Hello!

[GroomsCatalog]

Hello everyone!

I'm actually a commercial member, but not sure when that designation will appear on my profile. I've lurked on this forum before, but finally decided to sign up.

I'm an American who lives in Nikolaev, Ukraine, and I'm new to the commercial side of things. The project I'm working on right now is actually giving a bit of a twist to the classic "marriage agency" formula. Instead of putting women in a catalog or website and letting the men pick, we're flipping it the other way around: letting the women choose the men!

I'm not here to advertise, but more to learn about international dating. I look forward to engaging in conversations with you all in the future!

[SANDRO43]

I'm actually a commercial member, but not sure when that designation will appear on my profile.

It already does, under your nick in red at left .

I'm an American who lives in Nikolaev, Ukraine, and I'm new to the commercial side of things. The project I'm working on right now is actually giving a bit of a twist to the classic "marriage agency" formula. Instead of putting women in a catalog or website and letting the men pick, we're flipping it the other way around: letting the women choose the men!

Which begs the question: how 'reliable' are your ladies ?

I'm not here to advertise, but more to learn about international dating.

You could benefit from reading our E-book (dowloadable here: http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?action=ezportal;sa=page;p=47). It's a bit dated (2007), but it's a digest of our members' direct experiences in this venture up to then.

BTW, 
  to RWD.

[GQBlues]

...we're flipping it the other way around: etting the women choose the men!...

That's a pretty daunting endeavor, if I've ever seen one. Conceptually, it's admirable at the least. If nothing else, it'll be interesting.

Can you provide a link to your website once it's up and running?

[TS]

There are several agencies that do this in Ukraine.  I know several expats who got married this way.
The problem your going to have is if you don't include expats and have a lot of men from Europe your going to have few visitors. 

[ML]

You are not the first person to post here with this idea.

I don't remember who and when the others were.

My business prediction is that your venture will be a total bust and waste of any money you put into it.

Basic reason is the most simple of economic concepts:  Supply and Demand.

Despite all the writing and even whining and despair here about 'how to attract, wine and dine, and get a FSUW to agree to be with and marry you,' the simple fact is there are much more of them 'available' than there are of us (western men) 'looking.'

Sure maybe it's not fair . . . but it's also not fair that I have X and someone else has XX of any particular element known to mankind.
Life is life.

[Lily]

My business prediction is that your venture will be a total bust and waste of any money you put into it.

Basic reason is the most simple of economic concepts:  Supply and Demand.

Despite all the writing and even whining and despair here about 'how to attract, wine and dine, and get a FSUW to agree to be with and marry you,' the simple fact is there are much more of them 'available' than there are of us (western men) 'looking.'

Exactly.
 

Instead of putting women in a catalog or website and letting the men pick, we're flipping it the other way around: letting the women choose the men!

Dear Groomscatalog, the whole thing in this international Internet dating is that there are two worlds of people, namely, the Western men who want the FSU women, and vice versa, FSU women who want Western men. I mean, those who want it, of course. These two groups are desirable for each other, and employ various means to get close to each other, Internet and matchmakers including.
 
At the same time, there is a huge factor in this endeavour, which is distance and the related travel restrictions, like visas, time, money, sometimes language and mentality, etc.
 
Now here comes the thing. Those who can overcome this distance factor, have their choice. It is not a big deal to register on the dating site, and to start corresponding. If a man is able to get a visa, to purchase a ticket, and to squeeze some time out of his allegedly busy work schedule in order to see a woman on the other part of Earth - the choice is HIS. A woman who doesn't move from her place faces competition from her peers who are also after a Western man. She does not chose but is being chosen, among several women like herself. Do you see what I mean?
 
Whoever is successful in overcoming the distance, has his or her pickings. It does not mean that the traveller is not being chosen on his turn, no. Many men are rejected by women of their choice anyway. However, if you don't do the move, your chances are very small, being proportional to the personal attractivity.
 
