Introduction and question from Siberian girl

[Baikalstorm]

Hello, dear members and visitors of this wonderful website.

My name is Anastasiia. You probably will be confused by the two "i"s in my name... In Russia everything is possible When I got my foreign passport, I saw that my name was spelled this way. Oh well, now I have to live with this spelling in my name all my life in the US. Surprisingly, some people find it exotic.

Anyway, I was born in Siberia (Irkutsk). This city is world known for its location next to the deepest lake in the world, lake Baikal. Tourists from all over the world visit this amazing place.

At age of 20 I dreamed of visiting America. I did everything possible to pursue this dream. And of course, my dream came true when I received a J-1 summer visa. It was my plan to see America and then return to Russia for my 5th year of university so I could receive my degree in economics, with specialization in international credit markets. But sometimes life reveals a different destiny.

I came to America June 1st of 2011. Three months later I met the love of my life, a wonderful American man. I'm so happy I met this incredible man. He is such a good man. I can't compare him to those men who I was dating in Russia.  They were not good enough for me.
 
I chose to stay in America longer by changing my status to an F-1 visa so I could study here and improve my English. I missed my family and friends in Russia, and it was difficult to give up my chance to have an economics career. But I followed my heart and married my amazing American husband. We are so happy together. It was the best decision I ever made.

I know many Russian girls who would like to meet a foreign man. I have been back to Russia two times and often girls who heard my story would tell me that it put this idea in their head. Many of them were very frustrated and lonely looking for good, responsible men. But before talking to me they had not thought about this possibility of meeting a man outside Russia.

Even in America I know many single Russian girls. These girls are very kind and beautiful. Many men here will not give them a chance because they do not perfectly speak in English. Also most these girls have traditional values and will not be physical without serious relationship. I am in shock that so many desirable girls are looking for a good man without success!

As a result, I have an idea for creating a dating website for those who are interested in meeting Russian or (Eastern European) women. I know that there are dating websites for meeting Russian women out there, and it doesn't stop me from creating my own. Obviously something is not right with these sites because I know so many single Russian girls who are not using them.

It would be easy for me to find many wonderful Russian girls for a new site. But of course my idea would not be possible without foreign men. I want to understand your preferences, men, and to know if you believe this idea is valid.

Specifically I would like to ask men here about what they like and don't like about dating websites. Is there some feature that you think would be good for a website? Is there anything on dating sites now that is bad and I should avoid? In general how much do you feel a reasonable membership fee is for such a site?

I would really appreciate your feedback. It would also be my pleasure to answer any questions you have about Russia, Russian women, Russian culture, Russian language, or anything else! Thank you.

[lordtiberius]

Welcome

[Gator]

Anastasiia,   



The world does not need another dating site, yet the world could use a different yet good dating site.

What would make it good?  It would help if both the men and women were somehow vetted.  By that I mean the women are serious about marrying a foreigner and not just playing around (or worse, trying to scam money from foreign men).  The same for men.  They are neither sex tourists nor losers. 

As a minimum you would need to talk with each man and woman before listing them with your dating site, and then you need to monitor interactions.  This represents a lot of work, so you would have to charge a larger fee than normal.  That would eliminate the unserious men, the cheap men, and the men with little money.   And RW should be willing to pay something knowing they will meet vetted men. 

BTW, I have attempted to introduce friends of my wife to men I know, and it is a difficult task to find men interested in even corresponding with RW much less traveling to Russia.  Ask your husband if he would have ever looked at a RW dating site.

Good luck!



 

[Anotherkiwi]

  Anastasiia with two "i"s!

An interesting story, and I'm glad that your journey has had such a positive result.  Just out of interest (because EVERYBODY on this forum will be wondering), how old is your husband?  I see that you are 24.

Are you studying at University in the USA?  If not, what work (if any) are you doing now, and do you intend to resume your studies at some point?

What you're suggesting by way of a website, and with Gator's input as to a possible path, you might perhaps be better off setting up as an actual matchmaker in the Irish tradition.  That way you know all your clients and can (hopefully) find a better partner for them.  We have a Russian male member (Eduard) who does this already, although we do have certain members who scoff at his methods and alleged results, but a female would bring a different perspective.

As Gator says, the world does NOT need yet another website with nothing to recommend it over the thousands already operating.  Whatever your intentions may be, it would take you a very long time to build up enough clients to give you a comfortable living.

[tfcrew]

  Many men here will not give them a chance because they do not perfectly speak in English. ... . I am in shock that so many desirable girls are looking for a good man without success!

                                         
There are also many American born that might talk a lot but say little to nothing.
What city do you reside?
 



 
 

[CanadaMan]

Hello, dear members and visitors of this wonderful website.

My name is Anastasiia. You probably will be confused by the two "i"s in my name...
Specifically I would like to ask men here about what they like and don't like about dating websites. Is there some feature that you think would be good for a website? Is there anything on dating sites now that is bad and I should avoid? In general how much do you feel a reasonable membership fee is for such a site?

