Making Sense Of Cents

Learn how to make extra money, how to save money, how to start a blog, and more.

JOIN OVER 300,000
MONTHLY READERS!
  • HOME
  • BLOG
  • About
  • Categories
    • SAVE MONEY
    • Side Job Ideas
    • Blogging Tips
    • Budget Tips
    • Career Advice
    • College
    • Pay Off Debt
    • Extra Income
    • My Life
    • Minimalism
    • Pet-Related
    • Real Estate Help
    • Retirement
    • Product Reviews
    • Self-Employment Tips
    • Travel
      • RV Life
    • Wedding
  • How To Start a Blog
  • FREE FB GROUP
  • Recommendations
  • Contact
    • Contact
    • Advertise
  • How To Save Money
  • Make Extra Money
  • Blogging Courses
    • Affiliate Marketing Course
    • Making Sense of Sponsored Posts
  • Travel

What Does a Virtual Assistant Do?

Last Updated: October 15, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 84 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

2430shares
  • Facebook 199
  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

What does a virtual assistant do? What is a virtual assistant and what do they do? How much does a virtual assistant get paid?What do virtual assistants do? How did you start with your virtual assistant work? What does a virtual assistant do? How much does a virtual assistant get paid? These are all questions I am asked often. I am definitely not an expert, but I do want to share what I know. My extra income posts seem to be a hit with everyone so far.

If you haven’t read them yet, please read a super long summary about my extra income, 75 Ways To Make Extra Money,  Ways to Earn Extra Income Part 1, and then of course So You Want to Be a Freelance Writer?

Virtual assisting is something that I recently started doing. It doesn’t comprise a very big percentage of my extra income, but it is still something. I like to be diversified just in case anything does happen to one of my other extra income streams (yes I realize that I am not fully diversified because a lot of my extra income is earned online – just in different ways).

Now even though it does not comprise a very large percent of my income, making some extra money by being a virtual assistant is nice. I can work from home and can see results immediately.

A virtual assistant or freelancer (for the sake of this post, the terms will be interchangeable) helps a business run, all while staying virtual (most likely at home or at their own virtual assistant business). You can be contracted for one project (such as blog design) or it can be a continuing job such as replying to e-mails and comments.

A lot of you have asked “Why would anyone hire a virtual assistant?” Or “What does a virtual assistant do?”

Well, why WOULDN’T someone hire help? A business is a lot of work, and if you can outsource some of the things that need to be done so that you can focus more on the end goal and direction of your business, then why not? Also, one person realistically cannot do everything. When help is needed, it’s best to look for it because your business could end up going downhill because of it.

A business owner also does not want to sacrifice quality. Quality tends to be sacrificed when one person is trying to do a 5 person job. That’s where a virtual assistant can come in!

 

A lot of you have also asked about being a virtual assistant pays.

This is a hard question to answer. Pay can be anywhere from $15 to $100+ per hour. You can also get paid per project (such as per written article), instead of on an hourly basis. It’s really hard to say just because there are so many different tasks that can be done.

If any of you wouldn’t mind, please share what you generally make or request when you do virtual assistant work. It’ll be helpful to everyone! And I’ll also include you in this post if you do as well. Thanks!

A virtual assistant can be pretty much anything, but today I wanted to focus on how you can be a virtual assistant for a website. I’m not too familiar with other forms of virtual assistant work (such as online financial services, data entry, etc.), so I did not want to jump into that until I researched it some more.

 

So, what does a virtual assistant do?

1. Social Media Assistant. Have you ever felt like there are so many different forms of social media and it’s all very hard to handle? Imagine if you have a business or multiple businesses you are trying to handle. Working through all of these can be very hard. You might help with their Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Blog, etc., all in order to connect with the target audience.

 

2. Website Design. When I started FITnancials, I hired Andrea to design the whole blog. She did a great job. This is something that I never could have done myself. Website design is very important, especially for a new blog because it can set the tone for your blog and helps you with a good start. And if you’re like me, then you have no artistic or creative skills at all, so a website designer is needed badly. Now she wasn’t a “virtual assistant” and was entirely a freelancer, and this is where the interchangeable terms come into this post 🙂 As a website designer, there are so many things that can be done: whole website designs, social media icons, logos, banner advertisements and so on.

 

3. Editor. An editor does many things and can encompass many different industries. For this post we will talk about being a blog or website editor. A blog editor helps manage the actual writing of the website. Before articles are published, the editor may read through it, edit it, proofread, and then eventually publish the piece. The editor may also handle search engine optimization (SEO) in order for the business/blog/website/etc. to rank higher in search engines and therefore be seen by more people. SEO will be talked about further in yet another post.

 

4. Market Research. Depending on the business and the market, research may be needed. A business needs to learn who its target audience is, and also how to reach this audience. If you don’t have any skills with doing this, then usually hiring someone is a lot more helpful. A market researcher can find your audience, inform you on how to reach this audience, tell you what type of articles or products you should focus on and everything else. Have you ever wondered how to improve your business or how competitors are handling different things? A market researcher can help you with this.

 

5. Writer. As you all know, I have recently added on a staff writer to my blog. Jordann has been great. She adds a new perspective to my blog and I always enjoy her posts. Hiring an additional writer to your blog can make things a lot easier. You have one less post to worry about, and you can engage your readers with more than one viewpoint. Also, with multiple writers, you can focus more on other things that are going on with your website. A writer can also manage the blog altogether. Many businesses do this that are not blogs. Such as a hotel that has a blog on the side. They are usually not focused on blog writing, so hiring someone who has a background in it usually makes it a lot easier on the company.

