Cassie DeNisco

New Posts Weekly

My 2023 New Year’s Resolution!!

I can hardly believe another year has passed and I’m writing out new year’s resolution! It’s crazy how quickly the years go by and how fast we get to the next one. This year I wanted to share my new year’s resolution in a different way.

Instead of picking multiple things, I just wanted to choose a word that everything falls under. I started this last year with the word wellness and I truly think I got to live that word out. This year I’m doing the same because I feel like sometimes resolutions can be too limiting and put too much pressure on yourselves.

Patience

new year's resolutions

Now people always say patience is a virtue but I feel like a lot of my anxiety comes from jumping to the next thing or next worry. I want to really slow down in 2023 and try to get everything back in check. 


In the times we live in we can really just feel out of control a lot. Life flies by us and if we’re not moving as fast as everyone we feel like we’re missing out or not doing something right. For me, I want to try to break this habit next year.

A slower lifestyle and mindset doesn’t put me behind others, if anything it’ll set me up for success because I’ll be able to make decisions based on thinking things through. I want to be so intentional with my time so I think having patience will help with that.

One other aspect of patience is with purchases. We live in a world where it’s so easy to order exactly what we want and have it delivered right away. Financially, you can only do that for so long so I just know being patient and thinking through purchases on clothes and other non-necessities will boost my finances as well.

As you can see, choosing one word that encompasses your mood instead of a resolution changes your mindset. I never followed through on resolutions because they always felt like too many unattainable goals. With choosing a word to live by, you can find it in all areas of your life and mold it to how you’re feeling.

If you have a word for 2023, share it down below! I love hearing how other people approach the new year with their mindsets. You can read more resolutions posts here! And don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest here!

A Productive Work Day in My Life

Last year I shared a day in my life as a blogger, but this year things are very different for me! I now am a freelance social media consultant so not only do I have my own social media platforms, I also do a lot for other people. I thought it would be fun to share what a day in my life currently looks like and maybe share a few tips along the way on blogging and free lancing!

My Day

7:30-9am

productive work day

This time frame isn’t work related but I swear it’s what helps me start off on the right foot. I wake up around 7:30 and get Sky going for the day. If you have a Frenchie, then you know they literally love to sleep and she would sleep all day if I let her. This time period is essential for me to get myself ready for the day with skincare and maybe even a change in outfit if I’m feeling it. I also make my iced chai or iced oatmilk latte and am always at my desk my 9am.

9-9:10am

The first 10 minutes of my day are dedicated to emails. I’ll check them when I first get up but won’t reply until this time. I also like to make sure my planner is set and ready for the day. I love filling out this Doing Well Daily planner and then get in the right mindset for the day.

9:10-11am

This chunk of time is where the bulk of my work is. Depending on the day, I’m either writing and scheduling a blog post for myself or working on projects for clients. I shared a few weeks about how I plan and create my blog posts, but for client projects it’s usually working on their website, or getting together images and other media for a campaign. One other thing I recently started doing first thing is making sure I’m posting a IG or FB post or story first thing. I find that even if I’m not posting at the right time, it just helps with engagement and visibility. I try to post at least one thing per client first thing in the morning.

One question that I often get asked is how do I charge clients for work. It really depends. For somethings it would be a flat rate, like building a website but the day to day content posting and interacting is generally hourly. As many of you know I also am a dance teacher so this work that I do is usually part time as well. I like getting most of my bigger things done in this time period so I have enough time to get everything done in the day.

11-12:30pm

This is probably Sky’s favorite part of the day. We go for a walk and I workout, two things she absolutely loves. My workouts are usually a Melissa Wood Health video and maybe an arm circuit with dum bells. Sky is notorious for trying to workout with me, whether she’s doing her yoga stretches or trying to catch my feet, she loves MWH workouts as much as I do.

I also take the time to have lunch during this time. If you noticed, I don’t usually have breakfast so lunch is always my first meal of the day. Generally I have a salad, sandwich, or whatever leftovers we have from the night before. I can’t stand having to make a whole meal at lunch time when I just want to eat quick and get back into the day.

12:30- 3pm

This is usually the last chunk of time in my productive work day. I usually would leave for the dance studio shortly after this so that’s why 3 is usually the end of my day. I like to do my lighter tasks after lunch. I’m usually starting to hit the mid day slump so I make sure my work is lighter.

