Only for women

The dream was to create a comprehensive, global website that helped women living overseas. That's how

ExpatWomen.com

came about. Today, three years later, the site displays 1,000 plus quality content pages, over 1,000 expat women blogs, 200 plus readers' stories and invaluable country resource pages, interviews with successful expat women, loads of motivational articles and even an inspirational blog and monthly newsletter.

The site was created by Andrea Martins and her American friend Jill Lengré, when they were both living in Mexico City.

"We had a dream to connect expatriate women worldwide, so we embarked on the huge task of putting together a comprehensive website, trying to cover all possible concepts. Nine months later we launched ExpatWomen.com," says Martins, director, ExpatWomen.com. The website went from zero to 6,500 members in three years, on a very, very tight budget.

Some things on the site were not feasible long-term, so after the first year, when Lengré stepped aside from the site to move back to the United States as a newly-single mother with her two children, Martins took down some of the site's features, to make it manageable for just one person.

Martins now coordinates the website from Malaysia. ExpatWomen.com's mission is to inspire success abroad by providing netizens with a first-stop website to share stories, network globally, develop personally and find the best resources. Whether this is your first experience living overseas, or you are a seasoned expat, the site has something for everyone.

Martins says, "My most exciting experience was interviewing a celebrity expat supermodel of the 1990's: Gail Elliott - an expat who had Helena Christensen and Cindy Crawford as bridesmaids at her wedding."

The site has nearly 200 individual country pages, plus a lot of the content is global - such as the motivational stories, interviews and the expat confessions. It does not run any local events anywhere - everything is online and it is financed primarily from sponsorship, advertising and a few other online projects.

Martins says, "My biggest joy is always the flood of positive feedback emails that come in from expatriate women worldwide, who really benefit from the site and want to thank me. These emails keep me motivated."

The site just keeps growing. Recently, Martins just started on Twitter: @andreaexpat. Soon, she also hopes to get an ExpatWomen Facebook page online. And later this year, she wants to publish two Expat Women books: one based on her very popular Expat Confessions section; and one, a more general motivational guide for women living overseas, with success stories and more.

Expats living in India can log to the India homepage. It is divided into categories:
Expatriate Clubs: A listing of all expat clubs.

General link: Guides, blogs and information on culture.

School: Top international schools and their facilities.

Local news in English: Links to India's top newspapers.

Looking for work: A detailed guide on how to work in India.

General Information: History, emergency numbers, embassy information.

Top 5 tips: Seasoned expats give tips to newcomers.

Settling In Tips: To help one get acquainted here.