. Free Russian Women Dating & Marriage Guide .

Men with fantasies and women with hopes have always managed to connect. Now, sites that draw on those dreams have exploded across the Web. The fastest growth appears to be in sites that promote international marriages, Internet versions of the 19th-century mail-order-bride business. More than 200 such sites are in the United States, with earnings for some estimated as high as $2 million a year, although other operators cite a much lower figure. According to a report by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the number of marriages between American men and foreign women they met through online matchmakers has doubled in the last decade, totaling 4,000 to 6,000 a year. The international online matchmaking services are thriving largely because of increased Internet access worldwide, low overhead and start-up costs and an abundance of eligible foreign women: 100,000 to 150,000 advertise themselves on e-matchmaking sites each year. In the mid-1970’s, most mail-order brides came from the Philippines, whose economy was in shambles.

Today, more than half of the 200 mail-order bride businesses online cater to men seeking mates from Russia and Ukraine, countries in steep economic decline and in which, not coincidentally, women make up more than 80 percent of those unemployed. Which is why most such sites are heavy on postings like this one, from Nataliya, a 29-year-old divorced nonsmoker from Russia who reports (spelling and grammar intact): “I am tender, caressing dantist with unusual sense of humor. I have daughter with appearance and character of angel. . . . I am looking for man . . . not greedy, tender, not tedious.” Nataliya has been “viewed” 655 times since November on the site operated by by Cherry Blossoms Inc., in Hawaii, which has been in the mail-order-bride business for 26 years. Cherry Blossoms used to rely solely on regular mail for the delivery of its expensively printed catalogs. Today, said Mike Krosky, the president of Cherry Blossoms, the company owes 50 percent of its business to the Internet, compared with 15 percent to 20 percent in 1997. Choosing a mate from another culture is not unusual; the United States is home to millions of cross-cultural marriages. What is new are the numbers involved and the increasing sophistication of international e-matchmakers in their delivery of services. Many companies duplicate features found on other e-commerce sites, like electronic shopping carts. Critics of the services contend that this approach underscores the suggestion, always present in the bride business, that the woman is being bought -- a fantasy that they contend contributes to high rates of divorce or abuse after reality sets in. Whatever lies at the heart of the transaction, the competitive advantages -- and the profits -- for site owners arise from their ability to provide clients with more than just a woman’s address. The Cherry Blossoms site, for example, boasts a database of more than 16,000 women, which can be sorted by country of origin, education, age, eye color, race, height, weight, religion, number of children and whether she is a smoker or a drinker. A visitor types in his criteria, and head shots of women who fit that profile appear on the screen. Double-click on a head shot, and a client will see a full-body shot, a biography and vital statistics. But at Cherry Blossoms and other leading sites, the address database is merely a portal to a menu of services that are intended to extract money from a client at nearly every step he takes toward the altar. Cherry Blossoms, like other established sites, begins charging a client when he requests an address. Starting at $75, Mr. Krosky’s company offers a membership fee that provides a client with 15 addresses. At the high end is the “Premier Guaranteed Membership,” which, at $595, includes 100 addresses; two “individualized searches” of the database, which Mr. Krosky conducts on the client’s behalf; one-to-one coaching with Mr. Krosky -- himself married three times, most recently to a woman from the Philippines he met through his own business; and an online photograph and biography which, Mr. Krosky says, guarantees a client “60-plus letters” from women. Other innovations include e-mail forwarding. A client can request that his photograph or a love letter be hand delivered in three to five days rather than in two to three weeks by international mail. One of Mr. Krosky’s competitors, Scanna International, adds a link to Flower and Gift International. There, the delivery of roses, a box of chocolates and a card costs a customer at least $155 and can also include, at additional cost, a snapshot of the woman receiving her gift. Another rival, Euroladies, offers three-way conference calling with an interpreter. Both Euroladies and Scanna offer the fiancée a visa preparation kit.

At the top of the price scale are organized tours to Russia and Ukraine, offered by Euroladies and Scanna. Euroladies guarantees that men will meet more than 800 women in 10 days for $3,000 to $5,000, including hotel and airfare. Scanna offers a referral to Anastasia Tours, which offers tours for the same price as Euroladies. Anastasia’s tours include introductions to 600 to 1,000 women and a 10 percent discount “when you bring a friend.” Even if true love does not last, the e-matchmaking sites are ready to help: some men are repeat customers, returning to the same Internet site on which they had found a previous, now-ex, wife.