for me, how long it takes is proportional to cost of services (higher the cost, the pickier and more careful I am) and uncertainty around the provider.
below are factors that make a decision easier to make (some are weighted more heavily than others):
pics available (including unfiltered, non-enhanced ones) (+)
reviews available (+)
active on social media (X, OnlyFans, IG, TikTok, etc) and comports oneself well/reflects an appealing personality (+)
posts on message board(s) and comports oneself well/reflects an appealing personality (+)
has a website, ads (on reputable platforms), and non-generic, chat-GBT-generated-type self descriptions reflecting an appealing personality (+)
common interests or interests that are interesting (+) (particularly important for SPs I'm planning on spending social time with)
does duos with and/or is associated with reputable SPs (+) (doing duos is immaterial; it's more the "endorsement" effect I'm referring to)
positive word-of-mouth from other SPs I see (+)
comports themselves well in direct correspondence (including by providing timely responses when coordinating date/time) (+)
has a no review policy (-)
no pics, only obscured pics and/or overly glamorized and enhanced pics, dated pics (-)
no reviews or few reviews from obvious shills (e.g., one post accounts) (-)
most recent review is several years old (-)
no social media activity (-)
social media or message board activity but conducts themselves poorly (-) (most the SPs who post on MERB conduct themselves in a way that makes me more interested in seeing them (or seeing them again, in some cases), including you
@Lunaseraphim )
zero common interests and zero interesting interests (-)
ads are only on LeoList (-)
negative word-of-mouth from other SPs I see (- or +/- (neutral)) (I take this with a grain of salt but it doesn't help)
comports themselves poorly in direct correspondence, including slow response time and flakiness (-)
that being said, sometimes this all goes out the window and I just take a more impulsive gamble because my curiosity gets the better of me. sometimes this gamble has paid off and the previously "high uncertainty" SP has become my regular.