Ads, agencies or free websites?!?

[unclestrawberry]

Hello guys;

As you can guess I am just starting out and am pretty determined to try it with a FSU woman before I get married for the second time. After living in States for 10 years, I moved back to Turkey/Istanbul 2 years ago. I've never been to FSU before, but it is not as far once you live in Istanbul. So, I'm planning to go to a trip within a month or two..
I've read and learned a lot from this site. However, as far as I know there are a few ways to meet FSU women.

* One is to register and pay for the marriage agencies but this doesn't sound as a safe option because I've read that over 40% of the girls at those agencies are profesional daters or agency staff writing through their profiles.
* Another is to place an ad on newspapers in English or Russian with your e-mail address which sounds nice but not as practical to do. Put aside finding a newspaper at a certain region I don't even have a clue of how to place it.
* The last way is to find and register at free dating/friend finder sites which is even more complicated because so far I've not found one website that is free and in English. I just don't find the 30$ p/month websites trustworthy. 

I've heard that there are lots of fake profiles on those sites to attract new members.

Can anybody help me about which of those 3 ways to follow?

[Misha]

I successfully used a free Russian dating site and found a wonderful woman that I married. We will be celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary in October. The caveat is that I speak Russian fluently and was going to be in Russia for close to four months when I met my wife.

[Jooky]

How about going to Antalya and meeting Russian girls on vacation there?

[dispozo]

I used RussiaEuro, it was $50.00 for three months, that was over a year ago. You could write letters and chat, for a little more money you could video chat. Yes there was scammers, but also many sincere ladies. You just have to use common sense and read read read. There is a lot of great information here.

Good luck!

[groovlstk]

Use an electronic translator like babelfish to register here and talk with real Russian women who are not available through agencies:
http://www.missingheart.ru

You can also video chat with real Russian women for free here:
http://smotri.com/broadcast/list/

[docetae]

Hello guys;

As you can guess I am just starting out and am pretty determined to try it with a FSU woman before I get married for the second time. After living in States for 10 years, I moved back to Turkey/Istanbul 2 years ago. I've never been to FSU before, but it is not as far once you live in Istanbul. So, I'm planning to go to a trip within a month or two..
I've read and learned a lot from this site. However, as far as I know there are a few ways to meet FSU women.

* One is to register and pay for the marriage agencies but this doesn't sound as a safe option because I've read that over 40% of the girls at those agencies are profesional daters or agency staff writing through their profiles.
* Another is to place an ad on newspapers in English or Russian with your e-mail address which sounds nice but not as practical to do. Put aside finding a newspaper at a certain region I don't even have a clue of how to place it.
* The last way is to find and register at free dating/friend finder sites which is even more complicated because so far I've not found one website that is free and in English. I just don't find the 30$ p/month websites trustworthy. 

I've heard that there are lots of fake profiles on those sites to attract new members.

Can anybody help me about which of those 3 ways to follow?

You can try ads and daying web sites... agencies are definitely not the way to go if you don't have time or money to lose... one more time I recommend luckylovers.net ...20$/month . I have met my fiancee with them and we have just listed her best friend on the site last week....The site is very active and with many search options to drill down results.

[unclestrawberry]

Jooky; you are right there are lots of FSU women in Antalya at summer season. But I don't want to meet the ladies who come here for vacation. Most likely tourists have their lives all set up back there in their homecountry and prefer Antalya/Turkey just for summer vacation. And another thing is that the summer season is almost over. Thanks though.

Groovlstk; I've tried electronic translators as babelfish, however the software does not work when it comes to logging in to the site. When you try to enter the sites by using the babelfish-like-translators, they give error and don't work in inner pages of the site after the login. I couldn't accomplish to login to a site by using the babelfish type of translators.

I thank everybody that responded so far.

