Excellent Video Interview For Bloggers

Hi Everyone, Whether you blog for business or pleasure, I highly recommend that you to take ten minutes and watch this excellent (and enjoyable) Social Media Examiner interview with Wendy Piersall.

Wendy is a blogger who has found online fame in the United States. But despite her online success, health issues almost forced her to give up her online blogging activity. She encourages bloggers to think carefully about why they are blogging and the return on their blogging investment.

She also talks about a very interesting Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ruling in the United States regarding bloggers' financial disclosure. Great interview.

Writing, Editing & Start-Up Opportunities

Hi Everyone, In case you are not following me yet on Twitter, here are a couple of opportunities I tweeted about this week that might interest you:

1. She Writes is looking for a Chief Operating Officer

“The Company is seeking a founding business partner and Chief Operating Officer to further develop and refine the business side of She Reads/She Writes. Specific expertise should be in developing and growing revenue streams highly valuable to this target market, including:

• Connecting publishing experts with authors through She Writes Services
• Offering classes through the She Writes Studio
• Classifieds for monetizing business transactions on the site
• Strategic partnerships
• Curation and publishing of original content
• Book club services

The partner will be responsible for She Reads/She Writes financial planning and analysis, day-to-day operations, fundraising and business development. Compensation will include base salary, bonus potential and equity participation and will be sufficient to attract an outstanding candidate.”

2. BellaOnline is looking for Editors

No pay, but perhaps a great opportunity to build your profile and portfolio of experience.

“Our editors have both knowledge and passion about a subject. Our editors are a diverse network of women and men, from all age groups, all lifestyles, all races, colors, and creeds. Our mission is to represent and speak to women from all over the world and from all walks of life.

Most content sites require their writers to be well known professional writers who already have every skill necessary. BellaOnline is a training system. We have the focus of bringing in women who dream about writing and providing the training, the instructors and the support to help them achieve their goals.”

Follow me on Twitter and find out what I find out, when I find it out. Andrea :-)

Passport Career Still Looking For Expats & Repats For Short-Term Research Work

Hi Everyone, For more than one year now, we have been helping Susan Musich to find short-term researchers for the construction of her new site (launched August 2009): Passport Career. Many of you have helped out, and for that, we are sincerely grateful.

Ongoing Expansion

Passport Career now has 70 countries covered (which includes 170+ locations). Susan is currently expanding this to 100 countries and she is looking for interested expatriates and repatriates (female or male) to undertake 25-35 hour (approximate) research assignments for the locations listed below. If you are keen, ready to help and can commit to finishing your assignment (in return for a small honorarium), please email Susan directly, with the following information:

1. Your full name, address and contact details;
2. The date you started living in your current location;
3. An overview of your expatriate/repatriate experience;
4. A brief description of your qualifications and interests; and
5. Why you are interested in undertaking this research.

Background

"Passport CareerTM is the first-ever, comprehensive, online global job search support system for international professionals [and their spouses] moving to or living in unique and challenging destinations around the world."

"The research includes using the country profile survey (and template) that will be provided to identify appropriate job search information relevant to expatriates who will be moving to your current country. Such information includes: web sites; business cultural information; social and business networks; resume and interview information relevant to the country in question; and other related job search material."

U.S. Locations Needing Researchers

Albuquerque NM, Baltimore MD, Buffalo NY, Charlotte NC, Cincinnati OH, Cleveland OH, Columbus OH, Fairfield/Stamford/Norwalk CT, Hartford CT, Indianapolis IN, Jacksonville FL, Kansas City MO, Little Rock AR, Louisville KY, Memphis TN, Milwaukee WI, Nashville TN, New Orleans LA, Orlando FL, Palo Alto CA, Phoenix AZ, Pittsburgh PA, Portland OR, Richmond VA, Rochester NY, Salt Like City UT, San Antonio TX, San Jose CA, St Louis MO, Tulsa/Oklahoma City OK and Wilmington DE.

Non U.S. Locations Needing Researchers

Bahrain, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia, Botswana, Bulgaria, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Finland, Nicaragua, Oman, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, South Africa (Cape Town), Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Uruguay.

Disclaimer

Susan has agreed to make a small donation to Expat Women for each researcher who completes an assignment via an Expat Women lead. So if you are not interested, but know someone who is, please pass the word around. Every little bit helps. Thanks Everyone!

