After a year in the love business, a website has found that people - especially men - are willing to pay for first dates.

Without any sex being promised.

WhatsYourPrice.com sounds like something William Shatner pitches, but it was set up by the founder of SeekingArrangement.com - "the world's largest Sugar Daddy site" - and works as an auction service involving short-term romance.

"Generous members" (usually guys) set up a profile, browse the profiles of "attractive members" (usually women) and place bids. After back-and-forth negotiations result in a price, the time-and-place conversation costs Mr. Generous a one-time fee that works out to about $10, which is the main way the website makes it money.

In a recent four-week period, 369,282 offers were made, according to a news release about dating for dollars rising steadily.

The Top 3 cities were New York with 27,733 offers, Los Angeles with 22,341, and Miami with 20,162.

The average price is about $80. It was lifted to $131.70 for a first date on Valentine's Day.

Can a pay-for-dates system result in true love?

WhatsYourPrice.com lets "generous members" bid for dates with "attractive members" and denies it's any kind of escort-service site.

The highest price? One woman got $5,000 once, said spokesman Leroy Velasquez.

Then again, a member said on Anderson Cooper's talk show that he once got a date for $25 - and at the end, the woman gave him his money back.

The setup has real advantages compared to other dating sites, said Velasquez.

Guys who get passed over elsewhere have better odds of getting a yes, and the 3-to-1 ratio of "attractive" to "generous" doesn't hurt either, he said.

Founder Brandon Wade has said it's partly a site for nerdy guys, like himself, who feel socially awkward. Most men who use the site are 33 to 40.

"Incentivizing open-mindedness" was a term Velasquez used.

"You guys should go on Howard Stern!" writes "easyeboy" in WhatsYourPrice.com's 15 pages of testimonials. "This is the ONLY dating site that really works. It took me months to years to get a date on other sites, and it took me a day on here."

The women, who are usually in their 20s, not only pocket some cash, they report the men are of higher quality than on other sites, as a flight-attendant member confirmed on Cooper's show last year.

Fewer unemployed cheapskates? Fewer guys who feel a need to deceive to compete, perhaps.

Whatever the reasons, the website's membership has grown to more than 450,000 since being founded in January 2012, with more than 4 million dates offered, Velasquez said.

A common reaction from skeptics is to suspect it's just a Web-based "escort" service.

Not so, said Velasquez. "We strictly prohibit any form of solicitation or prostitution," he said. ". . . It may happen, and it has happened in the past, but we have taken the correct measures of kicking them off our website."

Then again, as an older businessman, who used the site many times, explained on Cooper's show, nothing stops the couple from doing a little more negotiating.

Actually, members are encouraged to report any solicitation, which would result in banishment, Velasquez said.

Then again, some critics charge that it's still a kind of prostitution, and a staff writer for the Atlantic even contended it's worse.

"The irony is that commodifying companionship is arguably more destructive to human dignity and society than is selling sex," wrote Conor Friedersdorf.

An optional cost to member is that, for $50, a member can pay for a background check that's prominently noted on his or her profile.

Yes, people have found real romance through whatsyourprice.com, Velasquez said, remarking that last year, Wade accepted invitations from couples whose paid date led to a wedding date.

• Read more articles by PETER MUCHA

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