Buying addresses vs. Placing ads

[Optknrv]

I was wondering for those that have experience... What the pro's and cons of one over the other. Seems like placing a few well placed ads can generate a whole lot more leads than simply buying addresses. Can anyone speak first hand on this? Also, if one were to place an ad, where what are a few of the better spots for doing so?

[Ryan]

... in response to Buying addresses vs. Placing ads, posted by Optknrv on Jul 11, 2002

With a nice picture in a suit, looking all GQ.  I also listen my E-mail address and home address.  I received about 40 in all responses still get a few trickle in today.  The thing I found is that most of the woman whom wrote me were too young for my taste.  But I have the name and address of the guy who placed my adds for me and it was cheep about $30 at most.  E-mail me and I can send you the info.  I sent this same info to about 6 other guys that asked in the past and one guy actually is going threw the VISA process with his new lady today!  So it does work..

[Philb]

... in response to Buying addresses vs. Placing ads, posted by Optknrv on Jul 11, 2002

While I never bought any addresses, I did write to numerous ladies whose contact info I got off of free sites.  I also placed a couple of personal ads on the internet.  

With the free sites you send alot of letters and never receive an answer,  I also think that the percentage of scammers is higher on these sites.  That said I wrote to some very nice women whose addresses i got from free sites.

With the personal ads you know the women are interested in you, they have access to a computer, and can write in English.  There are exceptions to this.  I know that I received some responses that were generated by agencies, but these tend to be pretty obvious.

The woman I am engaged to responded to my personal ad.

If I were starting over the only thing I would possibly do differently would be to not only place these ads on the internet but also in some local papers either through Jack or someone else that could provide services similar to his.

I placed an ad on romancero.net and another site I can not recall the name of.  Both of these were free.  I only had them up for a couple of weeks and received more responses than I could handle.  If I can find the name of the other site I used I will post it.  I do remeber that the process for placing my ad on romancero was a bit tedious.  But, once I got it up no problems.

[keithandkatya]

... in response to Buying addresses vs. Placing ads, posted by Optknrv on Jul 11, 2002

I have tried to find the website for you that had a link to the offer of a free ad... I dont even know if they do it anymore but anyway I cant seem to find the site. I guess I deleted it after I found my honey... I have way to many websites in my favorites and I delete some from time to time. I remember someone on planet love gave me this website. It had lots of freebies on it... hang in there ---look and you shall find as the good book says... ask for help and do alot of searching on your own.. sounds like you have already made a start... good luck,
Keith

[keithandkatya]

... in response to Buying addresses vs. Placing ads, posted by Optknrv on Jul 11, 2002

I found my wife from a personal ad I put in a newspaper. It was a free ad. It seems like destiny because my wife said she almost never reads this paper but she did this one time... I also tried a paid ad... I also bought a few addresses... none of it worked for me until the free ad... I now know some of my wife's friends that she has met since arriving last year. One is Ukranian and one is Russian. They both met their husbands through agencies... so I guess what I am saying is there is no one way of doing it... I felt more comfortable with the ad but many others are successful through other methods... I say keep an open mind and find out what works for you... bottom line the way that works is the right way LOL...
all the best,
Keith

[MarkInTx]

... in response to Buying addresses vs. Placing ads, posted by Optknrv on Jul 11, 2002


Opinions vary.

I found my lady through a personal ad, so that is my preference (naturally).

Unfortunately, the place I used seems to be out of business. Too bad, they were really cheap.

There are a lot of places that can assist you. Firstdream will help you do everything from write the ad, to post it, to screen the replies...

[Oscar]

... in response to Buying addresses vs. Placing ads, posted by Optknrv on Jul 11, 2002

I can only speak for myself but if I had not already found my girl, I would not go through agencies, but would use ads, that is how I found my girl.  Again, I am not saying there are not some good girls in agencies, many of the guys here found their girls that way. Scammers typically do not respond to ads, they don't take the time or trouble to.
I have met many women in agencies and I have met women through an ad and my experience was that I met quite a few scammers through the agencies (not to mention scam agencies!).  In all fairness, I met some nice girls that way too, just didn't connect for whatever reason.  Many of the women I met were not scammers, just spoiled as helll from meeting too many foreign guys!

From the ad I ran, out of perhaps 20+ women, only 2 had ever met a foreign man and those 2 had met only one other American!  But this was in Dnepropetrovsk (more off the beaten path although very large, with a population of 3 or 5 million, I forget which..) than say Kiev or Odessa etc..  A number of the agency women I was to meet simply didn't show up, or were often quite late for our meetings.  The women from the ad, every one showed up and not a single one was even late!  They were (to me) very nice, polite and sincere, without the "attitude" some of the agency women put out.  Again, I know there are guys here who found good girls through agencies, it just wasn't my experience.

But if you do an ad, there are a couple of things that will greatly increase your success-

You need to have a local contact for the women to send their letters and photos to and for them to call to get more information about you.  Many will not send their stuff all the way to the USA (some will!).  You can put your home email in the ad and some will contact you through that but you need the local contact so it is very easy for them to respond.  You run the ad maybe 3 or 4 months before you go so you can start writing to a few that you like, and then run it again 2 or 3 weeks before you go.  You pick up those responses once you are there.
You need someone like Jack (Firstdream) to set up a local address and phone for the girls to use.  You get your interpreter and away you go!

As far as WHERE to place the ads, that is a very personal choice.  Depends on what you want.  I personally found Ukrainian women to be initially much warmer than Russian women, but then some guys here might have had the opposite experience.  I have been to Russia twice and Ukraine twice and that is what I found.  I had been to Kiev and knew I didn't want to go back there, I wanted to go somewhere that not so many foreign guys go but not a small city.  For every guy that goes to Dnepropetrovsk, there are probably 50 that go to Kiev or Moscow or Odessa etc..  Dnepropetrovsk is an industrial city, not a tourist city like Odessa.  I personally feel it is an untapped gold mine of women.  Jacks Ukraine manager is in that city and she was a great interpreter and help.  If I hadn't found my girl there, I would definitely go back.    

Good luck..

Oscar

[MarkInTx]

... in response to Re: Buying addresses vs. Placing ads, posted by Oscar on Jul 11, 2002

I actually have had scammers respond to my ads.

Especially if my ad included an email.

Scammers love email. It is cheap for them to answer, and they can try to get the "easy money" by hitting you up for email charges...

[Oscar]

... in response to I agree but..., posted by MarkInTx on Jul 12, 2002

Well, I think it would be fair to say that the number of scammers in agencies as opposed to those who would respond to a personal ad, are far greater.. And if you were not to put an email in your ad, I think you would hear from virtually zero scammers.  They will not take the time, trouble or expense to reply.  I completely agree that the scammers are huge into the email.
But I never had one scammer reply to my ad and I included my email.  
I had also cruised the free sites and I would say that probably 60% of the women I corresponded with via email truned out to be scammers.  After a month I would get the ever popular "if you cannot help me with my agency bill (like $100 for maybe 5 or 6 letters! LOL!), they will not let me communicate with you anymore and that would break my heart!" Yadda, yadda, yadda..

Oscar