Running FSU Ads

[ECOCKS]

I know some of you guys run ads in local papers and am a bit curious how you see that works out, particularly as compared to using a site like EM for dating? There used to be quite a few ads in the Kyiv Post but those seemed to slow down about three years ago.

What kinds of wording d your try?

How do you think this affects the possibility of being targeted by scammers, the pro-daters or even the semi-pros who just want to try for some dinners and gifts?

Does it seem to work better to run them in English or Russian?

Other issues which arise from using this approach?

[Steamer]

When I started into this European Connections published a catalogue with men's photos and profiles that was distributed among the women at their socials. I chose this route because the womens catalogue looked like it was full of movie stars. Rather than waste a lot of time being rejected because of looks I decided to have the women write to me first. I recieved about 200 letters. At least half of these were fishing for money but they were quite obvious about it so sorting them out was no problem.

My profile ran in Russian. It was only about 20 words and was very generic. I chose my wifes profile from these replies and we celebrated our 11th anniversary yesterday.

[ECOCKS]

Grats!

Interesting information. But yours was in a private circular catalog rather than a daily newspaper, right?

On another note, we should identify our 10+ Club members (Buy them a pin or something Dan!). I can think of you, kbluck and there is at least one other here who has survived 10 years.

Great to have some positive stories!

[Jack]

rather than a daily newspaper, right?

Running personal ads in daily/weekly newspapers thoughout most of Ukraine, including Kharkov, for ladies younger than 36 is almost a complete waste of time.

For men who are seeking ladies say 38, 40 and over, running newspaper ads is still a very good route to go.   This is my opinion only.

[Steamer]

Thanks

Interesting information. But yours was in a private circular catalog rather than a daily newspaper, right?

Yes it was. It seemed to work better because it reached more of the target audience. I knew some guys that tried newspapers and they said that on top of the sincere women and the usual scammers they got a LOT of very nasty mail from the nationalistic sorts, men and women. Also they couldn't put photos unless they wanted to spend a lot more money.

[ECOCKS]

Target audience?

LOL - no disrespect, I understand it just struck me as funny. But obviously very practical and real as a consideration for the more efficient and businesslike personalities.

Yes, it is much more targeted at a seemingly receptive audience. I suspect this was a factor in the KP ads since the audience was obviously primarily English-speaking. Equally though it allows scammers to very effectively target tourists looking for a relationship.

A similar approach seems to lend itself to the thoughts about tour groups. If it was REALLY girls who honestly were looking for foreign relationships instead of a few gifts and good times then it would seem to make more sense.

[Manny]

We once tried it the other way around. We ran ads for Ladagirl.ru appealing to women who wanted to meet foreign men. We ran them in Tallinn, Estonia and Togliatti, Russia. In Tallinn, the response was almost zero (as expected). In Togliatti, the response was initially encouraging in that it got quite a few calls at the start, but few of them turned into actual profiles. Wifey's filters excluded most of them as "not serious".

[TwoBitBandit]

I ran an ad in Sochi three or four years ago.  Most of the responses I got were from women who didn't quite understand the concept: I got lots of responses that were older, had children or were not attractive.  I met a couple of the girls but it was only because I was out of prospects in that city.  It was a waste of time for me.  I was much better off chasing girls off mamba.ru.

[ML]

Running personal ads in daily/weekly newspapers thoughout most of Ukraine, including Kharkov, for ladies younger than 36 is almost a complete waste of time.

For men who are seeking ladies say 38, 40 and over, running newspaper ads is still a very good route to go.   This is my opinion only.

My experience does not match with your opinion Jack.

I ran ads in several Kharkiv newspapers and the ads were placed and coordinated by a very reliable person.  My target group was 40 and above.  I only received about 10 replies over 4 weeks of ads AND NONE of them was worthwhile.  Every woman who replied was ready for market, in the porker sense.  All had good English however, as the ad stated for them to reply in English.  Several had good careers and education, but they were just overweight.

So I must conclude that running newspaper ads is a complete waste of time in today's environment.  I understand in earlier years that it was very fruitful.  I think now with the widespread availability and use of the internet, that all serious women have migrated to dating websites where they can view and correspond with hundreds of guys, and they won't waste their time on one shot deals in the newspaper where they have no profile to review, probably no pics to look at, etc.

[kievstar]

manlooking, can you post the ad you put in the paper. Was the ad in English or Russian and what time of the year was it posted? 

[Jack]

ManLooking I am sorry you did not have such good results in Kharkov.

