New Team Page for HappierAbroad!

[Winston]

Hi all,
Steve N and I were talking about something. I suggested putting up a Team Page with a link to About Us on the home page rather than About Me. On it I would put photos and mini profiles for me, Ladislav, Steve Hoca, Steve N, Mark Edward Davis, and maybe Larry Elterman, giving each of them a nice title, to make this movement look more credible. Steve said he thought it would be a good idea cause then it would make this movement look like a team effort by a variety of credible looking guys with decent looking photos, rather than just a one man operation by a lonely misfit like me.

What do you all think? Is that a good idea? Or does the Consultation and Interviews page, which features others in our movement, and this Forum too, already accomplish that?

[Mr S]

If the others want to do it then it might work out decent in the long run. You might be able to generate more traffic down the road if the site is not so focused on yourself and your opinions about foreign relationships and what not.

A lot of media use different personalities because they know not everyone likes the same kind of things or people. If you had a core group of contributors on a monthly basis then you could take some of the focus off yourself and have others provide credible content for your site. You would still be the final say in what get published and edited, but it would attract more readers and add more traffic to your site. Also, if as your site gets more popular the people already contributing may get noticed by other people wanting to have them write articles for them and you may get new people wanting to contribute their own articles. In the long run it could make your job easier in regards to adding content to your site.

You will want to make sure you differentiate between opinion, commentary and researched articles backed up with traceable facts and figures. Right now a lot of your content would be considered more opinion or commentary cause you don't have proper citations to back up your claims. That's very important if you want to more onto the next level and get noticed.

Make the site less about you and more about the average dude looking for companionship. Add more pictures of other guys and their GF's or wives on your site. Get their testimonies and experiences both good and bad. Have people submit short videos you can submit on Youtube. There's lots of way you can go with this.

Break through the glass ceiling you've imposed upon yourself.

The more universal you make it the more popular it will become.

[Mark Edward Davis]

I'm honored. I'd be happy to contribute in any way I can!

Mark

[Winston]

Mr S,
Great points and ideas. I would like to feature you too, but I know you don't like your picture and name on the internet.

How would each member of the team contribute their own content though? Perhaps I can set up some script or software that will allow personal blogs to be created under this domain? I've seen some expat sites that let you have your own blog under their domain. But it depends of course, on whether the team members are interested in doing that.

Otherwise, they can just post content here in the forum.

I was thinking of giving each team member a title under their name and photo, as well as links to their content, sites, blogs, interviews, etc. The titles would be something like this:

Winston Wu - Owner, Operator and Author
Ladislav - Chief Expat and Cultural Advisor
Steve Hoca - Talk Show Host and Interviewer
Steve N - Researcher and Promoter
Mark Edward Davis - Consultant and Advisor on Foreign Brides and International Dating
Larry Elterman - Consultant and Advisor for Philippines Expats

This site is not all opinion/commentary by the way. I include lots of off-site links and citations in my articles and ebooks to base my statements on. Also, many of the articles and posts in this forum contain links and citations as well, to back them up.

Plus, the testimonials on this site and forum are based on FIRSTHAND experience, not subjective unqualified opinions. And of course, they sound authentic and sincere, and are sourced where possible.

[Winston]

I'm honored. I'd be happy to contribute in any way I can!

Mark

Great! If we do decide to create the team page, I will feature you along with your sites, interviews, photo albums, and consultation page on it. Your photos and appearance is very professional looking and will add lots of credibility to this site and movement!

[Mr S]

I may be interested in writing more online content later this year once i've finished the masters degree i'm currently working on and in the clear of any distractions from that. I may just use a sue do name, haven't decided yet.

You could create a separate page link on your main website for each person and then they could submit articles to you, you could review them then post them onto your website under their name/page. If you want them to be interlinked with your content specifically. IF not you could do the blog route, but they wouldn't really be part of your site other than an easy way to link from your site to theirs.

[Winston]

You mean like a subdomain name? For example:

Ladislav's Corner
http://ladislav.happierabroad.com

Yeah that would work. I think the blogging software or script template would look better though. But again, it all depends on level of interest from each member.

For now though, a new Team Page with each member and their nice looking photos would add some credibility to this site.

