How to Become a Virtual Assistant with No Experience

Internet, Software
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Becoming a virtual assistant is a great job opportunity for those who don’t want to be tied down to an office. Do you want to work and travel? Have your own work schedule? Work from bed in your pajamas? Well then keep on reading, because in this article you will learn how to become a virtual assistant!

Table of Contents

What Is a Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant is a person who works remotely and provides support services to other institutions. Since you’re working as a freelancer, you don’t have to have to be present at the workplace. What is more, you only have to focus on your responsibilities.

This work model is becoming more and more popular, as it allows people to work from the comfort of their home. It allows people to have more freedom and eliminates logistical problems.

An employee or an employer might find their dream position on the other side of the world and still be able to snatch the job!

As with any freelance job, when you’re a virtual assistant, you get paid for results.

What Does a Virtual Assistant Do?

A virtual assistant can work in a number of different industries. While most of the time it’s closely related to content creation, it’s definitely not limited to that.

Here is a couple of examples of what you can do as a virtual assistant:

1. Writing Services

If you’re a skilled writer, but don’t have that much experience, you can try out your luck in this field.

As a writing virtual assistant, you will have to provide various services. Everything from ghostwriting, to editing and proofreading, responding to emails, copywriting and much more!

Before you try out your luck, make sure to polish your writing skills: you need to have both perfect grammar skills and great writing style.

2. Content Research

Content creators can get very busy, but still, need to keep up with their scheduled posts. In those cases, they may hire virtual assistants to conduct research for their posts.

This includes finding and researching topics related to their posts, analyzing competitor posts, conducting keyword research and fact-checking.

This type of work isn’t limited to bloggers. Podcast creators, YouTubers, and many other content creators might require a virtual assistant for research purposes.

3. Social Media Management

Social media is an amazing marketing tool. However, it is very time-consuming. Managing a brand’s Instagram account alone is a full-time job.

Thus, companies often hire virtual assistants to manage their social media accounts.

As a virtual assistant in this field, your tasks would cover creating social media posts, managing promotions and paid ads, reaching out to influencers, answering to comments and much more.

If you have experience with social media management – this might be an amazing job opportunity!

4. Bookkeeping

Since bookkeeping is a time-consuming job, that requires a lot of hard work and high attention to the details, it might not be for everyone! However, if you’re good with numbers and have a good eye – you might as well give it a shot.

As a bookkeeper you’d be handling payrolls, processing orders and refunds, preparing balance sheets, generating invoices and many more tasks.

If it has something to do with money – as a bookkeeper you’ll be responsible for it!

5. Website Maintenance

If you are fairly skilled in website maintenance, this might be the perfect job as a virtual assistant.

While websites work perfectly once launched, usually along the way issues appear. As the website grows, so does clutter. This is where you come in!

As a virtual assistant for website maintenance, you’d be managing regular backups, security updates, plugins, cleaning up data, optimizing images and so on.

6. Graphic Design

While most likely you won’t be creating the entire virtual strategy for a business, as a graphic design virtual assistant you will be taking care of smaller tasks.

You’ll be taking care of logos, brochures, blog post graphics, invitations and all things related to graphic design.

How Much Does a Virtual Assistant Make?

You can set your salary according to your skills and experience. But, to make sure that you’re not underpaid, you can always check Ziprecruiter salary checker.

Keep in mind, that salaries depend on the work you do, as well as the region where the company is based and various other aspects.

For example, a virtual assistant in New York makes $18 on average.

How to Become a Virtual Assistant?

Becoming a virtual assistant requires some effort, but it’s easier than you think.

First of all, decide on the niche you want to work in. Then, you need to make sure that potential employers know why you’re the person they want to hire. In other words – show off your skills and work experience.

Best thing to do is to create a portfolio website. Be it a blog, or a website showing off your completed projects.

1. Create a Portfolio Website

Now, you might think that creating a website to show off your experience is too expensive. Well, you can actually create a website for free.

You read that right! Here at 000webhost, you can make a website for free!

Go to the homepage and follow the steps:

sign up page to become a virtual assistant

  1. Click on Register button and sign up with your Gmail account or via Facebook
  2. Check your email and confirm your account.
  3. Pick your domain name
  4. Choose a CMS

We always recommend to choose WordPress, as it’s beginner friendly and very powerful!

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to install WordPress with 000webhost:

  1. Log in to your 000webhost hosting account
  2. Click Build Website button and fill the blanks
  3. Click INSTALL NOW under Build WordPress Website
  4. Fill the blanks and click on the Install button

Don’t forget that you need to install plugins. This is how you do it.

  1. Go to the Admin Dashboard
  2. Go to Plugins > Add New plugins setting page on wordpress
  3. Search for your desired plugins and press Install Now

We have several plugins recommendation which can improve your website performance:

  • PayPal – a plugin for easy payments

Great! Now you’ve settled with plugins already. Let’s install a theme for your web by following these steps:

  1. Access your Dashboard
  2. Go to Appearance > Themes and click on Add Newchoose suitable themes to become a virtual assistant
  3. Choose your theme and click Install

Keep in mind that your site is your portfolio. Make sure your website looks great to attract your potential clients.

Fortunately, WordPress has plenty of various attention-grabbing themes for your web such as:

  • A.William – great for creative industries, this theme is beautiful and full of great functions.
  • Specular – a great theme for a business website. Sleek, stylish, functional and easy to navigate.

2. Visit Freelance Job Websites

To become a virtual assistant, you need to be proactive. The best place to look for virtual assistant jobs is freelance job websites.

Now that you have a portfolio set up, try visiting some of the best freelance websites:

  • Freelancer.com – Has over 30M users with a 95% hiring rate.
  • SolidGigs – Provides courses and tools to improve your skills
  • Fiverr – Wide job selection

3. Get Involved with Social Media

Social media is one of the best ways to market yourself! However, don’t limit yourself to Facebook and Instagram. Aim for professional social media networks, such as Linkedin.

Make sure to have a profile showing off all of your skills and work experience. Add people to your network, that might help widen your professional circle. Post updates about your work and get proactive – apply for jobs and communicate with potential employers.

Thanks to the internet, you don’t have to work in an office anymore. By being a freelance virtual assistant, you can become a true digital nomad and work wherever you want!

So, here’s how to become a virtual assistant:

  1. Gain skills in your desired niche
  2. Create a portfolio website
  3. Get active on freelance job sites
  4. Make use of social media

A piece of cake, right? Let’s start your virtual assistant experience!

https://www.000webhost.com/blog/become-virtual-assistant

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