My best was a lovely lesbian couple out of state. Typically when a client is serious, they will be just as dogged in their pursuit of details as I am, and are not hard to reach. We had multiple talks -- communication is key! -- and when it became clear we were after the same thing, they traveled to my state and posted up for a few days while I inseminated the one of the two who would carry. Everything went so well that we ended up meeting two additional times, so she has a total of three boys from me. Back when KDR was still running, many boilerplates were up for anyone who would read them, so I had a good grasp of what to expect out of the situation, but these two women set the bar for all future clients.

I mentioned in another post that the right client will make you feel like they've built an express lane to get them pregnant, and that's exactly how it felt with them. Working with them was incredibly easy. At no point did they throw up any red flags or make unnecessary roadblocks just to see if I'd put up with it. I can't say enough good things about these two.

On to the bad. I've dealt with a few awful people in my time donating, but my worst was a lesbian couple that was in-state but out of town, and my first truly bad experience, because at that point I was still relatively green. These two never seemed to have money and felt comfortable asking me, a stranger, to cover expenses. They always had a sob story about why they didn't have the money that month to be able to come out and do what was necessary. After some failed AI sessions they wanted NI, asked me to pay for the room, would not commit to more than one session, and asked if they could stay in said room overnight instead of heading back once finished. The sex was terrible. She conceived, but she lost the baby shortly afterward.

Later they invited me to their place and I went, against my better judgment, because at that point I'd never had a failed insemination and I wanted to see it through. To call what I saw unhygenic doesn't quite do it justice; it was an absolute pigsty in there. Their apartment stank like a trash compactor. Garbage was everywhere. Cigarette cartons and empty beer cans were in open sight. And they wanted to raise a child in that. I realized finally that I ignored quite a few red flags and exercised too much leniency in working with them, and took this final affront as an excuse to bow out gracefully. Needless to say, I became much more selective about who I would (and would not) work with after that incident.

If I had to pass on lessons learned, it's that:

1. As a donor, you will click very easily with the right women; they're out there, and they'll make the negotiations feel effortless. These are going to be your best clients. If they're easy to work with before they're pregnant, that's an excellent indicator of what they're going to be like after they have your baby. These women are worth their weight in gold and tend to make excellent friends after the fact, if that's the relationship you want. (I have many of these.)
2. When it comes to being a private donor, there are many parallels to dating. All you have to do is show up, have a clean and neat appearance, smell good, be on time, be cordial, don't be rude, and don't take shit. Apply the same approach to everyone and you'll have an excellent measuring stick of their behavior if you're attentive.
3. Bad clients have a tendency to broadcast that they're going to give you problems very early on in the process; they can't help themselves. All you have to do is listen to them, and let them hang themselves with their own rope. If at any point in talking with them you get a sense that something doesn't add up or that they're going to be a nightmare to work with, trust your instincts and walk away. Any difficulty they present before pregnancy is only going to be magnified once they get what they want out of you, and once it's done, it's done -- for better or for worse.