My Night Owl Session Online

I´m starting my mini vacations. Five days off. I´m spending this weekend with my daughter but I don´t have any plans for it yet. We talked about doing different things depending on the weather: going to the beach, library and/or park.
This weekend I´m cooking home. I already bought groceries and meat and all I need for a few homemade meals we enjoy.
So, I wish you all a good weekend ahead and I´m leaving you with some Nina pictures. While I drop, read my favorite blogs, check my e-mails, research, update my blogs, etc.



She...







...Sleeps or relaxes profoundly in a black office chair I have in my kitchen, placed next to my own chair. Yap, a part of my kitchen is transformed in a sort of home office and only because it´s the only division in the apartment in which I smoke. Once I use a notebook with wireless and one router, I can be online anywhere inside my apartment but it´s in the kitchen I spend most of my time. I rather be online, reading a book, cooking or even cleaning than in the living room watching TV...
Nina has a totally "stress free" live. We can learn so much from our furfriends :)

My MMO Endeavours

In general, my online profits decreased as soon as I started working full time. Earning money online requires time, dedication and "know how".
I also noticed an overall decrease in the number of opportunities to write sponsored posts, comparing to the same period in 2009.
Currently, my most "steady" income comes from Adsense in my Portuguese blogs. It´s surprising but it´s true. My less "steady" income comes from Blog Advertising companies and writing.
In the current state of fairs, most months I earn nearly 200.00 Euros just from writing but there are others in which I barely reach 100.00 Euros. It all depends on my free time to write and the offers I receive, either directly by e-mail or (more frequently) trough the different companies´ marketplace.
In March, I reached another Adsense payment which is expected to arrive soon. I also received a payment from Shvoong.
Shvoong is a summaries and reviews website in over thirty languages. It´s also a huge library, useful for students, and a community. I´ve been in this website as a contributor since 2007. I write Portuguese books reviews, website reviews, and articles. They pay contributors according to the number of visitors of your articles. The minimum payout is 10.00 and they pay trough Paypal. They also have an affiliate scheme.
As a contributor, I can invite anyone trough e-mail. If you´re interested, just mail me at: nightextras@iol.pt
In March and April, I also had some kind offers to write content and a few link sales.
In the past months, I noticed that IZEA websites became even more scarcer for European posties but not for US´s. In general, they´re paying less for each review/post and have lesser opportunities than other competing companies. I think it´s more difficult to earn money this way than a couple years ago.
In 2008/2009 I used most of the money I earned online to pay my studies expenses. Now that I finished the degree, I´ve been using the money to pay current expenses (such as Internet, telephone, domains renewal, etc) and for our vacations fund. Actually, there´s no vacation´s fund left, it went all to our current car (my long wanted "craziness") :)
I´ll have to rebuilt my savings but I´m happy with my "new drive". Now I have a car not a sample, lol. Ummm...from now on I´ll use my online earnings to rebuilt my savings, great destination :)
See you soon xx

Blogger Status: Day Off & Some Thoughts

It´s been a while since my last Blogger Status post. I haven´t twitted in a long time, so...:)
After a stressful week with two mornings and one night shift, oh gosh how I hate mornings, I´m finally having a day off.
I spent my birthday in a training at the hospital. It was a normal work day, I only had free time at night so nothing special, just a dinner out which I always enjoy. This year, I was so busy that I didn´t even had time to do or buy a birthday cake, I always do...
This week, my free time was spent in public services renovating and changing my last name in my ID cards. Yeap, I officially entered the thirty and something with a kid divorced club. Yeap, that exists in Portugal too.
Yesterday, I was thinking how my life changed since we broke up. I still have obligations and schedules to obey but I have a freedom I didn´t have before. In practical aspects many things changed, that´s the visible part and sometimes the hard part to get used to.
The invisible part is the realization that I can only count with me. I can do things how I want without having to alter my plans or making agreements. I take my own decisions and am responsible for them. As a single mom, I have more responsibilities but they´re not seen as a burden, on the contrary. I know have the feeling I´m in charge of this "ride" and with all that it brings I´m still a happy person in essence. I feel blessed for all I have and look for happiness within me more than in others.
Well, after these scattered thoughts I´m off to update my other blogs.
See you soon :)

