Amateurs can “make news.” They can entice a morning TV crew to take video of a charity event. Or land a mention in a local newspaper column. Or even score a feature story in a trade magazine.

But these are one-time shots that are unlikely to leave an impression on your target audience. Simply “making news” will rarely attract a steady stream of prospects to your door.

Yet even top PR pros tend to focus on “making news.” There are two reasons for this. First, it’s relatively easy to score. Second, boss rarely understands that simply “making news” is virtually worthless to bottom line.

For example: Taco Bell “made news” a few years ago by piggybacking on an international story. The space station SkyLab was losing its orbit and was about to crash through earth’s atmosphere. The world press was obsessed with possibility that debris might strike a major city.

Taco Bell hired a boat to tow a gigantic target out onto Pacific Ocean. If any debris hit target, Taco Bell told world, every American would get a free taco.

The stunt gave news media a strong visual to associate with more abstract story of potential space debris. It also lent a lighter side to a completely out-of-whack media obsession.

Now, I’m not criticizing Taco Bell. This was a great one-time stunt. But in end news coverage did little to attract new customers to Taco Bell. There were no follow-up stories to tell. There was no exciting idea at heart of company’s tactic.

It was a stunt. And a funny one. Nothing more.

Taco Bell “made news.” But it didn’t make news.

Here’s another way of looking at it: “Making news” is pure expense; making news will generate revenue.

The PR Rainmaker understands this crucial difference.

Typical daily hours for me as an ezine publisher

- Reading other ezines/newsletters: About 4 hours per day.

- Looking for right content: 5-6 hours per day

- Checking email other than newsletters: 5 hours per day

- Getting rid of junkmail: 3 hours per day

- Staying in touch with other publishers, website owners etc.: 3 hours per day

- Working on learning html: 2-3 hours pr day

- Updating ezine, ads and slot-ads with Rich, my programmer: 6 hours per day (with about 10 hours "allsorts" chat too)

- Looking in forums for things of interest: 1-2 hours per day

- Reviewing articles for possible publication: 3-4 hours per day

- Chatting on msn and yahoo messengers, whilst looking for more ideas and helping people: 12 hours per day

- Promoting ezine: At LEAST 4 hours per day (including submitting my own articles)

That 53 hours per day. Thank my lucky starts I`m great at mutli-tasking...hehehe