Fellow searchers.  I haven’t posted here since way back before registration
was required and have just been lurking for several months.  I haven’t done
much in the way of searching for awhile, but a once in a lifetime opportunity
appeared suddenly.  I am being sent to St. Petersburg, Russia for a week
and have decided to combine my work trip with 3 weeks of vacation and
spend most of the month of September and part of October there.  Time is
very short to find some ladies to visit with, so I am desperately in need of
your help.

First, let me say, I am not going to deal with any agencies and I am not
going to post my own ad in newspapers, etc.  I am only going to work with
the Internet dating services where you pay a monthly fee and get unlimited
contact with everyone there.  With time so short, I must only deal with
ladies who have ready access to e-mail.

Months ago I was a member of Kiss dot com and Match dot com, but I
remember reading here on the boards that Kiss now requires payment
from the ladies and Match doesn’t list FSU ladies anymore.  I just looked at
matchdoctor dot com and they don’t list the cities the ladies are from
without pulling up their entire profile irst.

So what I would very much appreciate receiving is an update on the status
of the Internet dating services.  Which ones still have FSU ladies, which
ones show the ladies cities so that I can search on St Petersburg, which
ones allow search on height, weight, etc.

I am very desperate for help on this matter, but please do not spend any
time trying to steer me to agencies for address buying, give me advice on
running newspaper ads, etc.  I know you can tell me to just start checking
out the Internet dating services on my own.  However, with most you have
to fill out a profile, check off a hundred blocks, and write up essays; all just
to find out they do not allow searches by city or some other problem
develops.  With my time so restricted, I would appreciate not having to
reinvent the wheel at this time.  Thanks for understanding.

Just tell me your recommendations regarding the Internet dating services
and why you think particular ones are good or are to be avoided.

Thanks greatly,    

Tick, tick, tick . . . . .

Al

... in response to Help - Internet Dating Services and St. ..., posted by Albert on Jul 16, 2002

Al,
With such limited time, wouldn't it make MORE sense to work with an agency or two in St Pete?  This would make contact with a large number of ladies in a short period of time easy for you.  The agency would give you email contact if the women do not have it directly.  Personally I think you are taking the exact opposite approach that you should.  I would use the agencies and a personal ad first before trying to establish some kind of half ass email relationship.  You don't have time for that anyway.  Think about using your time to eliminate women that DON'T fit your criteria rather than establishing some type of email friendship.  Why not use ALL the tools available in your tool box?
KenC

... in response to Help - Internet Dating Services and St. ..., posted by Albert on Jul 16, 2002

Honestly, though... you are saying:

"Give me advice... no... I don't want to know what worked... I am going to do it this way no matter what -- don't bother me with such trivialities as what actually works... just give me advice..."

If you INSIST on doing it your way, may I suggest IKAR?

It is a St. Pb site. You join it for the month, and can write as many ladies as you want. I wrote several there before my trip to St. Pb... and they seemed sincere.

But, I want to say again... I think that by being so closed minded, you are setting yourself up for wasting a trip and a lot of money... But... to each his own...

... in response to Mark, I am mystified, posted by Albert on Jul 16, 2002


I don't know if you read my trip report... but I went into my beliefs about this in the first chapter of it...

The last ad I ran, I only included an email address. That way, the only women who could contact me were those who had internet access.

I also specified that I wanted the replies in English.

An ad can still be run... even if you only have a month to prepare for your trip.

Think about it... Jack has people in St. Pb who can run an ad for you. I gave him only a month's lead time, and yet he was able to get an ad placed for me in time.

If you are a long time poster, you may remember my trip to St. Pb... Jack ran an ad for me there, and I met Maria through it (She emailed me) -- she was a terrific lady... just not the right one for me...

... in response to Help - Internet Dating Services and St. ..., posted by Albert on Jul 16, 2002

For the search type in the name St. Petersburg it is 19.95 a month... Lots of women...

... in response to Help - Internet Dating Services and St. ..., posted by Albert on Jul 16, 2002

You might want to try friendfinder.com

... in response to Re: Re: Help - Internet Dating Services ..., posted by Albert on Jul 16, 2002

I canceled my paid membership a while ago because my fiance has already applied for a K-1 visa.  I ended my search because I found someone thru this site!  I will tell you what I remember about this site.
When I was a silver member, I could send email to an unlimited number of people.  Every woman on this site has to have an email address to get on this site!  But some of the profiles are posted by agencies, so you may get a generic reply from an agency asking you to contact the agency.  But I think there are many woman with individual email addresses.  It's possible to search for a specific city, unless they changed the format somehow.
It's also possible to register as a free member if you want look around this site before you give your credit card number.  I think the restrictions are that you can only look at a few profiles everyday and you cannot initiate any email contact.  But I think it's possible to search for woman with certain age living in certain areas.  Of course they may have changed the rules for free members too!  But I suggest perhaps you can register as a free member first to see whether it's worthwhile.  Good luck!