As part of their "get me out of the ditch or blow up the numbers", whichever it may be, campaign The Ladders is offering recruiters and companies a free Passport that entitles them to one free job posting a month.  (I think) or maybe one free posting.  No candidate access just a posting.  Ok, we all know that recruiters will do anything that's free.  So what?

Here's the "so what".  You hated the commercial, you thought it was disgusting, you don't like the whole Ladders shell game or the fact that they charge both the job seeker and the employer or recruiter, you wouldn't pay to be a part of it,  you  don't like it because they double dip and or charge job seekers, you wouldn't recommend them to a candidate because they misrepresent that they only have 100K jobs and candidates, you know that the jobs they have on the site are available  to view for free on company pages, Indeed, Monster, Career Builder, Simply Hired and for God's sake even Craig's List. In the past you posted a job only to have it remain on their site for years after it was filled so you got to explain that it had been filled in 2007 to a candidate who applied in 2010.   But what the hell, it's a free posting.  You might even get a candidate or two.

Consider this.  You use the free posting.  The Ladders can now claim you as a customer so you just endorsed their service.  Your name and your company name are now associated with their site.  They have your website /email/ name ,to be added to their job scraping spider.  You have just tacitly given them carte blance to pull every job off your site to flop on their job board  which they can now justify because if you put one on there you became their customer and one of the ,"oh, so many recruiters or employers" whom they represent. So when a job seeker calls you about a job you didn't post you can spend your time explaining that you didn't post it, it's not 100K and it was filled a month ago or longer.  You don't really use the Ladders, you just used one free posting.  Is it worth adding your personal/company endorsement to a service you don't like for one free posting?  I don't think so.  I have worked hard to develop my reputation.  I am not about to muddy it for the price of one free posting on a site i hate and think is a scam or associate my name or business with people crawling around rubbing themselves on desks.

One other caveat that crossed my pea shaped brain this morning.  Recruiters are reporting that when they call The Ladders to find out exactly what the "Passport" really is they are getting a bunch of double talk or as Rebecca Sargent put it "A customer service mess".  You will be told to go to the web site where it is explained.  Great, you go to the web site. Ping their web site just got a hit.  So now the web site hits go up because that is what they want. It validates that the commercial was a blazing success, just look at the increase in web site hits.

If one free posting is worth it to you, or you like the Ladders by all means use the free posting, endorse them, link your name/company to them.  Not this kid.  I won't endorse anything for a gimme or for money that i don't like or think is a scam.  That's just my opinion.  I may have been born at night but it wasn't last night.  All of us can be bought i suppose but some of us are more expensive than others.