8 Ways to Make Money as a Virtual Assistant

Entrepreneurs are busy AF. Which is where virtual assistants come in, they help online entrepreneurs take stuff off their plate. By specializing in a specific area, you aren’t trying to do all things, like the entrepreneur.  

As a VA you have the choice to work part time or full-time. Because your clients can be from anywhere you can find clients that align with the hours you are available to work.

Side Hustling as a Virtual Assistant

Before jumping into being a VA full-time it’s smart to start out as a side hustle. Before you get started side hustling, you need to mentally prepare that you are taking on extra work and that can be exhausting. It helps if you have a goal in mind with you side hustle.

Have A Goal With Your Side Hustle

Side hustling just to side hustle is hard to maintain. Side hustling works best if you have a specific goal in mind. It could be to pay off debt or to build an emergency fund, or to save for a downpayment on a house. Whatever your goal, write it down in big bold letters.​

Side Hustle Income is Taxable

Lastly, the money you make side hustling is still taxable income, don’t get yourself in trouble with Uncle Sam by skipping out on paying taxes.

A good rule of thumb is 30% but can vary based on your overall income and any deductions.

Now, let’s dig in here are 8 different ways you can make money as a virtual assistant

1. Social Media VA

Bloggers and other entrepreneurs know that social media is important to growing their business, but they don’t always have time to do it. They also can’t be an expert in all things, so there is lots of work available as a social media virtual assistant managing social media accounts.

Gertrude at My Online Biz Journey details how you can get started as a freelance social media manager.

2. Email Marketing VA

Email marketing like social media is a big piece of running an online business. Having someone else to manage or help with email marketing can help online business owners to lower their stress levels.

3. Blog Management VA

I know, you see all these how to blog posts that help you in starting a blog but then you get into blogging and realize that starting the blog is the easy part.

There is:

• content planning,
• email marketing,
• list building,
• social media promotion,
• networking,
• guest posting and
• a million other things that go into blogging.

You have to really love it to stick with it.

A blog manager can help with content planning, moderating comments and assigning posts to writers.

4. Community Moderator / Customer Service VA

Facebook groups and other communities built by online businesses require a moderator to ensure nothing gets out of hand or inappropriate. Those groups can also be a place for customers to seek assistance if something isn’t working.

5. Create Content Upgrades

Bloggers will often use content upgrades to get people to subscribe to their email list. However, after creating content, bloggers don’t always have time to create the content upgrades as well.

Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income outlines different ideas for content upgrades, any of which you could offer to make as a service.  

6. Technical VA

Grayson Bell from Debt Roundup​ is a WordPress Guru, if you’ve been in any blogging circle you’ve probably heard of him. He has his own business as a technical VA, he helps with pretty much anything having to do with WordPress.

Whether you accidentally took down your entire site (I did that once), or just don’t want to deal with various updates on your site. He offers one off help and monthly services. You can learn more about his Technical VA services on his site iMark Interactive.

If you are similarly technically gifted, you could become a technical VA as well.

7. Pinterest VA

Pinterest isn’t social media, it’s a search engine and just like people will hire companies to help them drive traffic from Google, bloggers and other businesses will do the same with Pinterest.

If you’re a wiz at Pinterest, you could be getting paid to do it for others, just like I do.

Only like doing the work of one aspect of Pinterest? You can just offer those services! Maybe you just like making images, you can do that.

Or you don’t like creating Pin images and you rather just do scheduling, you can do that too. It’s up to you what services you offer.

Related: 5 Ways to Make Money as  Pinterest VA

8. Administrative or Operations VA

Entrepreneurs did not start their business to spend all their time doing administrative work.

Sorting through emails, scheduling meetings, CRM management, directing customer questions, setting up systems, and invoicing are all services you can offer as an administrative virtual assistant.

Next Steps

Whatever services you decide to offer as a VA, just be good at what you do and reliable in your work and you can be successful. If you want to learn more about how to start a successful virtual assistant business, check out this free list of 150+ services you can offer as a virtual assistant!