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I love Pinterest!
I love it as a user. I use it for planning meals, house renovations, and more.
And more than that – I love all the opportunities Pinterest gives us for making money!
I’ve written before about different ways you can make money on Pinterest, from pinning affiliate links to driving huge traffic to your website.
The only problem is, many of these are long term businesses. It takes time to see results.
What if you need to make job-quitting money right now?
Recently I’ve been learning about a new side business idea that could bring in you enough money to become a full time income… within just a couple of months!
The job is a Pinterest Virtual Assistant.
Please note that this post contains affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase through a link on my site, I may make a commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!
What is a Virtual Assistant?
A Virtual Assistant, or VA for short, provides online services to bloggers and small businesses.
Since all the work is done online, you can do this job from anywhere in the world, and it’s usually pretty flexible on the hours.
Virtual Assistants can provide all kinds of services. Here’s just a few:
- Email management
- Blog management
- Editing blog posts
- Proofreading
- Bookkeeping
- Social media management
… but today we’re talking about being a Pinterest VA.
By focusing on one small area of VA services, you can niche down and become a real specialist at Pinterest.
Plus, personally I think Pinterest is the most fun out of all those tasks 😉
What does a Pinterest VA do?
As a Pinterest VA, you’ll specialise in helping blogs and businesses to improve their Pinterest presence.
Pinterest virtual assistant services might include:
- Business account set up
- Creating pin designs
- Scheduling pins on Tailwind (or manual pinning if required)
- Researching and applying to group boards
- Using Tailwind and Pinterest analytics to report back to clients
You will work on a freelance basis for various clients. You might choose to offer just one of the above services, or you could offer a monthly Pinterest management package that combines several or all of the above.
Why be a Pinterest VA?
I’ve thought about offering VA services for a long time.
It’s completely flexible: you have the power to choose what hours you work, and how many clients you take on. Your potential income is limited only by the hours you choose to spend on your business. You can do this from anywhere in the world.
Of course, you do have to stick to deadlines and report to your clients on time, but it’s different from having a boss constantly breathing down your neck.
This flexibility makes it a perfect job for stay at home mums. It can also be a great side income for people with a full time job who need a little extra cash (that’s my current situation!). It’s also easy to increase to a full-time income, simply by landing more clients.
I am now having success with other side hustles like blogging, but it did take a long time (about a year, in my case) to see significant income from blogging.
Even now my blogging income isn’t consistent – it can go up and down each month as sponsored posts and affiliate offers come and go.
The attraction of starting a Pinterest VA side hustle is that you can start making money right away (or within your first month, anyway – depending on the payment terms you agree with your client).
In this video Lindsey talks about how she landed her first two VA clients within two weeks. A few months later, she’s quit her job to work as a VA full time!
(By the way… the course that she’s talking about is the Become a Pinterest VA TODAY! course. You can learn more about it here.)
Unlike blogging and other ‘passive income’ based business ideas (which take a while to build up and are not always reliable), as a Pinterest VA you are exchanging a service for money, so you can expect to be paid fairly for the hours you put in.
One other advantage to this kind of work is that it’s common to agree a recurring monthly fee with regular clients for ongoing Pinterest management services . This means you have some of the consistency of a ‘regular job’ in that you have regular payments coming in.
This helps with budgeting and takes away some of the stress of being a freelancer!
Who needs a Pinterest VA?
Most bloggers are already aware of the massive traffic Pinterest can bring.
Personally, I quadrupled my blog traffic after I learned how to use Pinterest effectively. This led to an increase in income that has taken my blog earnings from pocket money to quit-my-job money.
But it’s not just bloggers who can benefit from Pinterest traffic.
Etsy sellers, T shirt designers and all kinds of small businesses can also benefit from increased Pinterest traffic.
Two thirds of pins represent products or brands, and 93% of Pinterest users reportedly use Pinterest to plan purchases. So if a company is not on Pinterest, that’s a lot of potential lost revenue.
Here’s Gina and Kristin from Become a Pinterest VA TODAY! talking about how businesses make money from Pinterest:
Many of these kinds of clients are not even aware of the potential traffic Pinterest could send. Or even if they’ve had a go on the platform themselves, they may be pinning terrible images such as plain product images or even worse, horizontal images.
That’s why they need Pinterest Virtual Assistant services. They need a Pinterest expert who knows exactly what kind of images work on Pinterest.
Most small business owners just want to concentrate on their products. Many bloggers only want to write.
So, they’re happy to outsource tasks such as Pinterest if you can demonstrate that you’ll send them increased traffic with no effort on their behalf.
How much does a Pinterest VA make?
Most people start out doing this as a part-time side hustle. Kristin and Gina from Become a Pinterest VA TODAY! claim you can make a monthly income of $500-$1,000+ in just a few hours per week.
Obviously, there’s potential to scale that up and make it a full time job!
Course tutor Kristin was averaging $3,600 a month as a Pinterest manager within six months of starting – and that was alongside a day job!
The average hourly rate for a freelance Pinterest VA is around $20-$50, and many clients work on a set monthly package ($250 upwards is common) to manage their account for the month (which should only take a few hours per client per week).
So you can see that you only need a handful of clients on a monthly retainer to build up a healthy monthly income as a VA!
You could start with just one or two clients while you develop your skills and get a feel for the VA business. (And an extra $500 per month would be welcome to any of us!)
Then, if you want to take your side hustle full time, you either
- Find more clients
- Offer additional services
- Raise your prices
Or ideally some combination of the three!
Where to find Pinterest VA jobs?
I would suggest starting with Facebook groups.
