Are you looking for a flexible and fun way to generate income from home? If you are, I would like to introduce you to the idea of becoming a Pinterest Virtual Assistant!
In a nutshell, a Pinterest Virtual Assistant helps businesses, bloggers and brands increase their presence on the Pinterest platform, which in turn helps these entities increase their followers, traffic and sales.
The best part? You can earn $50+ an hour doing it. (Really!)
If my description of a Pinterest Virtual Assistant up there sounds like a lot to unpack, don’t worry.
In this article, I am going to break down exactly what a Pinterest Virtual Assistant (also referred to as a ‘Pinterest VA’) does and how you can break into the field.
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest originally launched in March 2010 and has grown to almost 500 million global monthly active users. With its huge user base, businesses know that they need to be on the platform, which is great for Pinterest Virtual Assistants!
At its core, Pinterest is a visual search engine. Instead of the search results being text-based, they’re image- and video-based.
Pinterest lets users organize the images and videos (‘pins’) they find onto boards. The platform is used for organizing ideas, making plans and researching and making purchases.
What Does a Pinterest Virtual Assistant Do?
Pinterest Virtual Assistants help businesses increase their presence on Pinterest – that is, they make it so regular users of Pinterest discover their client’s business more often on the platform.
Which, in turn, helps their clients gain more followers, visitors, email subscribers, ad revenue, sales and more.
Pinterest Virtual Assistants do this by offering a variety of services to their clients.
The nice thing about being a Pinterest VA is you get to decide which services you offer. Your Pinterest business doesn’t have to look like everyone else’s in order to be successful!
How Do Pinterest Virtual Assistants Make Money?
A Pinterest Virtual Assistant functions as an independent contractor, which means there isn’t an employer-employee relationship, but rather a service provider-client relationship.
Pinterest VAs:
- Set their own schedule
- Set their own rates and invoice clients on their preferred schedule (typically before the services are performed)
- Perform services based on what they know is best versus being told by someone else how to do it (No micromanaging!)
You can work from anywhere, charge what you want and do things how you want. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
It is!
5 Popular Pinterest Virtual Assistant Services
Now that you’re excited about the flexibility (and profitability!) that comes with being a Pinterest Virtual Assistant, let’s take a look at a few of the services you can offer.
Service 1: Monthly Management
Monthly management is, as you would expect, a monthly recurring service that involves managing a Pinterest account.
This is a great service to offer if you’re looking for reliable monthly income. When you sign up clients for monthly management, you can expect a certain level of income to come in every month.
There isn’t a set monthly management package – it will be up to you to decide how you want to structure your packages based on your expertise (which you will acquire as you work with clients) and each client’s needs and budget.
You can choose to have several tiers of monthly management services (e.g., Lite, Standard, Elite) or you can customize your package to each specific client.
No matter how you choose to set up your management packages, here are some of the services you can offer in your packages:
- Design image pins, video pins and/or Idea Pins
- Schedule image pins, video pins and/or Idea Pins
- Submit and schedule pins from Tailwind Communities (Tailwind Communities are a feature of Tailwind, a program we’ll discuss later on)
- Create new personal boards
- Write keyword-optimized pin titles and descriptions
- Provide a monthly report to client – this can be through a PDF, or you can set up a call with your client
Service 2: Pinterest Account Setup
A Pinterest account setup service is a service you provide to businesses that do not yet have a Pinterest profile.
In order to provide monthly management services, a Pinterest account is required, so this setup service is a necessary service to provide to some clients.
It’s also a great ‘cash injection’ at the beginning of a new working relationship.
It’s one thing to set up a Pinterest profile, but it’s another thing to set up one correctly. This is where you, as a Pinterest VA, will shine!
With a Pinterest account setup, you will start any business new to Pinterest off on the right foot on Pinterest. By doing this, the account can hit the ground running and gain traction faster than a poorly constructed profile.
Here are a few of the things you may do during a Pinterest account setup:
- Claim a client’s website and any other social or sales platforms
- Enable rich pins
- Create keyword-rich personal boards that relate to the client’s niche
Service 3: Tailwind Account Setup
Tailwind is a program that allows image pins and video pins (not yet Idea Pins) to be scheduled in advance so that ‘live pinning’ isn’t required.
Tailwind can be a Pinterest VA’s best friend because it makes the process of managing Pinterest accounts far more efficient than doing everything live (that is, pinning each pin as it goes out on the platform).
Instead of logging into a client’s Pinterest account 5, 10 or even 20 times a day to add a new pin to Pinterest, Tailwind lets you schedule everything in advance.
Not just a single day’s worth in advance, but months worth in advance if you want!
A Tailwind account setup is more for your purposes than anything your client will access.
Clients will happily pay for the service because they know that it’s required for you to work with their account.
