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Getting press is treacherous business. Any company needs exposure to build credibility and attract business. But once a story gets rolling, you have no control over what the reporter might say or when it will run. The coverage you so desperately wanted may be a PR bonanza or wipe your company out. All you can do is wait for the papers to hit the newsstands and pray. Here's how our recent dance with the San Francisco press panned out.

In late December, a freelance writer called me up and asked if he could interview me for a story about our online real estate brokerage, zipRealty. He thought the real estate editor of the San Francisco Examiner might go for it. Since the Sunday Examiner is a must read for Bay Area home buyers, I was more than eager to meet him.

A few weeks later, the reporter came to interview me. After answering all the usual questions and making sure our message came across loud and clear, I was ready to wrap it up. Not so fast. The reporter said that he needed to talk to some of our agents and customers to get an authentic view of our service. This put me in a sticky situation. His request was reasonable, and I needed the story. Yet, I knew that if any of our customers were really unhappy but hadn't told us — or if one of our agents was having a bad day, this story could take on a very damaging tone. I did a five-second risk analysis in my head, gulped, and told the reporter as casually as I could that: Sure, he could talk with a few of our agents — no problem. I also gave him a list of clients who had agreed to talk to the press. The reporter wrapped up his interviews with the agents within the hour and left.

ABOUT TO BE INUNDATED. A month went by, and I heard nothing. I figured the story had died. Then out of the blue, the reporter called to clarify information he had gotten from our customers. The story was scheduled to run on Jan. 23. I answered the questions and lined up a field agent for a photo shoot.

I awoke early on the 23rd. The paper arrived at 7 a.m. Bracing myself for the worst, I pounced on it, flipping pages frantically to find the story. It was a sweaty moment. Literally, all our early success could be wiped out if this story turned out to be bad.

One glance at the photos told me all I needed to know. There was one large picture of our agent showing two Gen Xers a house and another of a middle-aged couple, whom I knew were satisfied customers. The feature was long and glowing. A home run worth hundreds of thousand of dollars of advertising.

Now, we had a new problem. The Examiner has a circulation of over 600,000. Just about every home buyer in the region would see this story in the next few hours. We were about to be inundated. I immediately called our vice-president for operations and told him to rustle up everyone he could muster. Within two hours, we had a full team on board. Just in time. In one day, we had as many site registrations as in the previous two months, and we were committed to handling each one within 24 hours. On Monday at midnight, we replied to the last registration and trooped out to celebrate over a beer. It was exactly one year from the day we incorporated. What a way to begin our second year! See you in two weeks.