As a blogger, I’m in a lot of blogging Facebook groups. I’ll often see VAs advertising their services or bloggers asking for a recommendation of someone to manage their Pinterest. These posts usually get a lot of attention fast!
I would recommend joining as many blogging, entrepreneur and online business Facebook groups as you can and see if any of these are suitable to promote your services.
Warning: many Facebook groups don’t allow self-promotion, and some will allow it only on certain days or in designated threads. So please take some time to observe behaviour in the group and read the rules before posting. No spamming!
You could also try reaching out to local businesses. We bloggers are usually pretty aware of the benefits of Pinterest, but there are lots of off-line businesses who wouldn’t even know how to get started.
Kristin had worked with businesses including spas, nail salons, toy manufacturers and a church.
Etsy sellers are another market that could benefit greatly from a little Pinterest know-how!
And you can also offer your services on freelancer marketplaces such as Fiverr.
The course Become a Pinterest VA TODAY!has modules on finding and pitching clients, and even on interviewing!
Also, if you’re a VIP member of Become a Pinterest VA TODAY! you will automatically benefit from the Pinterest VA Finder which matches up business owners with VAs.
You will also find that students share client leads among themselves when they can’t take on any more work. This would be the easiest way to find clients because there’s no ‘cold’ pitching – you’re speaking to people who want your services!
Learn how to be a Pinterest VA
If you’re serious about starting a new career or side business as a Pinterest VA, you might consider investing in a course to learn how to set out on the right foot.
Become a Pinterest VA TODAY! is the most well-known and respected course out there. It’s been running for several years but has been completely expanded and revamped for 2018.
It’s run by Gina Horkey and Kristin Larsen, two successful and experienced VAs, bloggers and freelancers who really know their stuff.
The course teaches you everything you need to know to set up as a Pinterest VA… even if you don’t have any prior Pinterest skills!
(It’s recommended that you do have a basic familiarity with the platform, but you don’t need previous experience with Canva, Tailwind or other tools mentioned in the course).
Here’s everything the course covers…
- 9 specific services you can offer as a Pinterest VA
- How to design Pinterest pins using Canva
- How to setup & navigate the Pinterest business platform
- How to maximize group boards & Tailwind Tribes
- How to schedule content using Tailwind
- How to read/analyze Pinterest & Tailwind analytics
- How much to charge for your services
- How to pitch your services to prospects
- How to ace interviews
- 6 marketing strategies to help you grow your business
- 5 different types of clients you can work with
- How to onboard new clients
- How to write/deliver regular client reporting
- How to scale your business over time!
The course only opens for enrollment a few times a year. However, since the course is all online, you can work at your own pace.
It’s a video course (with some printables and written worksheets) and you will have unlimited access to all the course materials.
Now, if you’re like me, you might be excited by the creative side of this (designing graphics in Canva all day, the idea of ‘pinning for a living’)…
But you might be feeling a bit worried about the ‘running a business’ side.
Luckily, Gina and Kristin can also help you out with that.
The course covers pricing, pitching, and even sample invoices to send to your client.
You can also buy customizable client contract templates in their shop.
As I said, the course only opens a few times a year, so it may not be open at the time you’re reading this.
But while you wait, you can sign up for a free workshop at this page, which will help you learn more about Pinterest VA work and see if it is right for you.
I also recommend heading over to their Facebook group where you can find updates, exclusive Facebook lives from Gina and Kristin, and additional testimonials from students.
Testimonials and reviews for the Become a Pinterest VA TODAY! course
Disclaimer: I wanted to be clear that I don’t work as a Pinterest VA (yet) myself and this isn’t a personal review of the course. I’m sharing this opportunity as a money-making idea for anyone looking for a flexible, online job or side hustle.
I was excited when I heard about the idea of Pinterest VAs because I know that it’s a solid, in-demand business! As a blogger involved in a lot of blogging and online business communities, I do know a lot of people who make a living as VAs and who use VAs themselves.
That’s why I know that this is a legit way to make an income online, and definitely worth looking into if you love Pinterest and want to work online!
Here are some testimonials from students who have been through Become a Pinterest VA TODAY:
“I just landed my first TWO Pinterest clients within the same week! And I’ve only been marketing for the past two weeks. I am beyond excited and extremely grateful for this opportunity! This could not have been done without Gina and Kristin’s help by creating Become a Pinterest VA TODAY!” ~Lindsey Martin
“If you’re looking to start a new business (or add a new service offering) in just ONE DAY, then Become a Pinterest VA TODAY! is the course you must take! This course has everything needed to get started ASAP – it took me less than 30 minutes to take action! And I knew from the first video that I wanted to add Pinterest VA services to my business.” ~Erica Johnson
“I just started pitching Pinterest services last week and already have TWO potential clients interested in learning more about my packages! Gina and Kristin’s course covered all of the main steps to getting a Pinterest business off the ground as quickly as possible, and in the right way!” ~Rebekah Hutchins
“I’m so excited! I bought the course yesterday and watched the 5 modules. I’m ready to dive into the workbook and get going. I’m so happy because I’ve been looking for a side hustle to pay down our debt and I think I’ve finally found it. Plus, I LOVE Pinterest! Thank you!” ~Kerri
Here’s a video from Selena, who was able to land her first client package (which covered the cost of the course!) within two weeks:
Side note: in this video, Selena talks about a separate course that teaches basic Pinterest skills. This has now been absorbed into the main courseBecome a Pinterest VA TODAY– so essentially you are getting Gina and Kristin’s two previous courses in one package!
Ready to learn more about the course?
Click here to get on the waitlist
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