12 Legitimate Virtual Assistant Jobs From Home

Virtual assistant jobs are becoming increasingly popular. Becoming a virtual personal assistant allows you to work from home and make money, eliminating the need to commute to and from work, saving you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars every year.

Although, it’s estimated that there are currently as few as 25,000 virtual assistants worldwide, the profession is growing rapidly. And it is in par thanks to many thousands of new online based businesses, and traditional businesses who now have an online presence as well.

Although, there are still virtual assistant job scams out there, finding legitimate virtual assistant jobs is not as hard as it used to be. You just need to keep your eyes open for any signs of work at home scams. But before we get to how to find real virtual assistant employment, lets see what virtual assistance means.

What Is A Virtual Assistant?

A VA (Virtual Assistant), also known as a virtual office assistant, or personal assistant, is someone who provides administrative, technical, or creative assistance to clients, from home. It’s a lot like virtual call center jobs, where you take care of clients need from home. As a virtual assistant, you basically do everything from Clerical, Data Entry and Customer Service, to Loan Processing, Real Estate, Mortgage, Telemarketing and everything in between. Basically, anything that your clients wants done!

The difference between a virtual assistant and a traditional employee is that instead of working out of someone’s office, you are working from the comfort of your own home. Furthermore, virtual assistants are usually self-employed, but there are some that work on a part-time or full-time basis, on salary. Many VAs from Philippines and other countries actually get paid by the hour to provide virtual assistant services.

Businesses hire virtual assistants because of a few reasons. It generally is much cheaper to hire a VA than a full-time employee since most VAs are independent contractors, so businesses don’t have to spend money on benefits, insurance, and other perks that usually come with full or part-time employment.

Not to mention, because virtual assistants work from their own homes, businesses save money by not having to build or rent office spaces, buy equipment and supplies, as well as accommodating parking space.

How To find Virtual Assistant Jobs?

Virtual assistant job openings are all over the place these days. Perhaps the most intriguing part about working as a virtual assistant from home is the fact that you can provide services to anyone from anywhere in the world. Whether you live in Chicago, NYC, Huston, or outside of the U.S in countries such as the Philippines, India, Australia, or wherever else, you can make money as a virtual assistant working from home, even if your client lives on the other side of the world.

There are a few ways to find home based virtual assistant jobs:

• Create a website
  Make a simple website where you can offer your personal assistance services. Then promote your site through social networking and other means.
• Check Out Job Sites
  Traditional job sites like Indeed.com and CareerBuilder.com are always good places to look for virtual assistant job openings.
• Ask For Referrals
  When you do get a client, make sure you do a good job to satisfy them. Then be sure to ask them to refer you to other people and businesses they may know. Word of mouth is the number one way many VAs find work.
• Check Out Freelancing Sites
  There are many great freelancing And outsourcing sites that match VAs with people who need their services. Register with a few, out up your profile, and start browsing available projects. Some of the top freelancing sites include Freelancer.com, and Elance.com.
• Dedicated Virtual Assistant Job Sites
  There are also freelancing sites that are dedicated to virtual assistant jobs, such as VirtualAssistantJobs.com and VirtualAssistants.com
• Online Forums & Discussion Boards
  Online forums where online business owners and Internet marketers hang out are a great place to find work. Many forums have a classified section where you can post an ad, offering your services. There may also be a section where employers post help wanted ads.
• Virtual Assistant Companies
  These are companies that find you personal assistant employment opportunities. There are many of them, but you can see a list of most trusted one below. To find more opportunities, you can also search for “virtual assistant jobs” or “virtual assistant companies” on your favorite search engines.

Virtual Assistant Job Scams

As I have mentioned, unfortunately, like most other work from home opportunities, virtual assistance field is not immune from scams either. Normally, these scammers charge you a fee in order to give you work. But it turns out that they don’t actually provide any work. So, it is vital that you do your home work, and research as much as you can about a company that’s offering you virtual assistant position, before you opt in.

Furthermore, if you do come across any “work at home” site/company that you suspect is scamming people, or if you have been victim of such scams, call The Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357), or report work at home scams at FTC.gov.

Ready to make some money as a virtual assistant?… Here are 13 legit companies that offer virtual assistant jobs:

• Customer Service
  AcdDirect
  RealToolsTech
  NiteoServices
  StatCounter

• Telemarketing
  GaFundraising
  FirstDataJobs
  ProspectImage
  QualityAutomation

• Clerical/Data Entry
  AccuRapid
  WorkingSol

• Loan Processing/Real Estate/ Mortgage
  LoanProcessor
  Drodio

Highest Paying Virtual Assistant Jobs

Not all virtual assistant jobs are created equal. The amount of money you can make as a virtual personal assistant depends on the job and the skills and experience needed to carry out the job. Here are top 10 paying virtual assistant employment opportunities that I would highly suggest you go for, if you have the option:

1. Real Estate Assistants
   A virtual real-estate assistant can make anywhere between $75-$150 an hour.
2. Graphic Design Assistants
   You can either work for yourself, or for a company. Either way, you can make anywhere from $40 to up to $200 an hour.
3. Translating Assistants
   In an increasingly connected world market, lots of businesses need translation assistants. Depending on what and how many language you can translate to, you can expect to make anywhere from $15 to $30 an hour.
4. Accounting/Bookkeeping Assistants
   A virtual accountant assistant’s salary hovers around $55,00 for a full-time assistant.
5. Legal Assistants
   As a legal assistant, you don’t necessarily have to know the law. Just a basic grasp of legal documents is enough. However, with a strong understanding of law, you could make as much as $100,00 a year.
6. Marketing Assistants
   A mix of creative and simple tasks is what makes this job. You can be coming up with a new slogan for the company one minute, and by the next minute, you could be posting ads on Craigslist. the pay is close to $60,000 a year.
7. Website Design Assistants
   Like graphic design, designing websites is also a very competitive industry, where on can pocket between $150-$200 per hour.
8. Executive Assistants
   Highly fast paced work, but it also pays much more than other virtual assistant jobs, with an average salary of $50,000.
9. Medical Transcription Assistants
   You can earn between $10-$20 an hour as a medical transcription assistant. And given that the job is not that hard, it’s good money.
10. Editing/Proofreading Assistants
    Great at home job for those with such skills, with an average salary of about $30,000.

Although, these are very good paying jobs, they won’t do you any good, if you don’t have the skills necessary to perform such duties. It is best to keep your skills and experience in mind when choosing virtual assistant jobs.