The Best Ways to Get the Traffic and Links You Crave

Patrick McFadden • December 12, 2013

Recently, small business owners asked for my advice on getting traffic to their website.

  • What’s the easiest way to get more traffic?
  • Can you recommend the most efficient way to draw traffic to my new website?
  • I’m fairly new and still learning. Could you help me with attracting more traffic?
  • How do I bring traffic to my site?

So much, that at times I wonder if the Internet turned us all into traffic junkies.

At this point, if you’re asking about driving traffic to your website, you pretty much know that people NEED a reason to visit and keep returning to your site.

Which means you must produce relevant and valuable content.  You must be “the best answer” in a world of abundant answers. And you must become a trusted informational provider.

Of course, creating the content and acquiring this position is only half the battle. The other half is distributing.

In order for your content to rank in the search engines and generate the kind of traffic you crave, it has to be found, shared, linked to and liked by lots of people. Smart marketers, know very well that if you have three hours to spend on content, you should spend two hours, promoting and driving traffic to it.

Here are the best ways I recommend to get the traffic and links you crave.

1. Build in  Virality.  Add social media share buttons to your content. Make it easy to spread. Your content is like riders and they need a horse to go somewhere and interact with the outside world. So, if you have compelling content, but you can’t find a way to connect it to a medium to travel, nothing happens, and there’s no activity.

2. Use Popular Permission Channels.  Take the time to promote and create buzz around your post in Google+, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn with a nice image to help attract eye balls.It’s also helpful to take the time to write a blurb about why someone might want to read your content.

There are no traffic jams when you go the extra mile. ~ Zig Ziglar

3. Anticipated, Personal and Relevant.  Don’t forget to let your email list know about your latest and greatest article. Develop a monthly newsletter to point out the post and invite offline readers to come online and read and share. Make sure your email is sharable and ask your readers to send it to a friend.

4. Use Ads.  Buying social media ads do work. But most of us have more time than we do money, making the whole idea of paying for traffic unpalatable. However, If you would like to use ad I suggest clicking here.

5. Guest Blog Posting. I’m a huge fan of guest blogging. In my opinion, it’s the most effective online marketing strategy there is, assuming you do it correctly. The  great thing about guest blog posting is that you get introduced to a whole new audience, which means a whole new amount of wallets, not to mention that content last forever.

6. Fusion marketing.  Embrace not the concept of competition, but the beauty and advantage of cooperation.   You should be or have had built a network of strategic partners.

Fusion marketing is you saying, “Hey Patrick, if you create an article on “How Life Coaches Can Get More Customers in Half the Time” for my website.  I’ll link provide a link back to your site and promote it through my media channels.”

Thanks to DeKesha Williams Business Strategist at Vizions Consulting for spreading her wisdom. I found out, you can also build a social sharing network in places like  Triberr.

7. Allow Your Network, to Become Your Net-Worth.  Reach out to other bloggers or people in your industry by way of sharing and commenting on their content. Remember that online influencers are people just like you are. Networking is 98% about being a nice person and having good manners.

Make it a habit to let generosity be your guide.

8. The Headline Business.  Sometimes I think we all forget what business we are in.  Headlines are everything in ads, social media profiles, newspapers, magazines, telemarketing calls, direct mail letters, websites, sales presentations, commercials and on blogs.

Whatever you do though, don’t make the mistake of thinking your headlines are irrelevant. In my opinion, getting better at writing headlines is the single most important action you can take to go further, faster and to skyrocket your traffic.

But Don’t Take My Word For It

Test it.

Spend focused, uninterrupted blocks of time promoting and amplifying at least one piece of content each month and let me know your results.

Question: What advice do you have for getting traffic to your website?

About the Author:  Patrick McFadden is a  marketing consultant  that helps SMBs navigate the most effective ways to attract and keep customers. He is also an advisor and featured marketing contributor to  American Express Open Forum  and has been named a marketing thought leader for small businesses.

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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