New Internet Company Sells PR Secrets for the Price of Lunch

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    December 4, 2000

VANCOUVER, CANADA: As the Internets first true do-it-yourself public relations company, PRMadeEasy.com (www.prmadeeasy.com) today began selling PR tools and advice for a fraction of the cost of a consultants one-hour rate.

The PR industry wont be happy weve taken away the mystery that translates into expensive service fees for consultants," says Wayne Hartrick, CEO of Reputations.com, which wholly owns PRMadeEasy.com. Were selling paint-by-numbers public relations that more than meets the needs of small- and medium-sized businesses that cant pay big bucks to PR firms."

While a senior PR consultant can charge up to $250 per hour, PRMadeEasy.coms introductory subscription is about $8 a month ($99.95 per year) and gives users unlimited access to more than 50 practical, step-by-step guides and training courses including:

•    Generate headline-grabbing news releases

•    Avoid being misquoted in the media

•    Create a crisis communications plan

•    Talk to the online media

•    Publicize special events

PRMadeEasy.com already has access to a market of more than six million small-and medium-sized businesses through signed agreements with business affinity programs, most of which are exclusive. For example, a recent agreement with Business Savings Club includes PRMadeEasy.com in MasterCards Business Savings Program and on Chase Manhattans ChaseBusinessCard.com web site. Other partners include the small business support sites for Smart Online, Inc. and its syndication partner Compaq, as well as Telus and UNIGLOBE Travel.

PRMadeEasy.com is the first major department of Reputations.com (www.reputations.com), which capitalizes on the rising trend of reputations management by building products such as reputation insurance and reputations monitoring and analysis of celebrities reputations.

The US PR industry recorded $3 billion in fees in 1999 and is growing at 30% a year," says Hartrick, who founded the company after 15 years in senior public relations counseling. That is translating into a shortage of PR practitioners and soaring rates at a time when business is beginning to recognize that reputation is as important as physical assets. Reputations.com and PRMadeEasy.com are stepping in to service the massive market of small- and medium-sized businesses presently not serviced by the traditional PR industry."

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