Affiliates: WEDNESDAY 080709

July 9, 2008

WEDNESDAY 080709

Sure, you've done a thruster, but ever done one on the back of a flatbed truck in a parade? Well, Tim Forbes of CrossFit Ames did bunches of them on the 4th of July, in front of thousands of people lining the parade route.

Besides manning the flatbed truck, the CF Ames gang also did pull-ups on a customized pick-up truck and threw Kool-Aid packets with Free Trial Session inscriptions to the crowd. Whenever the truck stopped, CF Ames owner Leigh Ann Cannon yelled "3-2-1-GO!" and their team executed a mini-WOD for the crowd. You have to love it!

On the other side of the 4th of July spectrum, Bill Benesi of CF SoCOS (in Colorado) had a great blog entry about something that happened to him at a baseball game. Read it here.

Now, check out 5 More Tips for Building a Better CrossFit Blog:

Like learning to snatch, learning to blog takes practice. But the hours that you spend banging your head against the desk while learning Word Press/Typepad/Moveable Type are actually valuable to your business. You didn't learn to snatch overnight, so don't expect to learn to blog overnight. Just keep at it. Daily.
Think beyond your immediate circle. Is your post or photo something that your members will want to show to their family or friends? If it's not, think twice before posting.
Own your domain name. People will remember your website more easily if it's www.crossfitbananas.com than if it's www.crossfitbananas.blogspot.com. Make it easy for people to remember you.
Place almost all links in the right-hand column. Your blog loads automatically from left to right. If you have links to outside sites in the left-hand column, it takes longer for your blog to find and ID each site. It might only be seconds but people will leave if everything doesn't load right away.
Writing for the computer screen is different than writing for the printed page. Shorter paragraphs work well. Shorter sentences too. Really. So does varying your sentence length so that you have longer sentences mixed in also. Got it?

Posted by Lisbeth at July 9, 2008 12:05 AM

Comments

Way to take it to the people Ames!

Did you guys get any feedback after the parade - from the parade goers?

Comment #1 - Posted by: Nick at OTG at July 9, 2008 4:53 AM

That is brilliant.
I love it!!

Comment #2 - Posted by: Shana A. CrossFit East Decatur at July 9, 2008 6:20 AM

So proud of our Iowa friends! Way to go!

Comment #3 - Posted by: Angie CF IA at July 9, 2008 6:26 AM

Thanks, guys! We did get a lot of good feedback. A lot of people asked questions during the parade as we walked by (i.e. where are you located?) so it was good to have the Kool-Aid packets with some info on the back that we could just hand to them. We are a new affiliate as of April this year so this was a great way to show a lot of people that CrossFit's in town and demo some of the exercises we do! I've had a lot of website hits this week and the "I'm interested" e-mails have been greater this week as well! Here's the link to the photo album if anyone wants to see more pics for float ideas... http://crossfitames.typepad.com/photos/4th_of_july_parade/index.html

Comment #4 - Posted by: Leigh Ann- CF Ames at July 9, 2008 6:37 AM

Awesome! Super pictures from the 4th of July parade and way to represent CrossFit. What a great group you have in Ames. ;)

Comment #5 - Posted by: Kristi in Cali at July 9, 2008 7:58 AM

How do I change my blog from www.crossfitbananas.blogspot.com
to www.crossfitbananas.com?

Comment #6 - Posted by: Jen at July 9, 2008 1:32 PM

Jen, don't worry, I think you're already there . . .

Comment #7 - Posted by: Lisbeth at July 9, 2008 1:41 PM

great idea and it looks like a lot of fun crossfit Ames!

Comment #8 - Posted by: carey kepler at July 9, 2008 3:14 PM

I love the info we are getting about how to improve our sites. So far for us, all the technical stuff has been done for us. Yesterday I was given a crash course on posting, making new pages, deleting inappropriate comments (we're a kid's site). I posted my first time today and even though I forgot a few things and put the picture in wrong for viewing it all went fairly smooth. Practice, practice, practice. I'm afraid it will improve faster than any of my crossfit moves!

Great idea Crossfit Ames! Wish we'd thought about that. Edmond , OK has one of the top 10 in the country, July 4th festivals and that would have been great advertising!

Oh yeah, shameless plug. crossfitkidsokc.com

Comment #9 - Posted by: momo at July 9, 2008 6:09 PM

Momo -- you're right on track. Keep at it. Blogging is just like the push jerk. Learn, practice, screw it up, try again, learn some more: that's always been the recipe for success and it always will be.

Let me know if there's any other way we can help you guys as affiliates!

Comment #10 - Posted by: Lisbeth at July 9, 2008 6:31 PM

Coach Leigh Ann - Once again, I say awesome job with the float and preparation for the parade. It was a blast, and everyone - spectators and WODers alike seemed to love it. And the Kool-Aid packets were genius.

For what it's worth, the kids seemed far more interested in the Kool-Aid than they did the after dinner mints or tootsie rolls everyone else was handing out. Just another thing CF does better than everyone else...

CrossFit rocks my socks.

Comment #11 - Posted by: Tim-CFAmes at July 9, 2008 7:30 PM

Leigh Ann,

Great job spreading the CF word. Iowa needs this so badly. It has been exciting and our pleasure to watch how fast you have grown and how dedicated you are to truthful and "nuts and bolts" training.

Good job!

Comment #12 - Posted by: Tim Starmer at July 10, 2008 8:04 AM