For men seeking ladies 40 and over we have had very good success with getting a lot of replies for men in and around Kharkov.  Just last month one man of 59 received well over 240 replies from ladies 40-48 in the Kharkov region, not just the city of Kharkov but the surrounding cities as well.  Most of these women the client was not interested in but he was with 12 of the women who replied.

One of the reasons newspaper ads are not helping to find women in their 20's and 30's is as you mentioned, the i-net.  But we see a LOT of ladies in there 40's who do not use a computer or i-net but what they do read the local newspapers.

As Kievstar mentioned, could you share any info about your ad?  I know I would be interested in seeing it.

[Vaughn]

I have to wonder if ManLooking stated his own requirements regarding the woman he sought -
or did he simply describe only himself, thereby attracting replies from unqualifieds... ?

[ML]

I am a very private person with a highly visible professional career; so you will all understand that I cannot post any info that would identify me both as the person who is posting here AND the person that you (and my lady friends) may have met or be meeting in the future.

As to my ads, they were written in English since I only wanted to hear from gals who could read, write and talk English.  They were long ads that told some about myself and the qualities I was looking for in a woman.  The ads were placed in newspapers that circulated in Kharkiv and the surrounding area; and they were placed by a highly competetent 'helper' of western businessmen.

There was no picture of myself in the ads; again with regard to my professional position.  You can read my postings and judge for yourself if you think I can come up with a well written ad.

The ads ran in late March and April.

I am truly mystified, and actually quite peeeeed, that I got maybe 10 in total with all being a waste, while Jack claims another man got 240 in total with 12 viable!!!!!

Or wait . . . does Jack's 240 cover women who DO NOT speak English?

[Jack]

oh nooo, most ladies spoke English. I would guess over 90%, spoke some English.   We mentioned that "you must be able to speak at least a little English".  It was evident we have 20 or 25 women who spoke no English at all but that's normal.  People who reply do not always follow the requested guidelines.

But to post a newspaper ad without a photo!  Never.  The number of replies we get, because we have done this before when the client insisted, the number of replies we would get when running an ad without photo might be 5 to 15.

manlooking I can appreciate you wanting to keep low visability on this board,  many professional men feel the same way, and I completely understand, especially with some of the nut jobs around here. I was reading yesterday one of Kuna's post about a problem he has had with an individual here and I can understand the want and need to keep low visibilty.  But when we are talking about posting your photo in local newspapers of small cities of 20,000, medium size cities of 50,000-70,000, as well bigger cities like Kharkov, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, to name a few, one really has to take the chance by posting his photo.

[Jack]

Manlooking, feel free to PM me if you have some questions or other thoughts.

[ECOCKS]

I can see where the photo would be a critical point for FSUW to decide to participate or not.

We also used to see ads in the KP which were obviously sex ads plus some that were trying to skate the edge to avoid outright hookers. Things like:

"Assistant wanted for businessman on 6 week business trip traveling to multiple Ukrainian cities and town while looking for business opportunities. Must be between 19 and 26, attractive, have good English and positive attitude. All expenses paid plus salary."

When I was recruiting teachers and PA's in Kyiv I was approached a couple of times by non-Ukrainian guys wanting PA's (WINK, WINK, WINK) on a "temp" basis. One American @$$ from Odessa in particular wanted to hire 2 PA's for 6 months as part of the crew for a 70' mini-yacht but said it had to include "privileges" for him and his partner. They had some scheme to open a boat brokerage in Ukraine and he was pretty clear he wanted/expected/hoped to have a party life style.

[Brianinaz]

I have to say that my experience does not parallel the other posters. I ran (well actually had it run) an ad in the local paper in Kharkov and the results were excellent. Quite excellent actually as my wife was one of the responders. I only did it once so I guess my experience is limited but I found the women I met seemed different than women I had met through EM, or other agencies (no disrespect intended to men who met their ladies through an agency nor to the women themselves). None of them had signed up with an agency and most had never considered a relationship with a foreigner. 

Their ages were mid 20's through mid 30's. A good percentage just happened to be looking through the paper rather than actively "searching" for a partner. The ad was in Russian. I did not exclude women based on language ability (actually it was my wife who imposed a language restriction. When she replied she wrote "I would be glad to meet with you if you speak Russian". I have about a 50 word Russian vocabulary and she was pretty cute so I figured 50 words qualifies). To be honest I never found language to be a limiting issue. The ad itself was pretty generic; where I was from a few interests, well educated, and the ubiquitous loves children and wants a family. I did include a picture.

As for pro-daters I think you are much more likely to meet them through an agency than through a local ad. I think it is an excellent way to meet women you would not otherwise come in contact with.