Just joined SA and essentially and man is it tough to find a diamond in the rough. A ton of bots/fake profiles, but very easy to distinguish.  A few things that I noticed so far:

Hope you did some research here on how to start out on here.  If you want don't want to be hunted by the CA/Philippines, scammers, or gold diggers you can set your profile on hide from searches.  That allows you to be the hunter and not have your inbox fill up with junk or get favorited by a thousand girls from the middle of nowhere.

Thats good advice. Initially my thought was not to hide my profile and activity so girls that I view can see I have an interest. I suppose just a "like," should suffice.....

I'm also new (just browsing free for now).. my impressions:

I switched from exclusively mongering to SA about 3 1/2 years ago, and have never looked back.  It is very time-consuming and probably a bit more expensive on one-offs and one-time repeats than the escorts I was seeing.  But once you find an SB worth keeping, it is probably less expensive.  

Having been an active (daily) premium user in “acquisition” mode (now four SB in rotation, 3 from SA, 1 from Alt SB), I believe:

There is a learning curve in sugaring for sure.  I've sugared for 3 years with a one month deep dive in each of those years.  Currently no sugar in my world, but I tend to bounce back and forth, pro to sugar.  Sugar attrition is what triggers a shift for me back to pros.  Due to the monthly cost of an SA membership, I like to be in the right mood to deep dive there before I pay up again.  The simplest and easiest way to deal with the unwanted favs and messages is to hit the hide button for anything out of your general playground area.  Don't give a second thought to that garbage, just concentrate on your local turf or those cities where you plan on traveling.  The pros with profiles on SA who also have reviews and ads on escort malls don't seem to hang around for long there, probably because of the effort expended to get to an envelope.  And then there are the pros that I think of as the  "casino girl" type.  They are the Miss Right Nows who don't beat around the bush.  Early on I had several over, and the experience was pretty much like booking with a pro in how it all goes down, start to finish.  Didn't wish to repeat with any of them for lack of any chemistry.  All were just too business-business.  I prefer connections that turn into repeats over notches on the bed post.  Finesse required to sugar?  You bet, but patience and spider-sense are probably just as important for success.  Maybe it was just blind luck, but I think that the diamonds that I've found have been worth the effort (In year one, 2 diamonds found that led to 15 dates.  In year two, I found one diamond that led to 4 dates.  In year three, three diamonds found that led to 18 dates.)  I've played around with various search parameters, but have settled into filtering only for age (for me 35+).  I'll browse profiles, but rarely initiate contact anymore.  Interacting primarily with only those who make first contact has led to less back and forth on SA, but a higher percentage of closed deals/rewarding arrangements when weighed against total contacts.  

First, I think I replied to OP instead of you Scaramouche.

So far I have three "tentative" meet and greets...  Girl 1 was setup for today, but the girl backed out last minute due to feeling sick.  She is actually driving a decent distance to see me, so I did offer to pay for gas/parking as a gesture. I thought it went very well and she seemed very appreciative.  Cancelling kinda threw me off, but she did mention tomorrow is a possibility.

“Gas money” I learned from my seniors is fine if the girl shows up...

A few more updates... so with the three girls that I am the most optimistic about, only one did we discuss the PPM rate.   Girl #3 said 200-300 which I think is great. If I'm ranking the girls, she is #3 on my list. I did specifically ask her what she was looking for in terms of PPM because if it was out of range, I didn't want to waste my time.  This has not come up at all with girls 1 & 2, but we will see how it goes in person. Ideally I would like to be in the 300 range, but maybe 400 if she can host.  I'll let them tell me first so I dont lose any ground....

So after about 3 weeks on SA, I have messaged dozens of girls who seemed to be on the same page as me (ie. fwb, discretion, nsa, etc).  Those "marriage minded, etc" I avoided.   I also made sure I was very transparent (without violating terms) with what I am looking for as well as being married.   5 girls ended up being good POT's.

Your pull rate probably varies with your offered rate vs the market average.

Seems like I've hit a wall. As I reported last time, I had only one successful meet and greet.  All the other girls I have contacted have either asked for money up front, money for a M & G, or just super high expectations ($600 PPM for Coffee).   A few just flaked after some time.  I'm not sure if this is just in my area, but this has proved more challenging than I thought.  The Sugar Bowl may not just be for me...

This is a perfect time to go back and review all the POT profiles that didn't work out. What do they have in common?  
1. Re-read the about me and seeking section text.  Is there a similarity or theme there (besides the obvious)?  
- Are there a lot of "no's" in her profile? "no scammers," "no time wasters," "no flakes."  
- Does she present a sense of self-entitlement? "I deserve the best, so you'd better bring it."  
2. Look at the pics? Mostly casual selfies, or glamour/IG style? Modest attire, sexy but not slutty, or lingerie/overtly slutty?  
3. What about the tags? Are they all listing the same ones? I often filter out "Luxury Lifestyle" to weed out the GPS Queens?  
4. Did they create a gift list (yellow flag)? If they did, what did they pick out? High end designer crap, or more modest items like a $50 Uber card?