Shopping... Wisely

Shopping is something I enjoy doing. Like it or not, everyone shops. I like to describe myself as a kind of shopaholic in recovery, you can follow my story in my PF blog. I have changed the habit of buying stuff I don´t really need. Before buying something I ask myself if I truly need/want that item.
I´m working towards a balance between shopaholic and frugal but I still enjoy the act of shopping in itself, even groceries. Since I started saving money to achieve defined personal goals, tracking expenses and budgeting became a challenge. After doing realistic math, I slowly started changing my shopping behavior. Now that my personal finances are in control I got used to saving habits. For example, I save resources, do lists, shop wisely and always look for discount vouchers, coupons and promotions. This link is only for UK.
In my country, coupons are now more common. I have a few fidelity cards which give me rewards such as discounts and 10% off coupons. I often do price comparison and I got used to, before shopping, always research online. I already found good deals trough the Internet.
Printable coupons and discounts can do wonders to a budget, specially if you live in US. I´ve been following a blog about a family of four that spends only 800$00 for the whole year in groceries and I´m amazed not only with US prices, but also with the opportunities people have there to save money. My country is one of the poorest in south Europe. We have low wages, comparing to other European countries, and prices are higher in most items, except housing. We have one of the most expensive gas price in Europe and we pay too many taxes. In fact, we pay tax for almost everything and that´s one of the reasons it´s more difficult to save money while living in Portugal.

Music: Old Times Tunes & My Birthday

This week, I celebrated my birthday. Happy birthday to me!
I was born April 13th...Aries...sure!
No cake this year...
A year older but wiser...I guess.
Today, I feel like posting a music from one of my favorite "old time" bands: The Cure. I can say that I enjoy most of their musics but the album "Disintegration" is my favorite. So, tonight...Underneath The Stars...live.
Cheers!

Thinking About Summer Vacations

The hot weather arrived and the last couple days have been so hot (23ºC) that we´re already thinking about ice-creams, beach and swimming pool. It´s time to take my swimming suit and towels out of the closet...next weekend we´ll go swimming for the first time this year.
It´s been so long since my last summer vacations abroad that I almost don´t remember... From 2002 to 2009, I only worked part-time while studying at University and taking care of the family. For our honeymoon, we thought about visiting one European country but that never happened. Instead of using the money we received in our wedding to travel, we bought a Land Rover jeep. After, we never had enough money to travel abroad and we spent all our summer vacations here in Algarve.
Well, Algarve is a great traveling destination...in summer it´s filled with tourists but what we really wanted was to go elsewhere, catch a flight and visit some European capitals.
In April 2009, I started working at the hospital and had no summer vacations. Once again, I spent my days off in local beaches. This year, for the first in many, I think I´ll have a chance to travel. I already started saving money, a sort of summer vacations fund for me and my daughter.
I´ve been researching online to learn more about Europe´s best destinations. I also started checking prices because I know that if I book my trip ahead I can get a good discount. I even checked hotels in Rome, Madrid and London. I haven´t decided yet which city I will visit but one thing is for sure, I won´t go alone, my daughter will go with me. Once this will be her first plane travel, I don´t want to go very far from home...I´m tempted to chose a destination like south Spain islands.
I´ve been talking to my daughter about this possibility and she´s already excited with this idea for Summer vacations. She would like to stay in a hotel with swimming pool and have dinner out every day. She said she doesn´t want to see me always cooking like I do at home. It´s like all work and no fun. She´s a little VIP, but I recognize she has good taste and knows well the vacation concept, lol. Now, I only hope I can save enough money in the months to come to make our little dream come true.

PR Update Time

Once the last PR update was made during the last days of 2009, three months have passed and according to G.´s tradition the last days of March were update time.
In the past days, I often though about this topic and I´ve been monitoring my blogs to check if any changes would occur.
Nothing changed for me, all my blogs remain with the same PR. I´m happy because lately I haven´t worked much to gain more links. In fact, I´ve been giving more out-bond links than receiving so I´m happy I kept my blog´s PR.
And you? Did you noticed any changes?

