You should google alt.computer.consultants.moderated for this, and/or post
your inquiry to that ng. The topic comes up now and again.
I wrote a rather scathing assessment of these services for Contract
Professional about 8 years ago when they started appearing, and it seems
that they have only gotten worse in light of what has gone on in the
industry since then. My opinion of all of those services is they're just
shy of being MLM or Ponzi schemes.
The ones that want you to buy-in invariably refuse to give you any hard
evidence of satisfaction of other members (i.e., names and phone numbers of
people you can verify in the phonebook or on the web and contact as a
reference), which in and of itself sends up a big ole red flag. If they're
successful at getting gigs for their members, they should be crowing about
it, not hiding behind "confidentiality" to get you to ante-up the initiation
fees to find out anything about how they really operate. The "free" ones
are about as useful as having a luddite build a car for you. All of them
have just about zero ability to screen reqs: Sure, you may get "tons of
reqs" but for absolutely off-the-wall stuff like Jeff Cochran related. They
may appeal to absolute beginners and offshore drones who think $2 a day is a
king's ransom cream like it's their first time, but they are way off in some
alternate reality when it comes to dealing with experienced US talent.
If you have the fortitude and resources to do your own
networking/marketing/promotion, do so and steer clear of all middlemen. If
you aren't ready to, or can't, do it yourself, then you may have marginally
better luck using a bodyshop (if you don't mind being treated like cannon
fodder).
Alan