Curious, Groomscatalog, how is your business running? May be you organize a weekend chuttle Nikoleav - Chicago full of women? 
 
 

[pokerintherear]

As others have said, it has been tried in the past but does not mean it wont work. I find it interesting and have some questions and comments.

I found the site and see the usual "model type" photos of woman with the price of ads. Typical attitude of this type of business. Most people will spend money on a product they feel is worth the price. Put more emphasis on what you offer not the money you want to collect.

I could see myself trying something like this as another option. But I would need to see more information of how it works before I published an ad. How do you determine your targeted audience and how do you reach this group of people?

Do you have a store front location where the woman can come and look at the ads? You say the flyers are distributed. How? I would not want my picture and personal information spread around in flyers on street corners or on the subway walls. How do you get this catalog into the hands of the serious woman looking to date a foreign man?

Of course the dynamics come down the same as other dating sites just in another way. The man still must choose in the end who he wants to pursue. 

 

[Faux Pas]

I wouldn't be so quick to poo-poo on Groomscatalog idea. They called Sam Walton crazy when he came up with an idea that some people want to shop after 6 and on weekends. ML, Lilly whether it is a failure will be directly related to how much he puts into it and how much he gets out.

It's a different concept that has been tried to varying degrees before. That doesn't mean he can make a successful go at it. The safe money rarely makes anything. 

[tfcrew]

I'm an American who lives in Nikolaev...

we're flipping it the other way around: letting the women choose the men!

 

                 
 Nothing really new there. My wife had found my profile and wrote to me [14 years ago]
Ultimately, the girls choose the guys anyway.
What  took you to Nicolaev?
 

[SANDRO43]

I wouldn't be so quick to poo-poo on Groomscatalog idea.

Somewhat excrementally excessive - unless you meant pooh-pooh ?

[Faux Pas]

Somewhat excrementally excessive - unless you meant pooh-pooh ?

Cunning, a very cunning linguist is SANDRO 

[GQBlues]

Noticing the usual trend of the MOB, can any man join and sign in with your program, not as an 'available' candidate per se...but something comparable to women termed by western men as 'Back-ups'...they normally are the ones with higher percentages of engagements with western men.

These women come highly recommended by the experts for the touring man.

[SANDRO43]

Cunning, a very cunning linguist is SANDRO

Which may make one discern possible hidden messages in an otherwise innocent-looking sentence - are you into cryptology/steganography ?

[Faux Pas]

Which may make one discern possible hidden messages in an otherwise innocent-looking sentence - are you into cryptology/steganography ?

Nah, I'm not smart enough 

[ML]

Cunning, a very cunning linguist is SANDRO 

I thought Cunnilingus was an Irish airline company.

[GroomsCatalog]

Thank you all for your feedback. I didn't want to post a link to the site, as I didn't want to be considered a spammer. However, you can find the site here: http://groomscatalog.com/

The site is fully operational now. I'm actually not the one who came up with the idea. My Ukrainian business partner had the idea and already had the gears turning when he brought me on, mainly to act as a point of contact as well as clean up the English on the site (which hasn't been finished yet).

Many of you bring up valid points. I have no idea how well this idea will work. It's possible it'll be a complete bust. However, I was intrigued by it due to the fact that it's a bit different than all of the other agency models/ideas I've seen out there.

As far as distribution goes, the catalog will be distributed throughout the oblast, with a big focus on many of the villages rather than the city itself. It will be distributed in the same way as most other catalogs, namely through news sellers and many other places where you can find catalogs and magazines. I personally know a few ladies here in my city who are quite interested in seeing the catalog once the first issue has been published, so I don't think it will be a complete bust, but how successful it will be remains to be seen.

[GQBlues]

Nice layout!

Although it appears you haven't succeeded to convince guy #1 yet, I see. Also, I was expecting a concept where, like you mentioned, you'll have pics of western men (  ) showcased instead of women, so they can make their 'picks'.