My favorite after lunch thing to do is work on content. Whether it’s the IG stories I post or my Pinterest pin images, I love this time of day. I use Canva to create my content like that and for my clients as well. Canva is my go to for my own content and other’s. It literally is amazing at doing so many things. Paying for the premium subscription is must for a social media manager. You can try Canva here!

Like I said, my day either ends with heading to the dance studio or taking Sky on another walk. Since I’m only doing this part time, I have a lot of flexibility with how and when I work. This is like my favorite thing because when I was interning, I know for a fact I hated being in an office 9-5.

My final productive work day tip is time blocking. As you noticed, I do everything in chunks of time. Each day is usually the same but with different tasks during that block of time. I find it makes me work harder knowing that I am only doing something for 2-3 hours at a time. It helps to keep my days less boring and me more engaged throughout the day.

I hope this productive work day gave you some tips and tricks on productivity and even social media consulting. If you’re interested on a post diving deeper into social media management let me know in the comments below!!

My Top Secret to Drive Traffic to My Blog

I get asked all the time, “cute blog but does anyone actually read it?”. People are shocked to find out yes, actually a lot of people read it, not just family or friends. I learned early on that if I wanted to make my blog a source of income I would need many, many people to read my posts. This lead to months of research trying to find anything that I could do to get traffic to my blog. Read more of my posts on blogs here.

I soon realized, driving traffic and eyes to a blog is a little different for everyone. The one thing I kept coming back to was Pinterest in my research. I could talk on and on about Pinterest and let my social media manager side really come out but for now I will stick to the basics and how I use it as a way to get people to read my posts.

Pinterest Basics

In case you don’t know, Pinterest is a social media app where you can curate boards based on different topics or categories. Pinterest is unique because it is basically a search engine. You type something in the top like you would on Google and many many pins come up. You can click on the pins, save them, or go directly to the link of the website they came from. If you’ve mastered SEO tactics, using Pinterest to create pins that will lead back to your blog should be a piece of cake for you. You can follow me on Pinterest here.

Creating Pins

Every single blog post I create has a corresponding pin. This is super important because the pin is linked to the post on my website. People who see the pin then can click on the link to my website. As you can see from these example pins, I use the same template so that when someone comes to my account there’s a bit of cohesiveness.

Another thing I like to do is post just the images from the blog post without a template. I’ve found that some people on Pinterest like more organic pins and others like the template format. Also, I’ve heard really great things about people who post videos.

The Title, Description, Link, and Alt Text are crucial for you to fill out with keywords. This is where the SEO tactics come in. I do some research by typing in some of the keywords from my blog post in Pinterest and use the ones that generate content similar to mine. I fill my description with keywords and a few hashtags relevant so that people who are searching for my kind of content find it.

Scheduling Pins

One giant tip I have for you is to only focus your energy on one or two social media platforms. For me, I focus on IG Stories and Pinterest. I find I get the most interaction from them and they get me the most link clicks. To save time, I like to use the app Tailwind where it schedules and then posts my pins for me. This is game changing because I can have 20-30 pins going up every week to boost my engagement without me having to sit and do it myself.

Tailwind also has a feature where you can just loop your old pins. This helps my content to show more often. Good analytics and posting frequently is the key to getting your pins seen and links clicked on. Good engagement rates pull your content up higher when someone searches your keywords.

Realizing how useful Pinterest is to me was something that took awhile. I really had to build up my content and post consistently but I cannot reccomend trying it. I used to think that getting traffic to my blog was going to be so difficult with low followers but literally the game changed when I started focusing on Pinterest.

Let me know if you have any questions about Pinterest or if you have any tips for driving traffic to your blog!!

How I Plan and Create Blog Posts

With having my blog for almost 2 years now, I’ve truly started to get into the flow of how to plan and create blog posts. The first word that comes to mind when I think of my early days of blogging is overwhelming. In the beginning, it definitely was hard to figure out what to do first or how to even plan a post. This system didn’t come overnight but I’m going to walk your through my process and hopefully can help you out sooner rather than later.

Step 1: Brainstorming

If you were to look at my notebook of ideas, you would think I was crazy. I literally write down any and every thought that comes to mind of a potential post or content idea. Maybe I’ll use it or maybe it will just sit in the notebook forever but I make sure to always write it down. This has helped tremendously because I have a notebook of ideas now, something I didn’t have before. I can easily look at it and get the creative juices flowing for picking a topic.

