Angie's List
I'm reluctant to pay for a service unless I personally know someone who's used it and can see it's worthwhile. Unlike a magazine, you can't really test out a website for how useful it'll be when deciding whether or not to subscribe. It's not really backwards to get the fee from consumers, though, because then they answer to consumers, not companies. If funds come from businesses, credibility on rating them and posting negative comments would questionable. Many consumers don't know that the BBB operates on business membership fees, and doesn't even make all the complaints on file public information. In my opinion, the BBB misleads consumers, and many business owners feel BBB membership is tantamount to extortion anyway. However, people ARE reluctant to pay for such website memberships without the opportunity to try it out...heck it can be hard to get people just to register. If they're really good, word will spread and people will pay if it's reasonable.
Another one that's popped up is Rate Your Builder:
http://www.rateyourbuilder.info It used to require registration just to look...now it only requires it to actually rate a builder. These kind of sites are useful especially if they take off, but what would REALLY help consumers is a national or state database of all consumer complaints, cross referenced by type, company name, and listing other co's the corporation had under it's umbrella. I am not saying it should be federally or state run, but that the database be maintained either federally or by state, and by neutral parties. Funding for it could be from the state consumer protection agencies, which currently can range from somewhat effective, to worthless, depending on how public they make their records. Take the politics out of it, and cut the waste, and it would probably be cheaper than what these agencies now spend, and be more effective, too.
People assume complaints are a lot more public than they are...and there is really very little that records positive comments on a company, or verifies that the person commenting, good or bad, is truthful and not misrepresenting who they are.