[steve55]

Right now a lot of your content would be considered more opinion or commentary cause you don't have proper citations to back up your claims. That's very important if you want to more onto the next level and get noticed.

Exactly! As Winston knows, I am conducting a massive research undertaking to add FAR more credibility to this movement. It may take many months but Im going to get it right. As always, its always up to Winston to give these things a yes or no when submitted to him. But I predict that the thesis Im working on will be a huge home run. Im reviewing work by jean Twenge and Dr Laura Schlessinger, both whom back up everything Winston says and Im taking quotes from their books and organizing the material in alogical way.

Some samples of what Im digging up which ties into the message that Winston's site has been giving

http://www.narcissismepidemic.com/

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/artic ... 4/12qa.htm

http://www.generationme.org/aboutauthor.html

http://marriagescene.com/2010/10/01/ame ... -husbands/

http://www.campusprogress.org/articles/ ... lessinger/

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38381

Im also reading Affluenza and the American paradox and may add some quotes in from these too. While these two books can help also, they aren't written by people as credentialed and authorative as Dr Twenge/Keith Campbell and Dr Laura. Most readers out there know who DR Laura Schlessinger is and between her and Dr twenge, the proof is in the pudding so to speak. These links above give you guys an idea of where I am heading with my project. Winston needs a section, a menu link that backs up everything he is saying. Perhaps a menu label that says "see leading American expert opinions on this subject". Or, Winston may take all my direct quotes from these books that I will provide and insert them throughout his site where he deems it appropriate to support his points. Either way he chooses to take advantage of the work, it will give CREDIBILITY to his site and the movement! Im shocked at how much Winston's writing about America matches up so much with Dr Twenge's and Keith Campbel''s work.

I want to make it short and to the point. Ill organize it in a logical easy flowing, easy to read way.

Maybe when Winston does the team page bios, he can show a link to the sections each member has contributed. For me it would be the American vs foreign woman dating profile samples and a link to what will be my future production as mentioned in this post. Just an idea. Anyways, Winston's call either way.

Here is just one tiny sample of how I plan to do it

TODAY"S AMERICAN WOMAN HAVE UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS OF MEN

In her book, "Generation Me" Jean Twenge's says:

"Most of the woman we interviewed insisted they were not looking for a prince charming -then, without missing a beat, they described an equally unattainable ideal". She further states " The higher expectations are rooted in the focus on the self".


In her book, "Generation Me" Jean Twenge's says:
"According to our research, there has been a 67 per cent increase in Narcism in America over the past two decades, mainly among women"

AMERICA THE LONELY
"Our growing tendency to to put the self first leads to unparalleled freedom, but it also creates an anormous amount of pressure on us to stand alone. This is the downside of of the focus on the self- when we are fiercely independent and self sufficient, our dissapointments loom large because we have nothing else to focus on. Among my ten closest freinds, seven have been in therapy at least once, two suffer from panic attacks, one is manic depressive, and another recently had a nervous breakdown. Only 1-2% of Americans born before 1915 experienced a major depressive episode during their lifetimes, even though they lived through the great depression and two world wars. Today the lifetime rate of major depression is ten times higher, betwen 15-20%. Some studies put that figure closer to 50%. Depression is commonplace in today's society. When you were born has more influence on your anxiety level than your individual family environment. The individualistic ethos of America also explains a lot of negative trends that we see around us every day. A trip to the grocery store , as just one example, often involves aggressive drivers, sullen clerks, and screaming children. More than four times as many Americans describe themselves as lonely now than in 1957. Our social contacts are slight compared to those enjoyed by earlier generations "

AND

""Alot of people in America spend a great deal of time living alone. Twice as many 15 to 24 yr olds lives in one person householdsnow compared to 1970. More than 1 out of 3 americans aged 24 to 29 lives alone or with a non familial roomate. Isolation and lonliness readily lead to anxiety and depression. A mountain of evidence links loneliness and being alone with negative mental health outcomes. I often feel that many of us are one breakup or one move away from depression - our roots are not deep enough, our support systems too shallow. "

AND

" There is a kind of famine of warm interpersonal relations, of easy to reach neighbors, of solid family life in America today".