For instance, like Elena's Models, categorized based on country / region / age in the search function. Arrange the preference, click the mouse, and - bwalla! There'll be 'Bob', Billy-Bob', Billy-Joe', Billy-John', 'John-Boy', etc...all in different sexy poses.

It will also be interesting to see the bio re: how old they really are in relation to how young they believe they look.

[Faux Pas]

It would appear that you are selling space like a print catalog and it also appears quite pricey. FWIW

[SANDRO43]

It would appear that you are selling space like a print catalog and it also appears quite pricey. FWIW

I agree, I can't really see a crowd of WM queueing up to register there, but I could be mistaken .

[steveboy]

Thank you all for your feedback. I didn't want to post a link to the site, as I didn't want to be considered a spammer. However, you can find the site here: http://groomscatalog.com/

The site is fully operational now. I'm actually not the one who came up with the idea. My Ukrainian business partner had the idea and already had the gears turning when he brought me on, mainly to act as a point of contact as well as clean up the English on the site (which hasn't been finished yet).

Many of you bring up valid points. I have no idea how well this idea will work. It's possible it'll be a complete bust. However, I was intrigued by it due to the fact that it's a bit different than all of the other agency models/ideas I've seen out there.

As far as distribution goes, the catalog will be distributed throughout the oblast, with a big focus on many of the villages rather than the city itself. It will be distributed in the same way as most other catalogs, namely through news sellers and many other places where you can find catalogs and magazines. I personally know a few ladies here in my city who are quite interested in seeing the catalog once the first issue has been published, so I don't think it will be a complete bust, but how successful it will be remains to be seen.

Ukrainian business partner!!! OMG be careful you have been warned:)

[GroomsCatalog]

Thank you all again for the feedback. The price issue is something I initially balked at myself, so I'm not really surprised to hear other complaints about it. I'm going to see what I can do to get the prices lowered.

The person who mentioned that this appears to be selling space in a print ad. Yes, that's exactly what it is. We'll be printing a catalog with a distribution of around 100,000 copies to distribute throughout the oblast.

Lastly, regarding being careful with a Ukrainian business partner...I've got my eyes wide open on that believe me. However, my experience here in Ukraine so far has taught me to be much more wary of Americans who live here.

[Lily]

As far as distribution goes, the catalog will be distributed throughout the oblast, with a big focus on many of the villages rather than the city itself. It will be distributed in the same way as most other catalogs, namely through news sellers and many other places where you can find catalogs and magazines. I personally know a few ladies here in my city who are quite interested in seeing the catalog once the first issue has been published, so I don't think it will be a complete bust, but how successful it will be remains to be seen.

Are you going to distribute it in hard (paper) copies, or just through your website?
 
If I correctly understand your idea, you invite Western men to place their ads, including photos, in your catalog which then is supposed to reach for the FSU ladies. Which way would then the ladies be able to contact the men of their choice?

[ML]

If I correctly understand your idea, you invite Western men to place their ads, including photos, in your catalog which then is supposed to reach for the FSU ladies. Which way would then the ladies be able to contact the men of their choice?

Lily, this would work as a mirror image to the typical agencies/websites that are populated by FSUW with WM writing to them.

i.e. When the FSUW 'chose' a potential partner and wrote to him; the agency would actually send her letter to an overweight AW.  This AW would then carry on the correspondence (pretending to be the man whom the FSUW had contacted) with fees charged for each message, translations, etc.  This would be 'Fat Sally.'

[Lily]

This would be 'Fat Sally.'

 

[Faux Pas]

The person who mentioned that this appears to be selling space in a print ad. Yes, that's exactly what it is. We'll be printing a catalog with a distribution of around 100,000 copies to distribute throughout the oblast.

Ahh, now that would actually make sense, if you could in fact get it into the hands of 100K ladies. In that regard, the prices are very reasonable. I would also think you would need a website for the women to contact and interact with the men?