[Sculpto]

When using babelfish or other web based translations:

have two windows open.. one in the native language and one in the translation page..
just compare the translated page to the original.. it takes time and patience but you will get through it...

also.. make sure after you translate something from english to russian to translate it back to see what you wrote.. for example.. I wrote "I seek a great woman" but it translated to.. "I seek a very large woman"  I couldn't figure out why I was getting letters from ladies asking me if I really in fact did like girls with big bums...  LOL

[dispozo]

also.. make sure after you translate something from english to russian to translate it back to see what you wrote.. for example.. I wrote "I seek a great woman" but it translated to.. "I seek a very large woman"  I couldn't figure out why I was getting letters from ladies asking me if I really in fact did like girls with big bums...  LOL

[groovlstk]

Jooky; you are right there are lots of FSU women in Antalya at summer season. But I don't want to meet the ladies who come here for vacation. Most likely tourists have their lives all set up back there in their homecountry and prefer Antalya/Turkey just for summer vacation. And another thing is that the summer season is almost over. Thanks though.

Groovlstk; I've tried electronic translators as babelfish, however the software does not work when it comes to logging in to the site. When you try to enter the sites by using the babelfish-like-translators, they give error and don't work in inner pages of the site after the login. I couldn't accomplish to login to a site by using the babelfish type of translators.

I thank everybody that responded so far.

Unc, all you need to do is register at the site. When I registered I simply cut and pasted the form questions into babelfish, translated to English, and then entered my data in English or chose an appropriate checkbox. It's not rocket science, I don't know Russian nor the Cyrillic alphabet and it took me all of 10 minutes to create an account and upload some photos. If you're really lost, perhaps one of the women on this site will help you set up an account.

[Misha]

Unc, all you need to do is register at the site. When I registered I simply cut and pasted the form questions into babelfish, translated to English, and then entered my data in English or chose an appropriate checkbox. It's not rocket science, I don't know Russian nor the Cyrillic alphabet and it took me all of 10 minutes to create an account and upload some photos. If you're really lost, perhaps one of the women on this site will help you set up an account.

Groov is right. The information that has to be translated is so basic that any online translator will do it and the chances of getting it wrong are pretty much close to nil.

The thing to keep in mind is that most women won't even bother reading the profile: they will simply look at the photo and decide whether or not to reply. Usually, they are at work and are surreptitiously checking the dating sites. As such, they don't want to spend five minutes reading a profile. If they find you cute or attractive, they will often respond without checking anything else. This is what my wife did: it was only after we started chatting that she checked my profile and discovered that I was a foreigner. This means that you don't necessarily have to write a novel when you post a profile: a few good photos and the basic info (age, where you live, etc...) will be more than enough.

[unclestrawberry]

Hello again;

As of 15 mins ago there has been a slight change in my business schedule and next week's plans.

Well.. I'm a 26 year old guy from Turkey. I was raised and lived in Europe and USA for the last 10 years. Now, I have my own businesses and am also doing my masters degree in Istanbul/Turkey. I've married once and then got divorced after 4.5 years. Nowadays I'm looking for a bride-to-be from FSU. I don't want to try it with a Turkish lady once more, yet I wanna give this family thing another try.

To make a long story short; I'm looking for a 17 to 24 year old girl with some education, culture and manners.
*With on such short notice now I only have a budget of 1.000 to 1.500 USD(excluding the flight ticket) and a vacation time of 4 to 5 days(from 16th to 20th of September).
*I want to know the odds of meeting at least 10 to 15 bride-to-be candidates in such a short period of time. This does not mean that I'll return home with a lady at my arm, but who knows, life is full of surprises. May be I might meet someone who is worthy to give it a try with and see if it'll work out. Life thought me never to say never.

Of course I have a couple of questions in mind as you can imagine.

* What contry do you suggest I'd go for my first time considering the amount of budget I have for this trip(including all expenses except the flight ticket)?
* What cities would I go at those countries? Is it true that less industrialized cities are cheaper and the girls over there are more honest in this type of thing?(Do they have marriage agencies in less industrialized cities as well?)
* What strategy would I use?
(a)Marriage agencies(I heard that there are professional daters as well, don't wanna get ribbed off)
(b)Private interpreters who introduces you to their friends
(c)Newspaper adds(Do I have time to set up for all that placing a personals add thing?)
(d)Local hangout places where you meet single ladies

I'll be glad if you can assist me on the topic and make referrals if you have a any.

Thanks in advance for your time and understandings.