AMERICA"S DIVORCE EPIDEMIC

"Lower rates of divorce of divorce in previous decades might even suggest that they were better at relationships than we are. Maybe we love ourselves a little too much"

"Now, (in America), most people consider it completely acceptable to divorce if you are unhappy"

THE PERVERSE FOCUS ON MONEY AND MATERIAL THINGS

"young woman in particular often feel that they need to have it all" and "generation me is likely to remain unsatisfied unless they earn heaps of money. A standardized national survey found that 1990's high school students were twice as likely as their 1970's counterparts to say that having lots of money was very important"

WOMAN MASCULINITY SCORES OVER TIME
Lastly, Dr Twenge's book says that when she compared standardized testing of masculinity scores with testing done in the 50's compared to 2006 test scores. The 2006 test scores shoed that "50% of the woman in my sample scored as "masculine" on the test, meaning that they had endorsed significantly more of the stereotypical maculine traits (like assertive) than the feminine items. When the test was written in 1973, only about 20% of the woman scored that way. This was completely tangential to the main question of my amateurish thesis, but interesting nevertheless."

(My own remarks now -This is no surprise to me. Many woman these days drop F bombs or become very aggressive and confrontational when they get mad. Many will angrily point their finger in peoples face when angry.Ive seen this all the time on donald trump's "the apprentice". Or check out MTV's "Jersey Shore". Jersey shore has exagerrated this trend by intentionally picking aggressive and confrontational woman for ratings purposes, it none the less reflects the trend of woman starting to behave like men. Ive seen it in real life, but often in more subtle ways, but the aggressive confrontational tendencies are there.)

She further states "The average 1990's college woman reported more "maculine" traits than 80% of Boomer college woman in the early 1970's. The change was so large that by the early 1990's men's and woman's scores on the scale of so called masculine traits were indistinguishable. The generational change in masculinity had turned the very definition of the scale on its head: clearly these traits were no longer masculine , but simply human"

(Im not surprised by t he results of this study. I already see it in the dating scene. What has happened is that as time has gone by, there is less and less differences between the sexes,...both men and woman are equally masculine. So this begs the question , " what is the difference between man and woman in America besides anatomy?" As it relates to the dating scene, it shows that if a man wants a truly "feminine" soft woman, as in a woman who is not equal in masculinity to men, or a woman who is still a woman, the odds are greatly reduced, unless he dates a somewhat older generational American woman, or goes overseas or finds a non Americanized foreign born lady who has immigrated to America.


IRRATIONAL EXHUBERENCE OF Gen Me
"Generation me has the higest self esteem (self love) of any generation, but also the most depression. To borrow Alan Greenspan's phrase, our upbringing was irrationally exhuberant. Irrational , because when we reach adulthood we often find ourselves lonely, rejected by graduate schools, stuck in a boring job, and/or unable to afford a house and basic living expenses (your job's a joke, you're broke, your love life's DOA"), though many of us find no one is there for us either. Like the dot.com bubbleof the 1990's, the bubble of high expectations bursts once Gen Me hits adulthood. Older generations have also faced these struggles, but Gen Me has been led to expect bounty in a time of famine. The gap between expectations and reality has widened to a yawning gulf of dissapointment. This leads to alot of anxiety, depression , and complaining. More and more young people want to become parents, but more and more will find that they cannot have children and maintain a middle class standard of living. Though its true that Gen Me is materialistic, we are also finding it difficult just to pay for the necessities in life"


The above is only an outline and the scruffy beginnings. I haventy really even begun yet as I am still in phase one of reading the books and highlighting the quotes that are relevant to insert in my thesis. The above sample is just Dr Twenge. I havent even gotten to Dr Laura's quotes yet!!She really tells it how it is. Dr Laura pretty much makes us realize that it is indeed VERY DANGEROUS to marry an American woman. Generally speaking, she shows how they are selfish, and self centered and have bought into the feminism crap. When guys see these quotes by such highly reputed well known experts, then everything else on Winston's website suddenly becomes EXTREMELY more credible! They will listen up more and realize they will be better off looking abroad, especially if they dont want a divorce and misery in their future.

