I’m in the midst of a research project, which surveys journalists about their views about blogs. I am e-mailing journalists and asking them to take an on-line survey. Because collecting e-mail addresses is so time consuming, I can only send out so many requests in one day. In the process, I’m learning a lot about how to improve your response rate.

Individually addressed e-mails make a big difference. "Dear Mr. Smith" works much better than "Dear Journalist." E-mails sent in bulk don’t work. Make sure your subject line doesn’t sound too spammy. If people don’t answer your e-mail first thing in the morning, there aren’t going to answer it. A jovial tone rather than academese is important. Drinking beer and loud music helps boredom.