Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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January 28, 2007

Bloggy Question 35: Rockin’ Blogger

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 6:37 pm

Road Trip

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week. I offer this bloggy life hypothetical question. . . .


A long time friend, a rock promoter, is town with the coolest band. You’re jealous and jazzed at the same time. It’s the kickoff to the concert tour for their latest CD.

Folks have been waiting for three years. The concert has been sold out at the stadium for months now, and there you are with box seats and full back stage access. This is better than anything you and your friend pulled off in college.

You took a week off work just for the occasion.

You’re in with band. It’s like you’re with old friends during set up and sound checks. You’re no music slouch yourself. The sound guy lets you listen in on the headset.

As rehearsal moves on, you pull out your laptop and start blogging your usual blog posts for the week.

On a break, the band comes over to see what you’re doing. The lead singer says he tried blogging, but couldn’t blog and write music too. He asks you a string of questions about your blog and blogging in general.

Then the day before the band leaves town, your fine friend says, “They want you to come with. They want you to blog the entire road tour all 12 months of it — $10K/month, all expenses paid, fine hotels, great food, big cities, Europe, UK, South Africa, Singapore, Australia, Japan.

It means being out of your job, your apartment, and on the road for your life in a matter of days.

How do you respond?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Filed under Bloggy Questions, Successful Blog | 14 Comments »




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14 Comments to “Bloggy Question 35: Rockin’ Blogger”

  1. January 29th, 2007 at 10:09 am
    Scorpia said

    Quite a surprise, seeing no comments here.

    Lotta angles to this one. Is there a family here? If you’re single, that makes it slightly easier. Of course, there may be a “someone special” , and that would make it harder.

    And then there’s the job. Good job? Bad job? Good pay? Bad pay?

    Local friends? Living place: good or bad?

    Travel: like it or not?

    Risk: how do you feel about it? Because there is some risk involved here. You could come back and find it hard to get a new job (though that $10k/month makes for a nice nest egg). What happens if the band splits up, or the tour is cancelled for whatever reason?

    Yeah, there’s a lot to consider in this matter, and for many, the decision would be hard to make.

    I wouldn’t do it myself, because (a) I don’t like to travel and (b) this isn’t the sort of thing I’d like to do (spend a year blogging the band).

  2. January 29th, 2007 at 10:15 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Scorpia!
    I left all of those angles empty for the fun of it. In the end, it IS about risk, isn’t it? Then again, there’s no such thing as job security . . .

    Would it be exciting? glamorous? OR Would it be boring and tedious? How much of the same concert can you blog for a year?

    Could you stand a friend that long, let alone a rock band?

    There are lots of questions here. Maybe too many. :)

    There was a time when I would have done it!

  3. January 29th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
    Scorpia said

    Right Liz, it’s about risk. I think most people would probably decline, even if they had no strong attachments to their current situation.

    And yeah, maybe too many questions there ;)

  4. January 29th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Most folks probably would decline, but I’d bet they would spend the rest of their lives wondering, “what if I had . . .?”

  5. January 29th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
    Mike said

    Hi Liz,

    I’d decline. A full year out of your kids’ lives is a steep price to pay for a long slog of a junket. One week would probably be more than sufficient exposure to the rock star experience for me. It wouldn’t be much longer before the dreaded wake-up in the middle of the night frantically wondering “What city am I in?”

    That makes the decision easy, without any regrets. But if you tacked a zero on the end of the offer and shortened the tour to six months…

  6. January 29th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hey Mike!
    I like the way you think! I’ll talk to the guys in the band and see whether we can get you that zero, four months, and a visit for a week once a month from the family. :)

  7. January 29th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
    Mike said

    You’ll get the standard cut of that action if you get me a deal! ;-)

  8. January 29th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Now that’s incentive!! :)

  9. January 29th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
    Whitney said

    Pets would be another consideration (you can tell I have those and not kids).

    That aside, being single, having yet to be able to travel abroad on my own dime, and assuming in this let’s-pretend-world that I don’t have pets, my response would be:

    Could I have a day to pack?
    Can I come home for a week every third month?
    Will you direct deposit paychecks? (Even better, handle the taxes for me so I don’t have to deal with estimated taxes every quarter.)

  10. January 29th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Whitney,
    The band says they love pets, I’m not sure what that means.

    You can travel back and forth as much as you like. You’ve got days to get ready.

    They have their paychecks done that way too. :)

  11. February 4th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
    Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Bloggy Question 36: Mom, I Got the Part! said

    [...] Related articles Bloggy Question 35: Rockin’ Blogger Bloggy Question 34: Time Is Money, but Content Is Free for the Paraphrasing! Bloggy Question 33: You’ve Changed, Man — DON’T Look at Yourself Bloggy Question 32: Blogger Alert! Where Is She? What Should You Do? [...]

  12. February 18th, 2007 at 1:56 am
    Whoa said

    Well i don’t know about there but here, if you haven’t got that good paying job/great hours shift then you get to see your kids like 2-4 hours a day at much (counting the trip to school and dinner) and on weekends (if they are small).
    A year is not as bad as one might think and it would be a sacrifice but for 10k a month and thinking about what benefits it would bring to your family … well i would take a big gulp and give it a try. You can guess now my job does not pay a lot, right?
    I guess i would ask for vacations when the kids have it, to be with them when they have lots of time. Quality time you know? Plus they get braggin’ rights (My parent is/was on tour with …, how cool is that?)
    And if it does not work? At least you tried. It also builds Curriculum, so you are more likely to get recognition and maybe a better job. :)

  13. February 18th, 2007 at 1:57 am
    Whoa said

    By the way, hi everybody, and Liz, cool redux on your site, congrats to everybody.

  14. February 18th, 2007 at 6:55 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Whoa!
    I think your outlook is one I can easily see my way to. Plenty of people join the armed forces for those very reasons and the pay and the working conditions aren’t nearly so cushy. :)

    Given the scenario you outline. I’d be right there with you. You betcha I’d go. That’s essentially what I did when I commuted from California to rural Mass for two years and traveled internationally as part of that job. During that time, the longest time I slept at my own home was 21 days in row and that happened only once. :)

    But our family couldn’t afford for me not to take that position — which I loved and which paid well — nor could sell our house in a California market that had totally tanked.

    Thanks for noticing the redecoration!!

    Smiles, Liz

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