My content channels generate extensive data about you such as how frequently you visit my pages, what kind of device you’re using as well as countless other invasions of your privacy the digital age allows.
But unwilling to work the hours an effort at monetization would require the data largely unseen, wasted on an uncurious boomer. With one notable exception.
Location, Location, Location
If you navigate to this page using the link in the announcement sent out Thursday mornings, with each click I receive an alert informing me of your location. My weekly geography lesson!
Of late, those alerts have proved an axiom I often share with writers about their words; once you write them you never know how far they can travel.
Despite that flex, overwhelmingly my demographic polls closer to home with (nearly) 100% of all engagement coming from the United States and Canada.
And it turns out, some are even closer to home that that. Making it likely I’m not the only paint geek who knows where to get a great sandwich!
Last week I blogged news of second quarter earnings from both Sherwin-Williams and Masco, two brands struggling to sell paint to home centers; which are struggling to sell everything!
At Home Depot total revenue has been down each of the previous five quarters, Masco’s results nearly mirroring that trend. And like Home Depot, sales at the nation’s second largest home center have also gone down for five consecutive quarters.
And for Lowes the news gets worse the further back your chart goes with the company reporting reduced revenue in seven of the previous nine quarters, likely explaining Sherwin-Williams’ lament?
Over that same span though independent paint and hardware retailers have continued to experience growth, each segment unquestionably gaining market share from the big box stores. Which may also be happening in the LBM segment, contributing to both company’s ongoing woes.
I’m Available
Still rowing a corporate oar, it’s my fiancéeic’s work commitments which dictate the family’s schedule.
With no oar to row, “I’m available” has become my refrain at any suggestion to leave the house or state. THE statement’s frequency a running joke, though I wonder if I’m the only one who appreciates the humor?
So when a last-minute road trip to Montreal was mused by an unexpected PTO opportunity, my persistent availability yielded the summer’s second travel opportunity. To Montreal and the planet’s second best bagels!
A younger Mark would have stayed up late leading up to departure to pen an additional blog to post while away. Now, that effort conflicts with semi-retiredness, explaining why you won’t be hearing from me next week.
Returning from the Great White North I plan to continue my summer of laze until Labor Day pronounces it done, at which time I’ll accept reality and get back to work.
But I don’t plan to be happy about it.