Step 2: The Topic

Sometimes I already know exactly what I plan to post. Others, I have to refer to my notebook to get an idea. I like to think of my topics in terms of categories from my site. You can see here my posts are always put into a different category. Not only does this keep my blog organized but it helps to keep my topics within my niche. If I wrote last post about beauty products, I’ll try to make sure this post is a recipe or puppy related. This helps to narrow my choices and keep you, my reader, getting fresh content each week. Let me know if you’re interested in a blog post dedicated to just blog topics in the comments below!

how to create blog posts

Step 3: The Outline

I can’t start writing unless I have an outline. This isn’t necessarily something I write out but it’s a picture in my head of how I want the post to look. If you notice, I use a similar structure for recipes but a different one for product reviews. The photos and fonts are also something I like to starting imagining during this plan and create stage. One thing I never actually do is start with an outline that already has content. I like to just be able to write so I make sure that the outline in my head is ready and then I’m ready to write.

Step 4: Actually Writing

This step is absolutely different for everyone. When I plan and create blog posts, I want to make sure I am open for my content to go in a different direction. This is why I never have a set in stone outline. I take my theme and just get to writing it and seeing where the words and content take me. Whether it’s a recipe or a in depth how to, this step is one that you have to master . It takes a bit to get into a rhythm with writing and once you find a way to be productive, you’re all set.

Step 5: Images & other Visual Content

This might be odd, but I like to write my entire post but leave sections labeled {image} or {video} so that I’m able to just write. One reason for this is so that I’m not slowed down by uploading or downloading extras. If I need to take the pictures of products, I like to do so before I even write so that I can already know what I’m talking about. Images really help to bring your words to life so taking your time on these images will make a serious difference.

Step 6: Visibility & Scheduling

Ensuring your post is visible and will drive traffic is a crucial component to blogging. Once I have a pretty final cut of the post, I will go through and make sure I’ve hit SEO points (search engine optimization) and tagged this post properly. I want to make sure posts have everything they need in order to be ranked well on places like Google. On WordPress, I have an SEO plugin that helps make my life easier. Check it out in the image below. In addition, I’ll schedule the post for a time that I’ll be able to make social posts about it.

SEO and how to SEO
Yoast SEO Plugin- WordPress

Step 7: Promotion

Once your post is entirely finished and scheduled, I like to spend time creating the promotional posts for it. For me, this means a Pinterest pin, Insta stories, and an Insta post. My blog automatically goes out to Facebook and Twitter. This is so helpful so I don’t have to worry about them. I like to use websites like Canva.com to create these. Canva makes things so easy for you if you have no graphic design background, like me. If you’re interested in trying out Canva, use my link here for free Canva credit! I highly recommend taking the time to announce your blog posts on your social media platforms. This helps to to increase your traffic and visibility!

I really hope that this post gives you at least a few tips and tricks on how to plan and create blog posts. Blogging can be really rewarding but definitely overwhelming when you are starting out. This process is one that helps me produce the best content for you guys so I was happy to share just a bit of my knowledge.

Feel free to leave me any questions you may have below and be on the look out for my next post!

Tips on Starting a Blog from a Social Media Manager

Everyone absolutely love my post about things I wish I knew before starting a blog which you can read here, so I thought I would share more tips on on starting a blog. These are tips that I have helped me to stay successful and these tips on starting a blog also help you maintain your blog for the long haul.

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Website www.cassiedenisco.com

What to Know Before Starting a Blog!

starting a blog

It’s absolutely wild to think that my first blog post ever was posted 1 year ago. I can’t believe that it’s my 1 year blog anniversary! I decided randomly one day to launch a blog and it has been the craziest year since. In honor of my first year as a blogger, I put together my list of 5 things you need to know before starting a blog.

1. Have a Plan

I started out my blog thinking I would just write some posts and upload them but I soon realized so much more goes into that. If I could give one piece of advice to a new blogger, I would absolutely say make yourself a schedule. Write on one day, take photos on another, and then plan for a day to upload and also post on social media to announce it. To gain traffic, you need take your time and a plan will help you stay on track.

2. Use Social Media

In the beginning of my blogging days, I only posted on Instagram to announce blog posts. Now, I have posts on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Pinterest as well. Social media is a great way drive traffic to your blog but utilize all of it. I focused so much on only one site that my numbers weren’t as high as they could be. Now I have over 100,000 monthly views on my Pinterest posts which drives direct traffic to my blog.