Hi Anastasiia,

Welcome to the site! 

Please visit Elena's Models website.
If your goal is to set up a good dating website, do the opposite of everything you see at this site and you should be quite successful.

Prior to their website makeover a few months ago they had a very decent-looking site that was very popular with the men here.

Unfortunately it has now become a disaster that I seldom visit anymore.

[BillyB]

Welcome to the forum and good luck in the creation of your website.

[Baikalstorm]

Anastasiia,   



The world does not need another dating site, yet the world could use a different yet good dating site.

What would make it good?  It would help if both the men and women were somehow vetted.  By that I mean the women are serious about marrying a foreigner and not just playing around (or worse, trying to scam money from foreign men).  The same for men.  They are neither sex tourists nor losers. 

As a minimum you would need to talk with each man and woman before listing them with your dating site, and then you need to monitor interactions.  This represents a lot of work, so you would have to charge a larger fee than normal.  That would eliminate the unserious men, the cheap men, and the men with little money.   And RW should be willing to pay something knowing they will meet vetted men. 

Hi Gator. Thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate getting your opinion.

You have a very interesting idea. I hadn't thought of it.

BTW, I have attempted to introduce friends of my wife to men I know, and it is a difficult task to find men interested in even corresponding with RW much less traveling to Russia.  Ask your husband if he would have ever looked at a RW dating site.



Good luck!

To be honest with you, my husband told his friends how they should date Russian women, but they didn't seem very interested in this idea. I guess there are not that many American men who even think of meeting women from Russia.

[Anotherkiwi]

Hi Anastasiia,

Welcome to the site! 

Please visit Elena's Models website.
If your goal is to set up a good dating website, do the opposite of everything you see at this site and you should be quite successful.

Prior to their website makeover a few months ago they had a very decent-looking site that was very popular with the men here.

Unfortunately it has now become a disaster that I seldom visit anymore.

Totally agree.  Things like my personal email address suddenly became public, the weekly newsletters stopped, and the last time I looked you still couldn't tell when the last time was that someone had logged in (all of which you could see before the makeover).  It's a crying shame because it was so good before.  I just don't bother looking now.

[Baikalstorm]

Anastasiia with two "i"s!
An interesting story, and I'm glad that your journey has had such a positive result.  Just out of interest (because EVERYBODY on this forum will be wondering), how old is your husband?  I see that you are 24.

It will be my pleasure to answer your questions.

My husband is in his 20s. I was surprised about marrying such a young man, because lots of my friends are dating men older than them. Actually one of them just married an American man 15 years older than her.

Are you studying at University in the USA?  If not, what work (if any) are you doing now, and do you intend to resume your studies at some point?

I'm not currently studying anywhere. Although, I would love to go to a University when I have an opportunity.

I worked in sales for several years, and I felt like it wasn't for me, so now I'm looking for a new career.

What you're suggesting by way of a website, and with Gator's input as to a possible path, you might perhaps be better off setting up as an actual matchmaker in the Irish tradition.  That way you know all your clients and can (hopefully) find a better partner for them.  We have a Russian male member (Eduard) who does this already, although we do have certain members who scoff at his methods and alleged results, but a female would bring a different perspective.

As Gator says, the world does NOT need yet another website with nothing to recommend it over the thousands already operating.  Whatever your intentions may be, it would take you a very long time to build up enough clients to give you a comfortable living.

I'm not planning to use my website as the only source of income. I look at this as something that I would have pleasure doing, and having money coming from it will not hurt my bank account

[Baikalstorm]

Hi Anastasiia,

Welcome to the site! 

Please visit Elena's Models website.
If your goal is to set up a good dating website, do the opposite of everything you see at this site and you should be quite successful.

Prior to their website makeover a few months ago they had a very decent-looking site that was very popular with the men here.

Unfortunately it has now become a disaster that I seldom visit anymore.

Hi CanadaMan,

Thank you for you feedback

Do you know why people are complaining about Elenasmodels.com right now?

What is it that made it popular in the past? 

[Baikalstorm]

                                         
There are also many American born that might talk a lot but say little to nothing.
What city do you reside?

Los Angeles

[calmissile]

Los Angeles

There are several members in the LA area.  I am in Redlands, near Riverside.
Good luck on your idea.   
Bedtime.....have to work tomorrow.

[Baikalstorm]

Welcome to the forum and good luck in the creation of your website.

Thank you, BillyB.

[Lily]

Hello Anasiasia,

Welcome to the forum! 

I, too, went to the U.S. on a J-1 visa in order to study for a degree in Chicago. However, I was not able to change my status, and had to leave home to Russia for at least two years after I got my degree, which was a condition of my J-1 visa.