[CCowboy]

An outstanding tool is Abbyy Lingvo dictionary.  I think the current version is #12.  You can put the cursor on a word an it'll translate English to Russian or Russian to English.  I've learned to navigate 100% Russian sites.  I can create my profile in Russian, upload photos, etc.  For electronic translation, I use Google.  I don't know if it's the best but it seems to do a decent job.  Opening two windows, one Russian to English and the other English to Russian is a must.  You can easily refer to her translation as you're composing your response.  Try to avoid words with double and tripple meanings.  Write simple, not compound sentences....almost like going back to grade school.  Also, do not write about things too serious.  That can wait for face to face meetings and a professional translator.  No matter how careful, expect mistranslation and misunderstandings.  All you're trying to do is create mutal interest and a desire to meet.  DO NOT TRY TO FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR MESSAGES.

    

[Jooky]

Here's a few recommendations to get you started:

Give the normal free Russian dating site a chance. It's really not so tough. All you need to do is understand a few basic words or use an online translator as stated above.

www.love.mail.ru
www.loveplanet.ru
www.dating.ru
www.love.ru
www.vkontakte.ru

There are plenty more. That puts you in potential contact with several million women. They're not all seeking foreigners or marriage, but plenty of them are!

For a free marriage oriented site, check out:

www.freepersonals.ru

For a cheap dating site with many women interested in marriage (also recommended already) check out:

www.luckylovers.net

Or you can give Meetic a try. I've never used Meetic but I know some people that recommend it:

www.meetic.com

For relatively cheap bridal sites where you can obtain direct contact information check out:

www.bride.ru
www.elenasmodels.com

For 100 bucks you can contact close to 1000 women from bride.ru if you want. For the same you can contact 50 women from Elena's Models.

If none of that works, you can be risky and try other large sites with bad reputations, or you can spend more and use a small agency with a good reputation.

Also, I wouldn't discount Antalya in the summer. Many of the women I met in Russia have been to Turkey on holiday at some point. They're just normal women on vacation, and a vacation setting is always a romantic place to meet!

I just read your last post... for a last minute trip your best bet is probably to use some small agency that can hook you up with many dates one after another. That's not something I have ever done or would recommend, but others can give you better advice on that.

[unclestrawberry]

Jooky; Thanks for the list of the sites, I belive that'll be real helpful for me and other newcomers like myself.
CCowboy; Will give the dictionaries you suggested another try once I return from my 4 to 5 day trip to FSU next week.


thanks again eveybody...

[CCowboy]

For a 4-5 days trip, Ukraine will be your best choice.  To go to Russia, it'll take about 3 weeks to get a visa and that's a $250 extra cost you don't have in Ukraine.  I'd suggest reading Myriddin's trip report of his May trip to Mariupol.  With such a sort trip, you may be better off using an agency rather than the sites just listed.  Trying to make contact with the women, setting up meetings, and finding a competent translator is a lot for a newbie.  Realistically, if you can meet 15 women and you connect well enough with 3 or so to justify a second trip, that'll be a very successful first trip.  I'll be leaving for Dnepropetrovsk next week for a 33 days visit, but I don't use agencies.  Sites that Jooky gave you are great but it takes a lot of time and effort to reduce 1000's of women down to a dozen or so you want to meet..and they want to meet you.  I have two main women I'll be meeting but if neither work out, I already have another 30+ as back-ups.  By being there for a month, I have time to regroup.  In a 4-5 day trip, you don't.  Another place you may consider is Kharkov.  It's the #1 university city in Ukraine and for girls the ages you're seeking, you'll be overwhelmed.  You may want to contact Mila who is a translator and also can help you if you want to go the personal ad route.  That would be my choice before using an agency.  You can find her info in the TopSite section.

Good Luck. 

[BillyB]

You can google the bablefish or promt website to get stuff translated. You can also tell the ladies to get an @mail.ru account which comes with a translator they can use in their mail account. You can get an @mail.ru account.

Recently I spoke with someone who posted his profile in a newspaper ad. Of course there is a middle man in the FSU who helps with this. He found out the middle man he used enlisted prostitutes to keep his customers interest. That's nice unless you're looking for wife material. Be careful who you marry. If she knows all kinds of tricks in bed but don't know how to turn on the stove, beware.

Unless you really need agency services, it's best to eliminate the middle man from your correspondence. Also avoid the pay to play letter writing scheme agencies offer. You don't know if you're trading love letters with a RW or Boris, the employee of the month.