3. Invest in Your Blogging Platform

I had initially played around with Wix for hosting my blog. After just a little bit of research, I found out that even though it was somewhat cheaper, it would be hard to monetize. I then decided to pay for WordPress and I could not be happier. Not only does it help you easily monetize, but there are so many themes to choose from. I know when starting out you might want to do it on the cheaper side, but in the long run investing in your site will absolutely pay off.

4. Learn all you can about SEO

When I first started posting, I had no clue what SEO was. As I started to get further into blogging, I learned that “Search Engine Optimization” is the key to getting your blog post seen in places like Google. While you should always be creating authentic content, mixing in SEO rich phrases and terms will help you in the long run. I ended up installing a plugin that does most of the SEO work for me but since I am a Digital Audience major, I know there are plenty of online resources to teach you all about it.

5. Success Won’t Happen Over Night

After about a month or two of blogging, I hit a plateau in my viewers and site traffic. I honestly became really discouraged because I thought I was doing so well. One major thing to realize about blogging is that it does take time. You have to grow your readership and create connections. If you stay the course, you’ll be just like me, one year later with a lot of knowledge and viewers!

I hope these tips on what to know before starting a blog help you. I jumped right into blogging not knowing everything but I seriously wouldn’t have changed a thing. This was definitely a challenging year but it was so rewarding in the long run. I learned so much about building websites and website performance and loved every minute of it.

These tips on what to know before starting a blog are things that I know now would have absolutely helped me earlier on. Thank you so much for 1 year of readings my blogs and connecting with me! It has seriously been amazing writing and growing as a person. Here’s to another awesome year of blogging!

Follow me on Instagram: @cassiedenisco !

Where I’ve Been…

In life I believe we all go through phases in our lives when we’re feeling the least creative or unmotivated to do things we love. For me, I was really dealing with that during November. I love blogging and taking/posting Instagram photos but I soon found myself drowning from school work, my internship, new puppy, and dance work. I felt like my life was fully out of my control and the stress I was under just kept piling up.

I knew that my blog would take some sort of side position in my life once school started back up but I didn’t realize that it would become my last priority. I had so many other things on my plate that my energy was going towards that trying to write blog posts just became mechanic. I was writing merely just to not miss my Wednesday-Thursday deadline. I often would forget to announce the new post on Instagram on my story and I haven’t even been consistently posting on Instagram.

For something that was supposed to be a fun side hustle, it turned into in my eyes my biggest failure. Over the summer my analytics were threw the roof when I was posting consistently. After realizing how much I’ve neglected my blog, looking at my analytics is painful. This paired with the stresses of everyday life left me not at all wanting to blog. I had just too much on my plate that I couldn’t even allow myself to just blog for fun, I turned it into basically a competition for myself.

I finally realized something needed to change in mid November, when I actually stopped uploading. I let my last few scheduled posts go up but I just took the time off to not write blogs and focus on one area of my life at a time. I got my recital dances picked and somewhat choreographed, Sky’s older so she is much less needy, and my internship ended so I had free time again during the week. Finally, I just had to focus on my schoolwork and my puppy and I had the down time I was so desperately looking for.

In that time though, of course I couldn’t sit completely still. I started really posting on Sky’s Instagram and I swear it has really taken off. She has 81 followers in like 2 weeks of consistent posts and I realized how much FUN social media is. When I was doing it for my blog, it seriously became a chore and with Sky, I get to interact with other dogs and the dog moms behind the accounts. This really helped to inspire me to get back to blogging and actually having a desire to want to post. (Follow Sky @skythefrenchgirl)

Blogging never was something to get me Instagram followers or gain lots of money easily. Blogging was an outlet creatively for me and a way to show future employers that I am capable and able to help build an online brand. When I started to focus on the artificial and fake aspects of the internet, I lost myself and the reasons I love doing what I do. Even if you’re not a blogger, the lessons I’ve learned from having my blog can be applied anywhere. You need to remember why you’re doing something and make that the reason you do it. I love sharing my life and my ideas and my style with my audience and that’s what matters most. The numbers don’t matter and they shouldn’t affect why you want to do what you love.

So that’s where I’ve been. I really have been doing some soul searching and I can confidently say I’m back to blogging regularly. My podcast also will be back starting in January. I needed some time to get some better equipment and plan out more podcasts.I will always have a new blog post up on Sundays at 4pm EST but I am not sure yet if I will be posting on another day or just twice a week in general. I will keep you posted and let you all know once I’ve figured that out! Thank you all so much for sticking with me, it really means the world to me.

Be sure to follow me on my socials because those are also coming back hot!

