Agencies and paid websites - what is the benefit?

[Mike78]

Hi there, I'm new to this forum and to this whole thing.

My question - what exactly is the benefit of the paid websites and agency run websites? There are tons of free websites like FreePersonals.ru, Mamba network, etc. with thousands of members. Why would anybody in their right mind use one of the paid websites? The ones where you pay per letter, per contact, etc, seem especially devious. With all the scamming on the agencies' side (making arranged, photoshopped pictures, recruiting and paying attractive local girls that are not really that interested in marriage, outright fabricating of profiles and letters,..), why would anybody want to pay for service that is potentially worse than the free service?

What am I missing here?

[Misha]

I don't know as I met my wife using singles.ru a site that is part of the mamba network.

[JR]

Quite a few of the men here met their wives through an agency. You just have to steer clear of the bad ones. The plus side to an agency is the the women there at least understand that they would be moving to be with you. A girl from a free site looking to date locally may have no intention of leaving her home, thus you could waste a lot of time approaching women who aren't interested.

[Shadow]

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Any site with a reasonable amount of traffic will need money to keep running.
some sties live of the ads that surround the free profiles, others choose to get the money directly from those interested.

It depends on what you expect from a site or agency, and what you need from them.

Are you not having a problem in differentiating between scammers and real women ? Can you manage your own travel and find ways to send gifts ? Do you have enough time on your hands to read and write a lot in order to find the correct woman ?
These are questions that define the level of service you want, and that will determine your choice for free site, paid site or agency.

In all these there are cases which are ran as pure scam and cases that are ran honestly and provide what they offer, and many shades of grey in between.

[Aloe]

Here is my outlook. If a man is writing to me and it cost money for him to write to me, there is a bigger chance he is serious. Even on a paid website, like 99% of men are not serious, the percentage on a free site must be 99.99999999999999999 then.
Mamba is also very bad imo. I had a profile there, 99% of guys offer sex in 1st-3rd message, out of the blue, why would anyone wanna hang out there? It gets boring, after opening 100th message like "Hey sexy, wanna spend the best night of your life with me?" or "Hey, lets *snip*!", or "Want a great cuni?" and etc.  If you ignore all the guys who write to you unless you know them, maybe then you can be there, but whats the point then, chat to your girlfriends?    Even those who dont mention sex in their first message, come up with it in later messages. It is practically impossible to find anyone on there who isnt there to find a fuck buddy

[Turboguy]

I think Aloe is on the right track.  I think it depends a lot on how you value your time.  When I was searching I used freepersonals.ru and Elena's   I recall one lady on FP mentioning that she had 500 responces the first day her ad was listed.  I am sure a big part of those were armchair romeos who will never make the trip.  I had a much lower response rate with FP and had a much higher drop out rate after the first letter or two.  Basically I wasted a lot more time with FP than with Elena's.  If your object is to write to beautiful women you can do that for free.  If your object is to find a good woman to marry spending a little money might make the process faster and keep you from wasting time and making trips that don't work out.

I personally stayed totally away from the pay per letter sites.   I experimented a bit with Global Ladies but it didn't take me too long to figure out I was wasting my money.   One friend of mine told me he was spening $ 600.00 a month on GL and from what he said he was getting nowhere.  My platinum membership on Elenas was the best investment I ever made.

[Misha]

Here is my outlook. If a man is writing to me and it cost money for him to write to me, there is a bigger chance he is serious. Even on a paid website, like 99% of men are not serious, the percentage on a free site must be 99.99999999999999999 then.

Well, you are exaggerating a bit, but it is true that it is a numbers game. You must spend a lot of time contacting many women before you find the right one. However, if you are serious, and aren't crude in your first message, then you are already better than most of your competition. The plus side if you are using a free Russian dating site is that you don't have to really worry about scammers IMHO: there were so few foreigners when I was using singles.ru that it was simply not worth the time for somebody to set up a fake profile as the odds of a foreigner happening to come across it were close to zero. Also, you must spend some time at it and that is true for both men and women. You can't expect to find the "One" the first day or even the first week or month. You will have to send hundreds, perhaps thousands of messages, and chat with dozens and dozens of women to find a few that might interest you and you her. The plus side of course is that it is FREE.

