Poor Ad Results for Amigos.com

[John O]

For a low price, I joined amigos.com a couple of months ago, placing a personal ad in Spanish w/a photo. The results have been underwhelming, but you get what you pay for, I guess.

A good number of Latinas, maybe 5-7 per week, have responded. Unfortunately, the vast majority are above my preferred age range (20-30). An even larger proportion don't have photos available, and I choose not to spend time on these. The few whose photos I saw did not attract me.

My responses to ladies' ads produced slightly better results. Out of 75 or so E-messages I sent (only to Colombianas), about 6 have responded personally. Perhaps half of those are sincerely interested in exploring a relationship with me.

So my amigos.com response rate is about 8%, which compares to the usual 30% responses I've had to my TLC mailings.

Maybe this is because a higher percentage of the women in the TLC catalogs and other agency files are seriously interested in marrying a foreigner. The amigos.com members are perhaps less focused on what and whom they want. Or maybe they're simply flooded with far more responses than the TLC ladies.

Your opinions and/or experiences?

[genode]

... in response to Poor Ad Results for Amigos.com, posted by John O on Apr 7, 2002

I signed up for Amigos and got a good number of replies in the first few weeks.  And most of them did not have pictures.  Of those I was interested in, I asked for photos and I have found luck.  I have my add turned off while I explore this budding relationship.

So far, I have been emailing and chatting with her every day for over 2 months and I plan to go down there in July for 2 weeks.  We are also fortunate to have web cams so we can video conference which has been a lot of fun and it really helps to get to know her personally.  Luckily, she is quite fluent in English and we both spend time helping each other learn each other's languages.

[Buck]

... in response to Poor Ad Results for Amigos.com, posted by John O on Apr 7, 2002

This has nothing to do with Amigos.com.But it might enlighten guys out there using the address agencies.My novia signed up with matchingsys.com in Peru.I found her on Amigos International and Latin Romance Tours.Either Matchingsys.com sold,gave or had her profile stolen.Also some of the info. on the profile were things she never said.All have been informed of her current status and asked to remove her profile.None have done this.They havn't even put a engaged label on her profile.I put this out there "just for your information".Buck

[NW Jim]

... in response to Re: Poor Ad Results for Amigos.com, posted by Buck on Apr 7, 2002

Sorry to disagree but it does have something to do with Amigos.com. Charlie Moore used to run this reseller and he had a good reputation. Sadly, he passed away last year.

In attempting to deal with them lately, all you get is promises--but no results. If you look carefully at their ladies many have been on there for quite a while.

Overall a lot of these agencies are sleazy. You're right they buy/sell/steal photos,inflate descriptions, recycle photos from years ago, etc. You would think that competition would drive out the bad agencies, but that doesn't seem to be the case-- many go under but usually because they don't have marketing savvy.

TLC continues to be the best. However, I would only buy addresses of ladies in cities where there's not a large agency presence. It would be nice to be able to narrow down your choices via writing before you go...but if there's a guy knocking on her door while all you do is write, he's going to win.

Best wishes for you and your novia.

[Evan]

... in response to Re: Poor Ad Results for Amigos.com, posted by Buck on Apr 7, 2002

This is a very common tactic from what I understand.Maybe Patrick can shed a little light on the subject of getting profiles removed from web sites.

[Patrick]

... in response to Re: Re: Poor Ad Results for Amigos.com, posted by Evan on Apr 7, 2002

The best way would be for the lady to write to them from the same email address they have her listed with, assuming she has email and it's part of the information they have on her.  Next best thing would be to contact them and give them her phone number so they can verify that way.  They'll probably already have her phone number, but including it makes it obvious that you really do have a relationship with her.

My wife was listed with TLC and her photos somehow got to another site too.  I contacted them and faxed a copy of the approved fiancee visa application.  They agreed to remove her, but it took two weeks.  The guy running the site did not maintain it himself and had to hire out the work.

I think the main thing is to give them either some proof of relationship or a means of contacting her to verify that she wants to be removed.  I've seen some cases where the man wanted a woman removed, but she didn't want to have her ad taken down.  Maybe it was simply poor communication between the couple due to the language barrier.  I know a lot of ladies are hesitant to take their ad down until they're actually engaged.  Some men want that kind of commitment before they'll even visit a lady to meet.

I haven't seen any verifiable cases of someone stealing photos and re-selling them, but I don't look at the other sites much to check.  I think that's actually less common than most believe it is.  My wife's information was sold as part of a portfolio from either TLC or someone with access to their data base.

[Chris F]

... in response to Poor Ad Results for Amigos.com, posted by John O on Apr 7, 2002

I was in Cali for ten days recently with a friend. My friend went to several agencies and met a few girls that I met as well which I was not impressed with either. He had lunch on his 3rd day in Cali with a girl he corresponded with from Amigos.com she was very professional and attractive and I do believe he spent most of his time getting to know her better. He is still in Cali right now and will post a follow up later with the experiences he had with her.