I joined SA in 2015. For about 3 years, I had a lot of success. I usually had three regular SB's I saw every month. A lot of them looked much better than your average providers and they only asked for 300-400 for multiple hours (usually one hour for dining/drinking and two hours BCD), even overnights and weekends. This was less expensive than most DC providers charged for an hour. One asked for 500 but she was a very hot 18-year-old who became a top provider eventually. She is under the radar now, but I would still get emails when she comes to visit. A lot of them told me their real names so I could see their FB profiles. Back then, SB's would meet for a drink or lunch for free (pretty standard).

Pretty much the same experience as you. For the life of me I can't seem to find any SBs of the same caliber as in 2016. I'm even thinking of going back to providers but unfortunately after 5 years absence I don't have any references

Ditto here...something, other than the virus definitely seems to be happening.  I've had success, but like others, have looked up past SB and see if they still have any interest. I'm getting serious with my main one, so have begun to lose the motivation to sift through all the rubbish. I'll miss it, but think I'll cancel my subscription next month.

HC and GaG expoused to me a no -to- low $ first meet rule.  

I'm still lurking and not quite at this stage, but wondering something about your filtering:
Are you targeting gals who are advertising as "cupcakes" with a clear hint at P2P? Or any of them out for just dating and connections? Or any of those with a couple of kids and looking for action on the side?
Is it mostly the ladies initiating contact or you?

Regarding filtering, I always have  my profile paid for, active, visible to all. Yes it costs $ and leaves me open to tons of unsolicited msgs from Venezuela, the Philipines, et al. And My own profile clearly states that I will reply to all contacts and hope for the same in return.  So I tell the distant hopefuls thanks but  I only date locally and I move on.  

"not quite in downtown Pussy Siberia but certainly in the suburbs."

She is not going to show. When I first started, I gave them gas money also. I learned quickly after a few no-shows/cancellations. I was very naive at the beginning and got scammed several times. Learned my lesson the hard way.

I'm not sure if the cost/benefit has been worth it thus far.  Many and I mean many messages and flakes via text.  Right now I have 5 POTS.  Two successful meet and greets and now coordinating time to get together.  The three other POTS have been decent with texting, but at times go MIA days on end... then a random message....  We will see what happens, but at the end of the day I might have made only 2 connections and dozens of fails.  With a companion, it's obviously much more simpler.  Was it all worth it? I'm not 100% sure as my screen time has significantly gone up and perhaps my work productivity has gone down. LOL   However, the TWO POTS are within my budget (lower than my regular) and will provide extra time I would never get with a companion....   I'll keep everyone posted!

Some people do enjoy the chase.  I mean if it was easy, it might be boring and not really any boost to the ego.
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The fact that we get turned down more often than we close means it isn't a given and therefore a win is all the more dear.

@mthomas620, I've posted about conversion rates in the Sugar Bowl in the past.  

Had my first SA date, We clicked at a M&G and this was our first official date.  She was OK to just renting a hotel room and dinner, etc. wasn't really necessary.  We had about a 4 hour "date" and spent alot of time getting to know each other before things got frisky. Honestly gave me one of the best BJs I have ever had.  I couldn't go for another round due to some other commitments  I had for the evening, but there was no rush to kick me out.  This was definitely a different vibe compared to a typical session with a companion. I have a few more potentials and will see how those play out.    

Congrats l!  

Girl #2 was interesting. As mentioned before, I asked if we could skip out on dinner because I was afraid of being seen and suggested we go to a hotel and order in. She was okay with that.  We hung out and talked for maybe an hour before we actually kicked it. Not thinking with my head we fucked without protection. She was fine with it but I’m not necessarily happy I did this.   She’s not a pro by any means, but this could be worrisome if she is this promiscuous with others......

I am not proud to say this but I have gone bareback with quite a few SB's. Some of them will just say, "You don't need to use a condom," and some will just get on top of me before I can even say anything. I just think with my little head so I never say no. I have to admit my dick sliding inside a wet pussy feels great. Although I wonder if you insist on using a condom even when they say you don't have to, will they get offended? They might take it as you think they are not safe.

Arrangements are about consent and transparency with your SB. I always go bare, but I also always require we share recent test results first.  If she hasn't had a recent test, I either ask her to get one, or I take her to a local lab to get tested  at my expense.   Next I ask about birth control and make sure we both agree on "what if?"  Finally, I keep doses of "Plan B" (get the generic on Amazon for 1/3 retail) around in case she's not on BC.  

Just one last update!  SA had its  ups and downs for me  (but mostly downs). At the end of my first month on SA, I have secured two pretty hot POT’s but I didn’t feel a 100% connection with...  

Nicely done.