Pinterest, Instagram & Twitter: @cassiedenisco

Sky’s Instagram: @skythefrenchgirl

Also be sure to sure to subscribe to www.cassiedenisco.com to stay up to date with my latest posts!

A Day in My Life as a Blogger

Recently, I’ve been getting so many questions about what exactly I do as a blogger. A huge misconception about blogging is definitely that all bloggers have to do each week is write a blog post, upload it, and share it on social media. While that is true, it’s literally only a fraction of what I do each day, let alone each week.

A lot of people have different views towards bloggers and what exactly they do. From an outside perspective, it might seem like an easy hobby that you can make some money off of but I was seriously shocked when I started blogging and realized how much work actually has to go into it for your blog to be successful.

From brainstorming blog ideas to dealing with SEO tools, blog posts will typically take me at least 3 days to be completely finished. I constantly think back to when I started my blog and wonder how I thought uploading a blog everyday would be a good idea. After almost 3 months of consistent blogging and website traffic, I feel like I can share my typical day and maybe inspire one of you to start a blog of your own!

Just putting it out there that this day in my life is geared more towards the summer. I haven’t gone back to school yet and I haven’t started teaching dance again every night so I definitely see this routine drastically changing once September rolls around. Also, I decided to choose a Monday because I absolutely love Mondays. (I know you probably think I’m crazy)

Monday August 12th

7:30 am: I wake up every morning at 7:30 am, now this might not mean I’m out of bed but I am definitely awake and starting to check my social media accounts. I know how bad of a habit it is but I just like to get it over with first thing so that I kind of know what I need to do for the day.

8:00 am: I’m an avid morning workout person but lately I’ve been opting to stay home and workout instead of going out to a class or the gym. I like to go on walks or runs around my neighborhood or use the gym equipment that I already have at home. I try to at least do an hour and then hop in the shower, brush my teeth, and do my skincare routine.

9:00 am: By this time, I’m ready to sit down and get to work. I start every work day with checking my emails to answer back brands or people. I also make sure I’ve responded to any comments on my social media account or dm’s. After that, Monday’s I write my blog post for Wednesday’s so I usually get to work on that. Blog posts can take me anywhere from an hour to 3 hours to write based on what they’re about or if they’re a lot of images to include. Once my blog is written, I send over the pictures to my graphic designer and he puts together all of the promotional pictures for my Pinterest or my Instagram story. He works super fast so usually I’ll have them back that day. I wait a day to schedule and edit my blog post so I move on to researching keywords that are trending for my next blog post. Using more trending keywords from Google helps to boost your post on Google when people also search that term. I also like to schedule Pinterest pins using an app called Tailwind. It basically will automatically repin your posts which is good to help get more views on your content. I like to schedule my Instagram posts and stories for the week on Monday so that I have them all set and don’t really have to think about them during the rest of the week. Generally, I finish off my work day interacting on social media by liking and commenting on posts. This helps to boost your engagment numbers which helps brands want to work with you.

5:00 pm: As you can tell I usually work for like 7- 8 hours a day on my blog. It’s never just a quick and easy day for me. By this time I plug everything in and put down all of my electronics. I LOVE going to Starbucks to grab some sort of drink to reward myself after a long day.

6:00 pm: I start making whatever I’m having for dinner and begin to unwind for the night. Since it was a Monday night, I watched Bachelor in Paradise from 8-10pm. I really try my hardest to not be on social media during this time and just like sign off for the night by doing my night time routine.

10:00 pm: Any day of the week you will find me in bed at this time. Sleep is like my thing and if I don’t get enough of it I can’t function the next day.

As you can see, I have a pretty busy schedule and most of my days look like this. I’m currently doing a lot of preplanning and scheduling of blog and social media posts so that once my life gets crazy again I am not missing out on any of my obligations. For awhile, a lot of my friends thought that I was just wasting the day away not really doing much but I seriously have something to do every minute of the day as a blogger.

I think a key takeaway to this blog post is that you will get out of your blog what you put into it. If you’re spending as much time a day on your blog posts and website as I am then you probably will be pretty successful. I’ve only been blogging for 3 months and I’ve seriously already surpassed where I thought I would be when I started so for me, I must be doing something right.

Blogging is really rewarding and I am seriously so happy I got into it because getting to share my life and my ideas with all of you is so cool. I hope you got a little glimpse into the life of a blogger and that it’s not the sunshine and rainbows that people always think it might be!

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