I scanned the photos and when I found one that jumped out at me, I clicked on her photo and read her bio. Most on-line catalogues have a short biography of the woman that accompanies her picture. Each woman fills out the bio by herself, in her own words.

Usually the bio is translated from Russian, so it is important to try to understand what it is that she is trying to say. Elena Petrova does a great job of explaining what a Russian woman means by certain words she uses. Many words do not translate exactly from Russian to English.

I was most concerned about what each woman's comments were. Did she sound positive or negative? Was she looking for someone like me? If she said she was looking for a thirty year old German, I didn't select her no matter how beautiful she was, because I wasn't what she was looking for.

It is not a good idea to pursue a woman who indicates she is looking for something other than what you have to offer.

There is probably nothing that you are going to be able to say in your letter that is going to convince her to throw out her dream of marrying a handsome athlete from Scandinavia and marry you, if you are an overweight couch potato from Cleveland.

Honor her wishes. If she says she is looking for a man up to age forty-five, don't write to her if you are sixty.

I was looking for a woman to have children with. Did her bio say she wanted to have children like I did?

I am not that athletic. Was she looking for someone who wanted to go skiing every weekend? I like to travel. How did her interests match up with mine?

I scanned her face for an indication of her demeanor. Did she have a nice smile? It was my wife's smile that was the main reason I picked her out of the catalogue of women.

Did she look haughty or arrogant or mean or disagreeable? If so, I moved on no matter how beautiful she was.

I have heard pros and cons to this approach. One big reason against using this method is that many of the women's pictures are a product of the photographer taking the picture. In other words, maybe the photographer makes all of his subjects look arrogant, or haughty, or angry, et cetera.

Okay, I'll go along with that. But many of the women have multiple pictures attached. Some are even pictures they took at home or on vacation. Don't make a judgment about one picture. Look at them all. Try to get a feel for the person.

Look at her pictures and examine them in light of the comments she has made. Look at her as a whole rather than one single component or part.

Many websites show you how many times her address was retrieved. If a woman's address was retrieved by a lot of guys (my criteria was over thirty), I didn't select her because I didn't want an unreasonable amount of competition.

You have a distinct advantage if you are one of a woman's first correspondents. There is a certain amount of emotional investment that is required even in letter writing. If a woman is currently corresponding with a number of men, she is less likely to take on a new correspondent.

Find A Woman Who Has Just Signed Up With A Marriage Agency. When a woman signs up with a marriage agency, she is enthusiastic and has a desire to get results. She will have much more interest in correspondence than a woman who has just opened an introductory letter from her fiftieth suitor.

The women whose addresses were selected a lot were fairly predictable. They either were flashy looking ? long, wild, blond hair for example (knowing what I know about Russian women, there is a good chance it was dyed) or they had sexy pictures taken of themselves ? in a leopard skin leotard perhaps.

Many women pay the photographers at the marriage agencies around one hundred dollars for glamour photos. For good reason, they work.

Personally, I'm looking for more of an old fashioned girl. My wife sent in a photo someone had taken of her at work and a picture from her high school yearbook. She did not have professional photos taken. Because of that, she was not overwhelmed with letters, which was to my good fortune.

Look for the diamond in the rough. Look for the pretty girl with a nice personality -- someone who you can live with for the rest of your life. Not a high fashion lingerie model.