Cassie DeNisco

How to Build a Brand Online

January 17, 2022

Whether you’re a blogger or just starting some sort of business, how to build a brand online is important for audience acquisition and growth. This is truly something I wish I knew prior to creating my blog because I just jumped in and didn’t focus on the bigger picture of what exactly this blog would be.

Your brand is how people will see you for the first time and decide whether or not they are interested in clicking on your link or following your account. It’s important to find a clear voice for whatever you’re starting so that you have the best chance of turning people into loyal audience members.

As we enter into this new year, if you’re taking the leap of creating your own brand I wanted to create this post to tell you what I wish I would’ve known. I’m sharing my top 3 tips and some other important info in between on how to build a brand online!

Color Palette Matters

In the beginning days of my blog, I was honestly just posting whatever I wanted. It didn’t matter to me how it looked or getting some sort of template together. If you are creating a brand, I would take some time during the creation stage to get your theme content together. There’s nothing worse then posts with different colors or different flows of content.

You want your website or your socials to be seamless and attractive to potential audience people. If you’re using crazy colors that are different in every single post, you’re not giving the audience a clear image of what to expect. The same goes for templates or posts in general.

I personally always recommend neutrals or soft colors that aesthetically look good together but if you want a rainbow themed brand, make sure you use the exact same colors. You can easily find the color codes online which makes keeping and using the same colors so easy.

People love to be comfortable and know what to expect so using the same colors and templates just keeps the audience happy and coming back for more. One bonus tip I have is if you are creating a website, either hire someone to design it or purchase a template because if you’re website isn’t easy to navigate, you’re going to lose readers/clients/customers.

Name is Everything

If I could go back in time, I don’t think I would’ve used my name for my blog. Catchy names are what really sticks and stands out. You’re also stuck with your name so if it’s something you’re not sure about in the beginning, wait it out and see if you’re still interested.

Name recognition is literally the most important part of your brand these days. Because everything is so saturated, having a brand name that is easy to associate with your brand and people will immediately recognize is everything.

My brand has become my name and that has worked for me but I do wish I was a little more creative in the beginning. I was a college student blogging about life and fashion so between that I probably could’ve found a unique and creative name. I am not going to change my name though because I have built an audience around it so just knowing you’re stuck with it, means it has to be good.

Another topic along names is making sure whatever you decide is actually available. Whether you’re making an LLC or just need social media accounts, if your name isn’t available how you want it I would consider thinking about something else. It is so important to have instant name recognition with your brand and if you can’t have a website domain with it, then there’s a chance you lose people when trying to find you.

Consistency is Key

I like to write out all my posts for the year.

I can’t stress this tip enough, you have to be consistent. Whether it’s posting, uploading, inventory, answering calls, whatever it is you need to be consistent. People found you and the only way they’ll stay is if you are giving them what they want. They initially related to you and your brand for a reason so it’s crucial you continue to give them that.

Whether it’s a consistent product drop schedule or maybe weekly blog posts, you have to keep that up because people like the expected. I’ve found that I keep more loyal audience members the months that I commit to my posting schedule and make sure I don’t miss it.

My brand will never grow if I ghost the audience members that I fought so hard to get to begin with. It’s a lot and exhausting but you have to keep giving the latest and greatest versions of you/your product to keep the momentum growing. You don’t want the momentum to be stagnant, you want growth and sucess.

Your brand needs you to continue to work and improve on it. It’s so hard to figure out how to get in the groove of it but once you do, you’ll see the rewards. It took me a solid 2.5 years to get my blog seeing consistent views everyday. It was definitely discouraging in the beginning but I kept posting and kept going and now I have an audience that is a community and looks forward to my content.

Wrap Up

This post was a long one! I hope though you took something away from it to help build a brand online. I really love getting to work with my social media clients to identify their voice and build something that they are proud of online.

The tips I just shared with you are the exact 3 things that I think would’ve helped me in the beginning of creating my blog. I now share them with my social media clients in hopes they will help them build a brand online for themselves!

If you’re interested in more social media tips you can check out some posts here! P.S. I am a Social Media Manager with a BS in Digital Audiences from ASU!

Follow me on instagram @cassiedenisco!

How to Make Money from Blogging

November 5, 2021

I am asked almost everyday how I make money from blogging. Blogging is something that a lot of people are interested in but not really sure how to start. I also think people are not sure if blogging can be a stream of income for them. It took me 3 years to get tot a point where I do have some passive income from my blog and I’m going to share with you my top 3 ways of how I make money from blogging!

I think for most people, they think making money from ads is going to be so simple however this is the part that actually took me awhile! I needed to have my blog well established and continue to be creating trending content in order to see any money from this area. If you notice, I have ads on almost every page of my blog and they’re often about things you would actually be interested in.

I like to use Google Adsense not only because it’s super easy to install but I find that it also does the best job of staying relevant with my content. My biggest tips for running ads on your site is to make sure they have something to do with your content and there aren’t too many of them. You want your content to shine, not the ads!

Affiliate Links

Oddly enough, I just started linking everything this past year. I realized that a great stream of passive income is affiliate links. Every time have on an outfit or a product, I always make sure to use my link generators in order to earn a commission from them.

You do have to make sure that you are disclosing whether or not something is an affiliate link to stay transparent with your audience. I just usually do a little disclaimer so people know that I get a very small kickback if they purchase through my link. Not only can you use affiliate links on your blog but you can also use them on your socials which just boosts your stream of income.

My Top Secret to Drive Traffic to My Blog

March 19, 2021

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!!

My Tips for Selling on Poshmark

October 19, 2020

With a job like mine, I am constantly shopping for new clothes. Sometimes its just not possible to wear everything I get. I turn to selling on Poshmark to get something back for the clothes I’ve purchased and only really worn once. I love stores like Plato’s Closet, who actually go through the clothes you take to them but sometimes more expensive pieces don’t make you the most back. Poshmark on the other hand is so nice because you can decide what you want to charge. I’m basically a pro now so I’ve put together some tips for selling on Poshmark.

Only Sell Name Brand Items

You might be saying, someone will by your shirt but they probably won’t. I find that I actually sell brands like Lululemon, TopShop, and even Urban Outfitters so much faster because of the name brands. Sometimes I’ll upload things and they either take forever to sell or never sell at all. Posting more name brand and trendy brands will make your pieces perform so much better.

Price Accordingly

With any second hand shopping, know you’re probably not going to get what you originally paid for. After all, these pieces were worn or even gently worn. I generally get around $65-70 dollars for my $98 Lululemon Aligns. Still a good price but not exactly what I paid for. If you price too high, you’ll be stuck with your clothes for much longer than you’d like.

Use Keywords in Your Listing

I’m sure we’d all love to list our “cute pink shirt” but making sure we use the brand title as the first word will help people find your listing much easier. Poshmark has a search feature and it’s important that you’re items get seen when people are search for a specific thing. Make sure to detail the style of the clothing too so that when people search, it pops right up for them!

Items Can be Sent Back

Be warned, people can send items back if they aren’t happy with them. Make sure what you’re posting is high quality and doesn’t have any damage or rips. You want to grow your reputation on Poshmark so that people will come back and shop with you again so it’s so important that you sell only your best quality pieces.

Poshmark and other websites like Thread Up are awesome but you really have to know how to sell on them to get the most out of them. Let me know in the comments below some of your favorite resale websites or stores!!

Check out my latest post here. Follow me on Instagram @cassiedenisco.