Just like a Pinterest account setup, this service services as a great cash injection at the beginning of a working relationship.
A few of the tasks you may complete during a Tailwind account setup:
- Create a pinning schedule for client content
- Set up Board Lists
- Research, apply to and join Tailwind Communities*
*Tailwind Communities are collaborative communities on the Tailwind platform that allow you to contribute and share pins in a way that helps those pins get wider distribution on Pinterest than you can do yourself.
Service 4: Account Audit
In contrast to Pinterest and Tailwind setups, an account audit is a service you provide to businesses that already have a Pinterest account and (possibly) a Tailwind account.
In many cases, when a client comes to a Pinterest VA with an existing Pinterest account, it needs a lot of work.
A lot of times, this is because a well-meaning business owner tried to set up their own Pinterest account without having the skills and knowledge of a Pinterest specialist.
An account audit aims to do one of two things:
- Prepare the account for management by a Pinterest Virtual Assistant. If you try to manage an account with a bad foundation, you will struggle to achieve great results. By starting with an account audit, you can get your monthly management services off on the right foot.
- Get the account back on the right track for the business owner. Sometimes business owners want to manage their own account. By performing an audit, you’re able to show them areas for improvement on their account so they achieve better results in the future.
In addition to a Pinterest account audit, you can offer:
- A Tailwind account audit
- A pin design audit
- A SEO (Search Engine Optimization) audit
Account audits can take many forms, from PDFs to recorded videos to live Zoom sessions. As a Pinterest Virtual Assistant, you get to decide how to offer your services!
Service 5: Promoted Pins Management
Promoted pins are Pinterest’s paid ads.
You’ve probably heard of people who manage ads for other platforms (such as Facebook ads managers) – this service is the equivalent for Pinterest.
Promoted Pins management is the most lucrative service you can offer as a Pinterest Virtual Assistant.
It’s not a service you will want to offer when you first begin offering services because your time is initially best spent learning how to manage the platform organically.
But, it’s an amazing service to offer as you level up your skills!
When you offer this service, you will charge a management fee and your client will pay for the ad spend out of their own pocket (account).
Services will likely include designing ad images or videos, setting up ad campaigns and monitoring/adjusting ad campaigns as needed for maximum results.
You will also report the results of the campaigns to your client either through a monthly report or call. 
Is a Pinterest Virtual Assistant a Real Job?
I’m often asked the question: Is a Pinterest Virtual Assistant a real job?
I get it.
The idea of creating and sharing tiny images and videos on a platform in order to boost a business’ traffic and revenue does seem a little strange – but it is definitely a real job!
I started my Pinterest Virtual Assistant business (and coined the term) back in 2016 and have since helped hundreds of businesses establish their presence on the platform.
More importantly, I have also helped thousands of Pinterest VAs get their start in this exciting, lucrative field!
I know it’s real because I’ve experienced it, I’ve taught it and I’ve witnessed it.
Whether you want to make a few thousand bucks a year to pay for a family vacation or want to start a business that helps you quit your full-time job, this is a field that can make those goals become a reality.
How Do I Get Hired as a Pinterest Virtual Assistant?
If you’re excited to get started as a Pinterest Virtual Assistant, you may be wondering how to learn the skills to become a Pinterest VA and how to get hired.
Let’s tackle the ‘get hired’ part first!
To get hired as a Pinterest VA, you will want to:
- Learn the necessary skills (we’ll get to that part in a minute!)
- Decide what services you want to offer
- Figure out your general pricing structure
- Display your services on a website or in a PDF
- Start pitching!
You can pitch potential clients from your local community, your contacts (friends, family, etc.) social media, a Google search – pretty much anyone you think may benefit from being on the Pinterest platform.
When pitching, it’s important to keep in mind that it’s a numbers game.
It’s extremely unlikely that you will pitch five clients and land all, or even some, of them.
In fact, it’s not uncommon to send out 50 to 100 pitches before landing your first client! You just have to keep pitching until someone ‘bites.’
Learn How to Become a Pinterest Virtual Assistant
Remember the part above where I told you that I coined the term ‘Pinterest Virtual Assistant’?
That’s because when I first started in this industry, no one else was doing what I was doing. I had to figure everything out on my own.
Not only did I have to learn how to perform every service I outlined for you above, but I had to figure out how to do all of the ‘business stuff’.
From writing cold pitches to creating proposals to drawing up contracts to invoicing clients and more.
Honestly, it was really stressful!
I figured it all out eventually, but it would have been infinitely easier and less stressful had I had someone (or something) to guide me. Things that took me hours to figure out could have been solved in minutes.
That’s why I took everything I learned throughout the years and created two programs that will teach you everything you need to know from A-to-Z to launch a successful business as a Pinterest specialist.
