is the Australian Talent Management agency good?

I think a clear distinction needs to be made here between an agency and the kind of service provided by a number of online sites. Dare2Audition was specifically mentioned. Simply put, an agent doing their work represents an actor by promoting the actors on their books to casting agents. According to the person purporting to speak for ATM, "Our higher levels of service that are offered to people who can afford to show commitment and contribute to the initial setup costs of promoting them to almost 2500 advertising agencies, casting directors and production companies." As such they shouldn't be charging up-front fees for this service. As I said, this is illegal in most states. D2A and other sites like it are not in the business of promoting the actor: they provide resources both for actors - who have to be proactive to get anything out of the site by promoting themselves - and casting directors. It is a resource for people in the industry - a passive go-between in that sense (in fact the owners of that site are actively building up their resources such as auditions notices, etc) and their services. In other words, they are providing information to their members for an affordable fee that [especially] emerging actors can access. That they are not masquerading as agents is apparent from the profile form which has an item asking the member whether they are represented an agent or not. The D2A discussion forum which has covered the agents issue likewise supports this. Members do not enter into a contract for representation. So, ATM cannot justify charging up-front fees by comparing themselves with D2A, Quietonset or any other such membership service. They do not provide the same services. Jim