[Aloe]

Misha, my point was why would any decent girl hang out at mamba, if all you get is sex offers? Maybe its different for older women, but for young women its just that. Most of time on mamba is a complete waste, cuz everyone is just looking to get laid on your first date, so why bother spending time there?

[Misha]

Misha, my point was why would any decent girl hang out at mamba, if all you get is sex offers?

So are you saying my wife was not a decent girl  Different women have different strategies. You can easily delete the men who immediately offer you sex, you can filter out all the other men who clearly are not worth your time and simply meet those few men who seem nice enough for a coffee over lunch. Out of those decent men, you may eventually find one that you want to date and marry. One who actually vacuums and cooks 

Maybe its different for older women, but for young women its just that. Most of time on mamba is a complete waste, cuz everyone is just looking to get laid on your first date, so why bother spending time there?

True, if you are 19 or 20 and surrounded by single male classmates, you have many other options. My wife was already at the ripe old age of 26 (yes, I am being sarcastic  ) and was not married and was not surrounded by single men. So, she used singles.ru as one option to see if there were any eligible men in her city. She would check every so often to see who had written to her and eventually met me. Close to four years later we are still together, so clearly it was not a complete waste for her 

[kievstar]

I used agencies and paid extra to make sure I got better service than any man using them.  Did this when I lived in Ukraine and in Europe.  That was my method and worked great for me.  I am not a keyboard romeo or phone lord.  My strengths are face to face on the ground.  But I think you need to have money and time to make this work.  I met more women in person than I ever wrote a letter to.  Blind meetings.  They just saw my photo before meeting.

Woman I married thought agencies and internet were a joke. She was helping her friends who worked in agencies as she got a lot of letter traffic.  No she got no money.  But slowly many of her friends all got married to foreign men including herself.  So agencies work.  Most men who use agencies do not write on this board or on the internet.  Huge population of married men out there from agencies.

More than likely on this board your going to find more phone lords and keyboard romeos.  Nothing wrong with this strategy. 

IMHO face to face will do better than phone and letter.  Agencies make face to face easy to happen.  So paying $50 usd to see a woman is a small price.

So you meet 100 women and pay $5,000 usd.  How much time do keyboard romeos and phone lords waste before first meeting?  Time is more expensive to me than money.

[Misha]

Agencies make face to face easy to happen. 

This is pretty much the same strategy with a free site. Could easily set up a first date and then meet in person. You meet, see if things click, if not you move on.

[Rina_G]

Hi guys!
if you say "I met my wife on this site" - say please WHEN it was/
Internet is very fast thing and one sites are died and another are born

My opinion - to look for on dating sites.
You choise, you look, you think
you're men but not kids
yes you can meet scammers on dating sites but you can meet scammers agencies
when I listen story about using agencies I understand one thing - agensies are using your money better than scammers.
P.S. When I'll come to US - I open dating agency obligately - lol

[Aloe]

P.S. When I'll come to US - I open dating agency obligately - lol

Interesting way to put it. Are you looking for guys exclusively from the US, and if so, why? Just curious

[Rina_G]

Interesting way to put it. Are you looking for guys exclusively from the US, and if so, why? Just curious

no not only USA but it has to be another business I didn't think about it 
cause in this moment I'm siiting on my ass in Russia

[Chicagoguy]

For me it was effective to post my own pictures and profile on different sites and let those who were interested write to me first. And I had the best responses on the free ones.

[shakespear]

My question - what exactly is the benefit of the paid websites and agency run websites? There are tons of free websites like FreePersonals.ru, Mamba network, etc. with thousands of members. Why would anybody in their right mind use one of the paid websites? The ones where you pay per letter, per contact, etc, seem especially devious. With all the scamming on the agencies' side (making arranged, photoshopped pictures, recruiting and paying attractive local girls that are not really that interested in marriage, outright fabricating of profiles and letters,..), why would anybody want to pay for service that is potentially worse than the free service?

What am I missing here?

You've accurately highlighted all the possible negative aspects of working with a less than honest agency. 

