WEDNESDAY 080716

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Tricia B. from CrossFit Southwest handstands while deployed far, far away from home.

The mission statement over at MaxFx CrossFit has this great line: "I built on the lessons I learned from the gym - push until you can push no more - and then try to push again." Read more here.

Now, the last installment in our series on Building a Better CrossFit Blog . . .

If there is one thing we'd like you to remember about your blog, it's the goal behind it: Build a community. This is your local CrossFit family: lead it, embrace it, and kick it in the a** when it needs it. But, above all else, love it.

All blog platforms are not created equal. As with almost everything in life, you get what you pay for. Start wherever you need to, but also keep trying to improve, just like in life.

If you're paranoid (like some of us) and have a unique name, think about owning your own name as a domain too. You're out in the public eye. It costs less than $10 to "park" your name for a year, which might be money well spent before some jilted high-school sweetheart reads about you and decides to open a porn site with your name.

If your blog has a "Share This" widget available, use it. Make it easy for your readers to tell other people.

The best blogs make people think.

And the number one rule of blogging for your CF affiliate: it's not about YOU, it's about them. Get your ego out of the picture. Nobody wants to see a photo of you standing on Mary Six-Pack's feet while Mary does sit-ups. Your members want to read about and see themselves and feel like part of a great community. If all you do is talk about yourself, there's no air for them to breathe and you're the one choking them. Talk about your members: make them shine. Show them their own progress and, also, what's possible for them in the future. And, then, when you're so busy making good things happen for other people . . . good things will happen to you. Really.