Top 30 Young Entrepreneur Blogs

Hi Everyone, Another great article I found on Unstrapp'd this week: Top 30 Young Entrepreneur Blogs of 2009. These women and men are amazing. The question now is... which blogs to follow, to gain regular doses of their inspiration and useful advice... Andrea.

10 Twitter Tips For Your Brand

Hi Everyone, Being newly-interested in Twitter, I found this Unstrapp'd article very worthwhile: 10 Overlooked Twitter Tweaks That Can Mean Big Things For Your Brand. Maybe you might too.

Here's a quick overview of their tips:

1. Name, Please!;
2. Be Cautious With Automatic Tweets;
3. Profile Picture;
4. Get Listed on Twitter Lists;
5. Write a Catchy Bio;
6. It’s In Your Backyard;
7. Don’t Link to Sales Pages;
8. Remove the “www.”;
9. Share Photos;
10. Brand Your Background; and

...Bonus Tip: Don’t Protect Your Tweets!

But the detail (and the whole Unstrapp'd website, actually) is much more interesting.

Amazon 2010 Breakthrough Novel Award

Hi Everyone, Amazon.com have announced that along with the Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace, they have launched the third annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. This is an international competition seeking the next popular novel.

"For the first time, the competition will award two grand prizes: one for General Fiction and one for Young Adult Fiction. The 2010 competition will also now be open to novels that have previously been self-published. Each winner will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, which includes a $15,000 advance.

Congratulations to last year's Breakthrough Novel Award winner, James King, whose winning novel, Bill Warrington's Last Chance, will be published by Viking in August 2010. Bill Loehfelm's Fresh Kills, the 2008 winner, is now available in paperback.

The Breakthrough Novel Award brings together talented writers, reviewers, and publishing experts to find and develop new voices in fiction. If you're an author with an unpublished or previously self-published novel waiting to be discovered, visit CreateSpace to learn more about the next Breakthrough Novel Award and sign up for regular updates on the contest. Open submissions for manuscripts will begin on January 25, 2010 through February 7, 2010.

See the official contest rules for more information on how to enter."

Tweet, Tweet...

Hi Everyone, Just a quick note to let you know that I have finally been convinced to join Twitter, so that I can try to share links to interesting news/articles/sites as soon as I find them. If you would like to follow me (and I promise not to over-tweet), please follow @andreaexpat.

Warmest thanks and best wishes for your day/evening, Andrea. :-)

Expat Women January Newsletter

Hi Everyone, Our apologies that our Expat Women January newsletter is slightly delayed. First, we were waiting for everyone to return from holidays. Then, we sent 3,000 today, but realised we had made a grammatical error (so sorry to Tess Johnston, our Success Story woman this month!) and are now resending those 3,000, plus sending the additional 3,500. We are hoping this process will be finished by the weekend, but if you would like to see it now, we invite you to view the newsletter online instead. Thanks.

Expat Women: Happy Birthday Blog Shout-Out Competition

Hello Everyone, This Saturday, 16 January 2010, is ExpatWomen's 3rd birthday online. To celebrate, we are randomly giving away a US$100 Amazon.com voucher to one lucky blogger who gives us a positive, happy birthday shout-out on their blog.

To enter is as easy as 1-2-3:
(1) Say good things about our site and wish us a happy birthday for January 16;
(2) Remember to include a link in your shout-out back to ExpatWomen.com; and
(3) Email us your blog URL (in an email entitled something like “Blog Competition”) by 6pm Tuesday 19 January 2010 (New York time).

Blog shout-outs help us a lot, so thank you and good luck! Andrea

Potentially useful text for your shout-out:
ExpatWomen.com is a comprehensive, global website helping women living overseas. The site displays 1,000+ content pages, 1,000+ expat women blogs, 200+ readers' stories, invaluable country resource pages, interviews with successful expat women, loads of motivational articles and an inspirational blog and newsletter.

What Is A Tiny URL?

Hi Everyone, Finally, someone explained to me yesterday why we are increasingly seeing links that look something like this: http://tinyurl.com/ylhjuex - with the "tiny url" text in them.

There is actually a site, Tiny URL, that can convert a long URL/website address into a smaller one for you, all at no charge.

Useful if you are sending messages on Twitter. Useful if you are sending newsletters that often have long links cut off.

It is so simple, that I cannot believe I did not understand what these were about a year or two ago! Andrea

Postscript (20 Jan 2010): Another popular site for this purpose is: bit.ly.

