Generating Sales Leads from Your Blog

Patrick McFadden • January 14, 2014

After meeting with me, a number of people and organizations have told me they intend to start their own business blog. Several have called me and written to me, asking how to generate sales leads from their blog. So, rather than continuing to repeat myself, I will outline the process here. It’s actually easier than you may think.

The truth is, here’s this free powerful tool that the public is saying, “if you write something worth reading, I will read it.”

What more can you ever hope for as a business or individual, than having the privilege of people choosing to read what you have to say?

Blogs can be used to generate profits for nearly any kind of business, including those that provide real services in the offline world.

This often means generating sales leads for a service or consulting business. This is how I use my marketing business blog, which accounts for most of the new clients who call me these days.

Okay, sounds awesome. People read your blog and then call to hire you, right?

Well, not quite.

Which are you selling? A product or a service.

The distinction between the two is critically important and whatever you do, don’t mix em up!

When you’re selling a product, the process is straightforward. You offer the product, explain the benefits, make a CTA (call-to-action), and people make a buying decision.

When you’re selling a service the process is a little more involved. Prospects first inquire about the service, (not everyone is ready to become a customer the moment they first land on your website) usually comparing you with other providers. If the service is expensive, people are even more careful about their decision.

I’ve had clients take months or even years before they finally made the decision to hire me. It’s common for people to start a phone call or email by saying, “I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while now. Do you have a moment to talk about a marketing project?”

So if you provide a service, such as freelance writing, HVAC, social media marketing, graphic design, coaching or consulting, wedding photography, event planning, translation, or whatever, you can use your blog to attract prospects and begin the process of selling them on your services.

Here’s how.

The Unrivaled Guide to Generating Sales Leads from Your Blog

Start By Creating Your Online Sales Funnel

Pro sales people often talk about filling their “sales funnel.”

Perhaps a first-time visitor who found your site via a blog post isn’t ready to contact you, but would be ready and willing to register to download a bigger piece of content, such as a newsletter, or special report or PDF guide. Then some gentle email marketing can convince them to attend a teleseminar, where they have an opportunity to experience your company’s subject matter expertise to the point where they’re convinced that you can help them. That funnel, blog reader -> downloader, -> email subscriber -> teleseminar attendee -> lead/customer, is a lot longer than “Contact Us NOW!” but a heck of a lot more effective.

To keep things simple, I like to think of the sales funnel as having just 4 simple steps.

#1. Generate Inquiries

This means getting people to raise their hand, to contact you. Typically this is done by offering something of value in exchange for contact information.

For my business, I offer a  free newsletter  and I also offer a  free eBook.  For both, the newsletter and eBook, they have to give me some contact information before they get the freebie delivered straight to their inbox. I also provide a Contact page with my email address for “hot” leads who are ready to talk business.

#2. Follow Up

After you’ve delivered the freebie or provided whatever information you have promised, it’s time to schedule your follow-up , usually either by email or phone.

Because you are responding to someone’s inquiry, it’s a warm contact not cold. You have a valid reason for touching that person and have an opportunity to qualify that person. Are they just gathering information? Do they need your services immediately? Or are they somewhere in between?

Note: The most serious are your sales leads. Everyone else is a prospect. Commit more time and resources on sales leads than prospects.

#3. Court and Nurture Leads

This is the step most people are tempted to skip because courtship is a process. But armed with this insight, you can transform them into customers.

Like every other business selling a service, you want to make a right away sale. But while a few people will hire you immediately, most will not. So you must  give them time, give them information, and give them attention. 

You should store all contact information in a database, which could be a simple customer relationship management system like excel or a CRM tool.

Regularly communicate with your leads. Over time, you’ll develop that like, know and trust factor where they’ll be more comfortable with the idea of hiring you. People always prefer the friends over the strangers.

There are many ways to nurture leads. You can send news or information they might be interested in, make additional offers for low-cost or introductory services, connect with them socially, and even seek their advice from time to time.

#4. Close Sales

As my friend, Sales Coach  Thomas Ellis would say, “Nail the deal done shut. Deal Done!” You provide a quote or estimate, answer questions, overcome objections, and eventually close the sale.

This is your end goal, to move your service at a profit.  And if you’ve set up a good lead generation system and kept your sales funnel consistently full, it will actually be the easiest step in the process.

Deal Done!

Questions: What questions do you have about business blogging? What else would you recommend?

About the Company:     Indispensable Marketing , a strategic marketing consulting company helps  small to midsize businesses develop  a solid marketing foundation to generate more leads and close more sales. 

The Missing Layer in AI: Why Judgment, Not Just Data, Will Define the Next Era of Intelligence

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Everyone is scaling outputs. Almost no one is scaling judgment.

Everyone Talks About AI Judgment. We Built It.