 

6. Personal Assistant. This is a category that I made up to encompass all of the other things that a virtual assistant can do. This includes: replying to emails, replying to comments, answering questions, scheduling meetings and so on. There are so many things that an assistant can do.

 

How do I start?

A lot of you have also asked how I find my virtual assistant work, and who employs me currently. I don’t feel like I should be stating who exactly I help because of privacy issues, but I do want to help you all find your own VA jobs! Instead of making this a whale of a post, you will have to come back next week to learn more about how to actually obtain the jobs.

Hopefully this post serves as a way for you to brainstorm possible ways to earn additional side income. Until next week, think about what talents you could offer! Right now, I’m sorry, hopefully this post wasn’t just a tease 🙂

EDIT: Read my follow up post on how to become a virtual assistant if you are interested in today’s post What Does A Virtual Assistant Do. If you are interested in starting a blog of your own (which I highly recommend if you want to become a virtual assistant), I have a tutorial that will show you how to easily make a blog of your own in just minutes. You can find the tutorial here.

Are you a virtual assistant? Have you thought about becoming one? On the flip side, have you ever hired a virtual assistant? Why?

Related Posts

  • How To Make Extra Money By Starting A Home BakeryHow To Make Extra Money By Starting A Home Bakery
  • 16 Free Work From Home Courses & Resources16 Free Work From Home Courses & Resources
  • How I Earned Up to $4,000 Per Month Baking Dog Treats (With Zero Baking Experience!)How I Earned Up to $4,000 Per Month Baking Dog Treats (With Zero Baking Experience!)
  • 7 Myths About Work From Home Jobs & What It’s Really Like7 Myths About Work From Home Jobs & What It’s Really Like
  • 16 Best Online Jobs For College Students & How To Start16 Best Online Jobs For College Students & How To Start
  • How To Become a Freelancer and Make a Full-Time IncomeHow To Become a Freelancer and Make a Full-Time Income
2430shares
  • Facebook 199
  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

84 Comments
Filed Under: Career, Extra Income Tagged With: Career, Extra Money

About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  1. Ann Cromer says

    June 20, 2016 at 12:45 pm

    I’m doing the research now to become a VA. Thanks for your helpful articles!

    Reply
  2. Leslie says

    November 7, 2016 at 12:07 pm

    I am currently virtually a VA 😉 with one of my employers. I do freelance work for a small flooring contractor. This contractor is computer challenged in an in an industry that is going more and more electronic every day. I handle the electronic end of product submittals and contract document submission as well as review projects to bid, send required plan sheets to the printer and compile end of job documents maintenance and warranty books. Most of this I do from home, only occasionally being required to go in to the office. I currently work 60-80 hours a month. My husband and I are currently downsizing from 2000 sq ft home to a 5th wheel RV that we bought used and abused. We took on way more of a RV remodel project than we anticipated but are finally seeing daylight at the end of the tunnel and should be putting the house up for sale shortly. Can’t wait to start our adventure and hoping the freelance work will help sustain us! I’m also a bookkeeper, but haven’t figured out quite how to go totally virtual with that skill.

    Reply
    • Erin Cotter says

      March 7, 2018 at 12:36 am

      I’m currently a Virtual Assistant. I know there is one virtual assistant service that’s offering an affiliate program to promote the virtual assistants. Its called Myvirtualassistantrocks.com and they offer a 10% commision on sales. I’ve worked for multiple companies but started out as a receptionist and customer service rep in stores with actual business and worked as a TA in my college’s Physics department & on newspapers & magazines. There’s so much a Virtual Assistant can do for a company. They get a great deal!

      Reply
« Older Comments

Trackbacks

  1. 40+ Expert Tips And Ways To Make Money On The Side says:
    February 24, 2016 at 10:59 am

    […] Related: How To Become a Virtual Assistant and What Does a Virtual Assistant Do? […]

    Reply
  2. How To Make Money While Traveling - 7 Ways! says:
    February 24, 2016 at 11:02 am

    […] What Does a Virtual Assistant Do? […]

    Reply
  3. My July 2016 Blog Income Report – $112,594.97 - Making Sense Of Cents says:
    August 8, 2016 at 2:07 am

    […] What Does a Virtual Assistant Do? […]

    Reply
  4. My June 2016 Blog Income Report – $68,440.23 - Making Sense Of Cents says:
    September 4, 2016 at 8:38 pm

    […] What Does a Virtual Assistant Do? […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Making Sense of Cents welcome page photo
Hello and welcome!
My name is Michelle and I'm the author/owner of Making Sense of Cents. Learning how to save money and make more money changed my life. It allowed me to pay off $40,000 in student loans, start my own business, and I now travel full-time.
Follow on Bloglovin

Subscribe Via Email

As Seen On

as seen on
How To Start A Blog
making sense of affiliate marketing for bloggers
My Monthly Online Income Reports
My Student Loans Are Gone - How I Paid Off $38,000 In Student Loans
Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
How To Make Money Blogging Picture
How To Save 50% Or More Of Your Income Picture
How I Graduated From College In 2.5 Years With 2 Degrees AND Saved $37,500
75+ Ways To Make Extra Money

Subscribe Via Email

HOME
CONTACT

POPULAR POSTS
How To Make Money Blogging
How To Start A Blog Tutorial
I Paid $40K In Student Loans By 24
75 Ways To Make Extra Money

PRIVACY POLICY
TERMS OF USE
DISCLAIMER / EARNINGS DISCLAIMER

Copyright © 2011 - 2021. All Rights Reserved.

© 2021 Making Sense of Cents
Design by Swoon & Co. Creative