PS: Thanks Mariuca for bringing this topic up. Here in Night Clicks it´s a tradition to post about PR updates :)

Earning Money Online: Other Resources

A couple months after starting Night Clicks, I came across a few blogs about making money online trough the Internet. At that time, I was studying and working part-time with children and had a little extra time at night that I used for blogging.
I was excited about the possibility of earning a few extra bucks from the comfort of my home and started researching more about home business topics.
Trough my own research, I learned about affiliate schemes, different types of blog advertising, paid content, the domain/website business and all the other making money online possibilities related to those main resources. After spending many nights learning by reading articles and other´s experiences, and once I already had a couple blogs, I decide to try the blog advertising business. Currently, blog advertising, Adsense and writing articles are my main online revenue source.
I never tried to earn money trough online games but I know it´s possible to do. I recently meet a friend who is also a blogger, only works offline in part time but makes a decent income online. He earns more than my offline salary trough sports bets. He uses a website that allows him to make money trough basketball betting and football betting. I was amazed when he showed me his earnings in the past months.
This way of making money online isn´t as risky as I first though but demands lots of research. To earn higher amounts without much risk, he has to study championships, games statistics, tactics and read the sports news every day. Once he blogs about football and enjoys everything sports related, earning money online this way is not only a challenge but a way to have fun.
I couldn´t do it myself but I admire him for what he does.

Happy Easter!

I´d like to wish all Night Clicks visitors and readers a Peaceful & Happy Easter.
Portuguese Easter follows Christian traditions such as processions and church festivities. Many Portuguese use Easter holidays to travel and visit family or friends.
In Easter, it´s usual to see many Spanish tourists visiting Portugal.
As I mentioned in a recent post, I´m having mini Easter vacations and I´ll spend my three days off at home doing some of the things I enjoy most and other house chores such as a small Spring cleaning.
Spring always brings me a renovation spirit. Yesterday, I bought one of the flowers in the picture above to decorate my flat´s entrance. We call these flowers "Gerberas" and along with Roses, Narcissus and Orchids they´re my favorite flowers.
Happy Easter everyone!

Image:http://fashionbubbles.com

Eyeglasses, Contact Lenses or Both?

Ten years ago, I worked in my town´s main Post Office. My job included selling different products, receiving payments and working long hours in the computer. Back then, after working for a few hours with the computer, I started having frequent headaches and vision problems. I went to the ophthalmologist to check my condition and was diagnosed distorted vision or astigmatism. The doctor advised me to wear glasses regularly, specially when working with the computer or reading, to prevent increasing diopters. My parents both used glasses since they were very young so this diagnosis wasn´t a surprise for me. I delayed this purchase for a few months but, in the same year, I bought my first pair of eyeglasses.
Although I don´t wear eyeglasses everyday, my diopters haven´t increased. Currently, I work long hours in the computer. More and more, I feel the need of using my glasses to drive at night or to read, otherwise I feel dazed and have headaches. I don´t feel comfortable when wearing my glasses for many hours, they are heavy, leave a mark on my nose and I have to clean them constantly. I also don´t like wearing glasses when I´m cooking because the steam that comes out of the pans blurs my vision.
I´ve been researching online about contact lens technology and learned that new contact lens technology can be a good solution for my case. Contacts are useful for correcting many vision problems, including astigmatism and myopia.
Although glasses have less maintenance and are affordable, I´ve been researching about the advantages and disadvantages of using contact lenses for my specific vision problem. Maybe I can combine the use of the latest contact lenses with my current eyeglasses. I could use lenses when I go out or drive at night and glasses when I´m at home working in the computer. If you have vision problems and you use contact lenses can you share your experience with me?

Fool´s Day & Mini Hollidays

Hello!
Today´s fool´s day. I started my day with two small lies from my daughter: First she told me that, last night, while browsing the Internet she read that "David Fonseca" (one of my favorite Portuguese singers) was going to perform a live concert in town...and very soon. I believed it and replied: I want to see him performing live once again, no matter what. Off course...she started laughing.
Her second little lie was on our way out. She told me she had forgot to wear panties :) I told her we should get back home because right away and when she started laughing like a fool, I found it was another innocent lie...lol.
She´s so cute...the little devil fooled me twice!
My daughter started school Easter holidays last Monday and she´ll only get back next 12th. Although I´ve been working as usual, we have been spending more time together now than when she has classes.
This weekend, my chief nurse blessed me with mini Easter holidays. I won´t work Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Saturday afternoon my daughter is going to my ex house and I´ll be alone for the rest of the weekend. It´s a good time to make a Spring cleaning in my flat, update my blogs, cook a couple yummy meals I can´t do during the week due to lack of time and have plenty rest. It´s only three days off but I´ll try to make the most out of them because my next work pause (a few days in a row kind of break) will only be in May.
So...I´ll be around. See you soon :)