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Ask anyone in tech where AI is headed, and they’ll tell you: “The next leap is reasoning.” “AI needs judgment.” “We need assistants that think, not just answer.” They’re right. But while everyone’s talking about it, almost no one is actually shipping it. So we did. We built Thinking OS™ —a system that doesn’t just help AI answer questions… It helps AI think like a strategist. It helps AI decide like an operator. It helps teams and platforms scale judgment, n ot just generate output. The Theory Isn’t New. The Implementation Is. The idea of layering strategic thinking and judgment into AI isn’t new in theory. The problem is, no one’s been able to implement it effectively at scale. Let’s look at the current landscape. 1. Big Tech Has the Muscle—But Not the Mind OpenAI / ChatGPT ✅ Strength: Best-in-class language generation ❌ Limitation: No built-in judgment or reasoning. You must provide the structure. Otherwise, it follows instructions, not strategy. Google DeepMind / Gemini ✅ Known for advanced decision-making (e.g., AlphaGo) ❌ But only in structured environments like games—not messy, real-world business scenarios. Anthropic (Claude), Meta (LLaMA), Microsoft Copilot ✅ Great at answering questions and following commands ❌ But they’re assistants, not advisors. They won’t reprioritize. They won’t challenge your assumptions. They don’t ask: “Is this the right move?” These tools are powerful—but they don’t think for outcomes the way a strategist or operator would. 2. Who’s Actually Building the Thinking Layer™? This is where it gets interesting—and thin. Startups and Indie Builders Some small teams are quietly: Creating custom GPTs that mimic how experts reason Layering in business context, priorities, and tradeoffs Embedding decision logic so AI can guide, not just execute But these efforts are: Highly manual Difficult to scale Fragmented and experimental Enterprise Experiments A few companies (Salesforce, HubSpot, and others) are exploring more “judgment-aware” AI copilots. These systems can: Flag inconsistencies Recommend next actions Occasionally surface priorities based on internal logic But most of it is still: In early R&D Custom-coded Unproven beyond narrow use cases That’s Why Thinking OS™ Is Different Instead of waiting for a lab to crack it, we built a modular thinking system that installs like infrastructure. Thinking OS™: Captures how real experts reason Embeds judgment into layers AI can use Deploys into tools like ChatGPT or enterprise systems Helps teams think together, consistently, at scale It’s not another assistant. It’s the missing layer that turns outputs into outcomes. So… Is This a New Innovation? Yes—in practice. Everyone says AI needs judgment. But judgment isn’t an idea. It’s a system. It requires: Persistent memory Contextual awareness Tradeoff evaluation Value-based decisions Strategy that evolves with goals Thinking OS™ delivers that. And unlike the R&D experiments in Big Tech, it’s built for: Operators Consultants Platform founders Growth-stage teams that need to scale decision quality, not just content creation If Someone Told You They’ve Built a Thinking + Judgment Layer™… They’ve built something only a handful of people in the world are even attempting. Because this isn’t just AI that speaks fluently. It’s AI that reasons, reflects , and chooses. And in a world that’s drowning in tools, judgment becomes the differentiator. That’s the OS We Built Thinking OS™ is not a prompt pack. It’s not a dashboard. It’s not a glorified chatbot. It’s a decision architecture you can license, embed, or deploy— To help your team, your platform, or your clients think better at scale. We’ve moved past content. We’re building cognition. Let’s talk.

We Found the Missing Layer AI Has Been Waiting For

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
In every era of innovation, there’s a silent bottleneck—something obvious in hindsight, but elusive until the moment it clicks. In today’s AI-driven world, that bottleneck is clear: AI has speed. It has scale. But it doesn’t have judgment . It doesn’t really think . What’s Actually Missing From AI? When experts talk about the “thinking and judgment layer” as the next leap for AI, they’re calling out a hard truth: Modern AI systems are powerful pattern machines. But they’re missing the human layer—the one that reasons, weighs tradeoffs, and makes strategic decisions in context. Let’s break that down: 1. The Thinking Layer = Reasoning with Purpose This layer doesn’t just process inputs— it structures logic. It’s the ability to: Ask the right questions before acting Break down complexity into solvable parts Adjust direction mid-course when reality changes Think beyond “what was asked” to uncover “what really matters” Today’s AI responds. But it rarely reflects. Unless told exactly what to do, it won’t work through problems the way a strategist or operator would. 2. The Judgment Layer = Decision-Making in the Gray Judgment is the ability to: Prioritize what matters most Choose between imperfect options Make decisions when there’s no clear answer Apply values, experience, and vision—not just data It’s why a founder might not pursue a lucrative deal. Why a marketer might ignore the click-through rate. Why a strategist knows when the timing isn’t right. AI doesn’t do this well. Not yet. Because judgment requires more than data—it requires discernment . Why This Is the Bottleneck Holding Back AI AI can write. It can summarize. It can automate. But it still can’t: Diagnose the real problem behind the question Evaluate tradeoffs like a founder or operator would Recommend a path based on context, constraints, and conviction AI today is still reactive. It follows instructions. But it doesn’t lead. It doesn’t guide. It doesn’t own the outcome. And for those building serious systems—whether you’re running a company, launching a platform, or leading a team—this is the wall you eventually hit. That’s Why We Built Thinking OS™ We stopped waiting for AI to learn judgment on its own. Instead, we created a system that embeds it—by design. Thinking OS™ is an installable decision layer that captures how top founders, strategists, and operators think… …and makes that thinking repeatable , scalable , and usable inside teams, tools, and platforms. It’s not a framework. It’s not a chatbot. It’s not another playbook. It’s the layer that knows how to: Think through complex decisions Apply judgment when rules don’t help Guide others —human or AI—toward strategic outcomes This Is the Missing Infrastructure Thinking OS™ isn’t just about better answers. It’s about better thinking—made operational. And that’s what’s been missing in AI, consulting, leadership development, and platform design. If you’re trying to scale expertise, install judgment, or move from tactical to strategic… You don’t need a faster AI. You need a thinking layer that knows what to do—and why. We built it. Let’s talk.
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