is the acronym T.O.G., instead of Tog.

At least until now.

The T.O.G. in TOG Solutions is Teed Off Guy.

Yes, now you see why it’s abbreviated.

But, there’s a story behind that as well. The Teed Off in Teed Off is actually the sports column I wrote many years ago when a part of Cleveland State’s student newspaper, the Cauldron. And since there are about 100 different Bob McDonalds (including my father) and to cut down the confusion with other, more prominent companies with McDonald in the name (self-explanatory), I used the Teed Off Guy moniker, shortened it up to TOG, for the sake of the other people (if any) who would be working with me.

In the future, I’ll be more forthcoming with why I do what I do. It seems to make better business sense…

In the spirit of starting fresh, February 2, 2009 marks the day of a change to TOG Solutions…

First, the TOG Blog is born, replacing the Crossroads Career Transition Guide blog will no longer be in service. Now, we will also include news and information about TOG Solutions, along with related articles about topics that are relevant to all the services we have to offer.

And there’s more. For years, the TOG Solutions site has been relatively faceless. That all changes with the About Us page, with brief profiles of myself and Jessica. We feel that it’s important to know something about the people you’re working with, as opposed to looking at an arbritrary Web site that could have been done anywhere.

Finally, we’re offer something new and completely FREE to all visitors to TOG Solutions, The Statement, a monthly newsletters with featured articles, offers and other great information! All you need is a valid e-mail address, and you’re all set!

As always, thank you for visting TOG Solutions, and we hope that we can be of assistance!