As I was reading my weekly motivational dose of "Mr. Money Mustache," I noticed that he does a fine job of highlighting his content community members in different posts. Mustache's Guest Post, "Guest Post: Why You’ll Become Busier After Retirement," by Darrow Kirkpatrick, highlights others on the Web who are willing to report their financial tricks and tools with the goal being earlier retirement.
After reading the October 6 guest post, I then scrolled down through the comments and found a link to Kirkpatrick's own blog, "Can I Retire Yet?" His August 31st blog, "Don't Miss These 6 Investing and Retirement Blogs if You're Serious about Financial Dependence" is a serious summary and analysis (in short form) of current financial blogs with the same goal as Kirkpatrick and Mustache. Not only does Kirkpatrick summarize blogs like "Financial Mentor" and "Oblivious Investor," but within each entry he highlights important articles and topics on each blog.
One of the keys to good blogging is highlighting our content communities. Both Mustache (through guest blog posts) and Kirkpatrick (through highlight posts) show the breadth and depth of financial and early retirement discussions taking place in real time on the Web. Mustache is the more radical blogger and financial activist: but Kirkpatrick has been blogging longer. Each have broken down their sites with FAQs, about, and searchable sections to make finding subtopics for the reader even easier. Their sitemaps are user-friendly, and their goal is the same: to share their stories and knowledge and create fun but educational blogs to help readers learn to save, invest, and have a potential future where work isn't a necessary evil but an option that one can fit into a lifestyle filled with financial security.
Follow how the professional bloggers refer to and create content communities in your own posts. It will only enhance the community "web" and allow you to potentially expand both your knowledge base and readership. I would never have found Kirkpatrick if I hadn't read Mustache; use the hyperlinks from one community member to another to really take journey within your topic on the web. There are so many blogs out in the blogosphere now; use your expert sources to guide you to new ones.