There are definite benefits of working with a known honest agency.  Such agencies will pre-screen their ladies so no scammers or professional daters will be listed.  They'll translate your communication accurately and with the proper context and grammar; something that an on-line translation program would never be able to do.  They know the local area and will be able to set you up with apartments and if needed, translators; as well as driving lessons and language lessons for your lady.  They can intercede and clear up any small misunderstanding that might occur between you and your ladyfriend.  Of course they'll charge a reasonable fee for providing these services, something which seems to insult your average western bride seeker.  It seems that many who pursue this endeavor feel that if it is on the internet, it should be free.

Personally, wading through all the thousands of profiles of prostitutes, wannabe kept women, scammers, professional daters, lunatics, mental cases and other completely unsuitable candidates that you'll find on most free sites holds no interest for me.

I met my wife at a paid agency site in 2001.  I consider the services I received from them to be worth every penny I spent.  You just can't understate the value of an HONEST agency in this quest.

FYI, my wife was listed at two agencies in the city of Volgograd.  During our courtship, I worked with them both and can provide a positive recommendation as to their honesty, dependability and positive customer service attitude.

http://www.anastasya.com  (nothing whatsoever to do with anastasiaweb)
http://www.karmen-agency.com

Usual disclaimer about no ownership in either agency nor any financial conflict of interest involving either agency applies       

[Rina_G]

guys please write WHEN you met your wife - in what year

situation changes

[GQBlues]

Agencies and paid websites - what is the benefit?

My lovely wife from Novosibirsk - 2004 Elena's Models.

[Jooky]

Personally, wading through all the bull*snip* profiles of prostitutes, wannabe kept women, scammers, professional daters, lunatics, mental cases and other completely unsuitable candidates that you'll find on most free sites holds no interest for me.

I met my wife at a paid agency site in 2001.

If you met your wife in 2001, what experience could you possibly have 'wading through the bull of free sites' when none of the major free Russian dating sites were a viable option 9 years ago?

[Misha]

A girl from a free site looking to date locally may have no intention of leaving her home, thus you could waste a lot of time approaching women who aren't interested.

Why? My wife didn't have immigration on her mind when she met me. She did, however, fall in love and decide to move. If it wasn't for me, she would likely be back in Russia. At least, I know that my wife married me for love, not a passport  I would say that is actually a good thing.

[Jooky]

Huge population of married men out there from agencies.

What percentage of men and women that use agencies and bridal sites do you think end up (happily) married? Does anyone have any idea?

[groovlstk]

The dymanics have completely changed. These days most young women have access to a computer, which wasn't the case 10 years ago.

Most guys from my graduating class used agencies. Yes, it was convenient and like other men I met a lot of wonderful women in this manner. But what guys just starting out today may not realize is that back then, unless you could take an extended leave/work remotely and spend months at a clip in Russia or Ukraine, there were no other options. Yes, if you knew someone married to a RW she might try to introduce you to friends, but for most of us using agencies was the only option. (Cue some of the older guys who legitimately claim it was even harder in the days of printed catalogs.)

This is doubly true for the women a decade ago, without a computer the freepersonals.ru option was off the table and agencies were the first and last resort.

If I had to start over today, given what I've experienced and knowing there are many more options for meeting available women, I would steer clear of agencies or, at the very least, diversify the ways I would meet women to include chat, skype, Russian dating sites, and expat friends. 

[GQBlues]

I agree with what you said, groov.

If I had to start over today, given what I've experienced and knowing there are many more options for meeting available women, I would steer clear of agencies or, at the very least, diversify the ways I would meet women to include chat, skype, Russian dating sites, and expat friends. 

As for me, I would stay clear of hunting in FSU altogether. There's a lot to be said in marrying someone from your own culture, or at least one who is already acclimated to it. If RW remains a romantic persuasion, there's quite a few acclimated ladies already living here.

[Dave13]

Using an honset agency is a major help for some of the men in this process, it all depends on you. I became engaged to my wife during my second trip to Russia in 2003. I used lifetimepartners.com, still have contacts with Marc and some of the staff in Tver, my wife Anna worked for the company.

Dave

[shakespear]

If you met your wife in 2001, what experience could you possibly have 'wading through the bull of free sites' when none of the major free Russian dating sites were a viable option 9 years ago? 

Over the years, I've perused several of the free sites out of curiosity.  Wanted to keep informed about the current trends in this endeavor.  Just 'cuz your married doesn't mean you stop learning.