Well done with your change of status! How did you do that? A J-1 has the strictest conditions!

[GQBlues]

...I would really appreciate your feedback....

If this is something you're seriously contemplating on doing, it would behoove you to get as much information as you can so you are better able to make your projections in your approach. Find out about a few things that you'll need to know.

For instance...

1. Licensing and what the regulatory by-laws that you'll need to adhere to. Read about IMBRA if you're target audience are American males.

2. Plot how the market is regarding international match and marriages, or otherwise known as M.O.B. Find out which region will serve you better. What I mean by that is, for example...in the US, from the last decade or so, K-visas had gone down for both Russia and Ukraine. IINM, at its peak with Russia, there used to be roughly 3,000 K-Visas annually. Lately it's down to roughly in the 4-500 range annually. While the petitioners are US citizens, it doesn't really tell you how many of these petitions are between ex-pats (Russian-American) or non-Russian.

Of course, that's only for the US. You still have the rest of the western regions to set your sights on. But also consider that this market is already saturated and fairly competitive. Even if you *capture* 10% of that market, just make sure whatever ever revenue you gain is on par within your projection.

I do agree with you however that there are more than a few single Russian women in Los Angeles looking for love. But LA also have a huge supply of eligible singles vying to find a match. There's more than enough Beach Barbies available to expect many of the younger Kens to bother themselves with a 'particular' look or ethnicity, much less have to go abroad to find their squeeze.

But regardless, I hope you find your calling...good luck.

[Baikalstorm]

Hello Anasiasia,

Welcome to the forum! 

I, too, went to the U.S. on a J-1 visa in order to study for a degree in Chicago. However, I was not able to change my status, and had to leave home to Russia for at least two years after I got my degree, which was a condition of my J-1 visa.

Well done with your change of status! How did you do that? A J-1 has the strictest conditions!

Hi Lily,

Thank you

Well, first I found an English School. Then I brought the right documents to the School (passport, my job offer for my J-1 visa, a copy of a bank statement, and money). And then I sent a request for changing my status to USCIS. I had to wait for their approval for three months though. Luckily, they approved my request. Although, I know that lots of people are not able to switch from J-1 to F-1 visa without leaving the US.

[Baikalstorm]

If this is something you're seriously contemplating on doing, it would behoove you to get as much information as you can so you are better able to make your projections in your approach. Find out about a few things that you'll need to know.

For instance...

1. Licensing and what the regulatory by-laws that you'll need to adhere to. Read about IMBRA if you're target audience are American males.

2. Plot how the market is regarding international match and marriages, or otherwise known as M.O.B. Find out which region will serve you better. What I mean by that is, for example...in the US, from the last decade or so, K-visas had gone down for both Russia and Ukraine. IINM, at its peak with Russia, there used to be roughly 3,000 K-Visas annually. Lately it's down to roughly in the 4-500 range annually. While the petitioners are US citizens, it doesn't really tell you how many of these petitions are between ex-pats (Russian-American) or non-Russian.

Of course, that's only for the US. You still have the rest of the western regions to set your sights on. But also consider that this market is already saturated and fairly competitive. Even if you *capture* 10% of that market, just make sure whatever ever revenue you gain is on par within your projection.

I do agree with you however that there are more than a few single Russian women in Los Angeles looking for love. But LA also have a huge supply of eligible singles vying to find a match. There's more than enough Beach Barbies available to expect many of the younger Kens to bother themselves with a 'particular' look or ethnicity, much less have to go abroad to find their squeeze.

But regardless, I hope you find your calling...good luck.

Hi GQBlues,

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my post. 

I'm committed to creating my dating website. So your advice is very helpful to me.

[Shadow]

Welcome Anastasiia.

Regarding your plans, you will first have to think over what your business model will be, and if you plan to create this to help out people or to make money. While one does not exclude the other, the idea you put in to it will determine the outcome.

Just a few examples:
- probably the largest amount of money in this business is made from the men who do NOT seriously look for a woman, but chase a fantasy that they will never be able to reach.
- women get a lot of unwanted attiontion and indecent proposals. Also some women use this as opportunity to scam or other insincere purposes. Are you willing to spend a lot of time and effort in weedng this out?
- By keeping it small and personal you may be able to earn a decent amount, but you will have to strongly limit your clients and invest a lot of time. Do you have this available?

[Lily]

Would you tell us how did you met your man while in the U.S.?

As a result, I have an idea for creating a dating website for those who are interested in meeting Russian or (Eastern European) women. I know that there are dating websites for meeting Russian women out there, and it doesn't stop me from creating my own. Obviously something is not right with these sites because I know so many single Russian girls who are not using them.
 

I'd have a question here.

For any dating site, the biggest value is his actual members. Every site is only as good as their members are. How do you think you would recruit women who would be ready to find a foreign mate? Why would they be interested in joining your site, and not Elenasmodels or other?