Expat Women in the UAE: New 2010 Dubai Resident Guide Released

Hi Everyone, If you are an expatriate woman in the United Arab Emirates, check out the new 2010 Dubai Explorer, in stores now, or available via the website of our friends at Explorer Publishing. I have a copy on my desk and it is excellent! Check it out now here.

Note: You can save thousands of Dirhams with their Explorer Member Card - free with the brand new Dubai Explorer.

Research: Female Minority Expatriates

Hi Everyone, IOR Global Services is conducting research on the experiences of female minority expatriates to be presented at Families in Global Transition conference in March 2010.

If you consider yourself a minority female, you have been sent on an international assignment and you would like to help with this research, please take the short confidential online survey here.

Please contact Charisse Kosova for any questions or to register your interest for the results. Many thanks.

Background: "Recent studies, and IOR Global Service’s own observations, have revealed that an increasing number of women, and particularly minority women, are accepting expatriate assignments. IOR is conducting research to highlight this demographic shift and to capture the important observations that expatriate minority women have made in both the selection process and during the expatriate experience.

Qualitative data collection will take place in two parts:
(1) completion of this 5-minute survey; and
(2) a 30-minute interview with participants.
The 30 minute interview is not mandatory.
All responses will remain completely anonymous."

Survey Participants Needed: Study Of Emotional Well-Being Of International Mobility Versus Residential Stability

Hi Everyone, Katarina Tova is doing the following research study for her Master's thesis and needs the help of willing participants please:

"If you are between the ages of 22 and 35 and are proficient in English language, then you are invited to participate in a research study that investigates the emotional well being of individuals who were internationally mobile during childhood and/or adolescence.

Please note, the study excludes those whose mobility was primarily determined by their parents' work as missionaries, military personnel or those who have had a legal status as refugees.

The purpose of this study is to deepen our understanding of the impact on emotional well being of international mobility versus residential stability."

Click here to participate. Or if you have questions, please email Katarina directly. Thanks.

"Questions about your rights as a human subject may be directed to Jane Calhoun, Harvard Committee on the Use of Human Subjects, , 617 495 5459 or 617 495 5459. This study has been reviewed and approved by the IRB office at Harvard University."

Expat Women January 2010 Home Page

Hello and Happy New Year Everyone, We hope you enjoyed some down-time over the holiday season and that you have come back with renewed energy for this exciting new decade!

We have some great new January home page features for you, so please take a look (and please Tweet these for us):

Success Story
Tess Johnston
Author, Researcher, Lecturer & Retired Diplomat
More than 45 years ago, Tess Johnston left the security of her life in Virginia, United States, to become an American diplomat abroad. She spent seven years in Germany (both East and West), seven years for USAID in Vietnam during the war, then returned to the Foreign Service, living in India, France and China...
Read more…

Business Idea
Kampung Club
Susie Harvey
Susie Harvey is a Brit who started life as an expat in the beautiful beach area of Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, as a newlywed of four days. Four years and two children later, she moved with her young family to Lombok, Indonesia, where she and a friend started a children’s clothing business...
Read more…

Social Media
Creative Entrepreneurship Through Social Media
Anastasia Ashman and Tara Lutman Agacayak are expat Women entrepreneurs who have used social media to successfully grow their businesses and online profiles. We asked these two progressive business women to share their experiences...
Read more…

International Abduction
International Abduction or 'Kidnapping': Is It Ever Okay?
Candida Purser
What happens if parents who are expatriates separate and if one of them wants to 'go home' with the children? Is it okay for them to do it even if the other parent does not want them to? "Can I just go?"...
Read more…

Expat Confession
Confused About Money
Expat Women Girlfriend
My husband has been offered the possibility of a position overseas. We are seriously considering it but we are a little unclear on the financial aspect. The contract looks healthy, but I am wondering about the 'hidden costs' of living and earning abroad...
Read more…

Happiness Abroad
The Expat Pursuit of Happiness
Piercarla Garusi
Why is it that expats go abroad? From my experience, one of the reasons why many people become expatriates is that they were "restless" at home. They decided to move abroad in search of that ‘something’ that would deliver them greater happiness...
Read more…

Not A Member Yet?
Just a reminder that our blog is separate from our main site, so if you are only subscribed to our blog, you will not automatically receive our Expat Women monthly newsletters. To receive our newsletter next week and to go in the running to win our monthly prize of a complete set of Explorer Publishing's Mini-Guides, please sign up today to our main site, ExpatWomen.com.

Thank You
Thank you so much for your ongoing support and best wishes for a sensational 2010! Andrea