This will likely take 2-4 months to have a completed, cleaned up finalized version ready to use. I have alot of work to do. I am inspired by the idea of tying expert opinion to happier abroad's message. I plan to make it a master piece! It will probably exceed anything I ever did in college. AT the very least, Winstion can take the quotes and insert them in his pages as needed. I just dont know if it will be best to do it in the format above or for winston to piecemeal the work I provide and insert as he sees fit throughout his website. We'll see.

[Mr S]

WOMAN MASCULINITY SCORES OVER TIME
Lastly, Dr Twenge's book says that when she compared standardized testing of masculinity scores with testing done in the 50's compared to 2006 test scores. The 2006 test scores shoed that "50% of the woman in my sample scored as "masculine" on the test, meaning that they had endorsed significantly more of the stereotypical maculine traits (like assertive) than the feminine items. When the test was written in 1973, only about 20% of the woman scored that way. This was completely tangential to the main question of my amateurish thesis, but interesting nevertheless."

(My own remarks now -This is no surprise to me. Many woman these days drop F bombs or become very aggressive and confrontational when they get mad. Many will angrily point their finger in peoples face when angry.Ive seen this all the time on donald trump's "the apprentice". Or check out MTV's "Jersey Shore". Jersey shore has exagerrated this trend by intentionally picking aggressive and confrontational woman for ratings purposes, it none the less reflects the trend of woman starting to behave like men. Ive seen it in real life, but often in more subtle ways, but the aggressive confrontational tendencies are there.)

She further states "The average 1990's college woman reported more "maculine" traits than 80% of Boomer college woman in the early 1970's. The change was so large that by the early 1990's men's and woman's scores on the scale of so called masculine traits were indistinguishable. The generational change in masculinity had turned the very definition of the scale on its head: clearly these traits were no longer masculine , but simply human"

(Im not surprised by t he results of this study. I already see it in the dating scene. What has happened is that as time has gone by, there is less and less differences between the sexes,...both men and woman are equally masculine. So this begs the question , " what is the difference between man and woman in America besides anatomy?" As it relates to the dating scene, it shows that if a man wants a truly "feminine" soft woman, as in a woman who is not equal in masculinity to men, or a woman who is still a woman, the odds are greatly reduced, unless he dates a somewhat older generational American woman, or goes overseas or finds a non Americanized foreign born lady who has immigrated to America.

This is exactly how my sister is and she is in total denial. She thinks we are the problem, not her. She is now 35 and will be an angry single cat lady for the rest of her life probably.

I think you are digging up a lot of good info. I look forward to reading your thesis.

[Mr S]

I also posted that Jezebel link onto my FaceBook page and within minutes literally I had a few women including my sister bashing it. They just don't get what they have turned into and there is no arguing with them about it.

[Winston]

Hi all,
Our Happier Abroad Team Page is now ready! Check it out!

http://www.happierabroad.com/team.php

How does it look? Does it make the five of us look like a "Dream Team"?

I also plan to link it in the menu bar at the top by replacing the "About Me" button with either "About Us" or "Team". Which sounds better?

[Winston]

Btw, at the top of the Team Page, I put this:

The Happier Abroad Team is dedicated to promoting awareness of Overseas Options for Men in the areas of Love, Dating and Relationships, and for Expats in the fulfillment of Social Connection, Cultural Adventure and Personal Freedom.

How does that sound? When Steve N finishes his big research project that validates our claims with stats and experts, maybe I will put a "Research" tab at the top in the navigation menus and put all his stuff under it. So I gave him the title "Research Specialist" and everyone else a nice sounding title as well

[jamesbond]

I like the new home page! I also just listened to the interview that Steve Hocca did with Ladislav and Winston. It was great and very true and informative! Please do another one sometime soon!

[Winston]

I like the new home page! I also just listened to the interview that Steve Hocca did with Ladislav and Winston. It was great and very true and informative! Please do another one sometime soon!

That's great. But this thread is about the new Team Page. Have you seen it? What do you think of it?

http://www.happierabroad.com/team.php

[Winston]

Hi all,
I just added the link to the Intro thread of the Forum Advisors here to the Team Page, since they are part of our team too, along with a nice clip art of a "community". Have a look:

http://www.happierabroad.com/team.php

I've also put the link to the team page in the menu buttons at the top.