Learn how you can make an income working from home as a Pinterest Virtual Assistant!

Allow me to introduce Lindsay Lawless, a blogger, and successful Pinterest Virtual Assistant! I found Lindsay on my fave blogging networking group, Blogging Like we Mean it. As a marketer, I knew it was important to promote my new blog on Pinterest. Alas with all of the hats I wear, I did not have time to figure out the world of Pinterest and tribes and blah blah blah. So I went on the search to find a Pinterest Virtual Assistant to help me. After interviewing several people I felt led to Lindsay. She has successfully monetized her own blog, Organization Obsessed. I loved her attention to detail and clean designs on her website.

Continuing with my series of interviewing successful work from home moms I asked Lindsay if she would join me. Below is the video version of our interview or continue scrolling to read her words.

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What is your work at home job title now?

Blogger, Pinterest Manager and Graphic Designer.

Tell us a little about your background and how you started this job?

I started blogging in October 2017 to hopefully one day be able to make a full time income blogging and leave my corporate career. Luckily in May 2019 I was able to leave my job and work from home full time! However, to get to this point I had to diversify my income streams. While my blog does make a full time income, I wanted something steady that I could count on each month because blogging income can go up and down. So in January 2019 I started looking into becoming a virtual assistant. After taking a Virtual Assistant Course to figure out the ends and out of a virtual assistant business I decided to specialize in just Pinterest! Pinterest is one of the main reasons I make a full time income blogging and I wanted to help other bloggers grow their traffic with Pinterest as well. I found a mentor and invested in a Pinterest Management coaching program and started to take on clients immediately! 6 months later I had a full client roster and was ready to quit my job and work full time from home!

What is your site called and what is the focus?

My blog is called Organization Obsessed where I blog about organizing, cleaning and sell printables! And then my Pinterest Management site is Lindsaylawless.com.

What is your career/education background? Did you need it for your position now?

I previously worked as a Personal Lines Underwriter at an Insurance Brokerage Firm. And no, nothing about my previous career translated over into my current career. When I decided to learn how to blog and manage Pinterest accounts full time it was like getting another college degree! There was so much to learn!

What was your motivation behind wanting to work from home?

I have a two year old little boy and dropping him off each morning was so hard. I hated that I was missing all of his first big moments and being away from him most of the day. I was desperate to have a career where I could work from home and have more time with him!

What was your journey like to become a blogger and Shopify owner?

It was long and hard! Blogging is not as easy as everyone makes it out to be and you have to be committed to it every single day! For the past two years every free moment I’ve had has been spent growing my blog! I also spent a lot of money just learning how to blog, graphic design, learning Pinterest, SEO, photography, coding, wordpress, etc! There is so much that goes into running an online business and so much you have to learn along the way!

How long have you been doing this?

I have been blogging since October 2017 and I have been managing clients Pinterest Accounts since January 2019!

How long did it take you to become successful? Or are you still working on it?

It took a few months for me to start actually making an income from my blog, but it took a little over a year for my blog to make a full time income each month. And then with being a Pinterest Manager, it took about 5 months to make a full time income with that as well. So over all it took about a year and a half for me to make more blogging and managing Pinterest accounts than I did working a corporate job.

What type of product do you sell on Shopify and what made you choose this platform over something else?

I sell digital downloaded printables on my Shopify store and I chose shopify because it’s the easiest and most professional platform to use! You can customize your store to match your blog and when you direct customers to your Shopify store, they only see your products. You’re not competing with other sellers like you do on Etsy!

What is your day to day life like now? Is it a different compared to when you started? How many hours do you work now?

Right now my day to day life is crazy! I’m still trying to figure out how to balance working from home as well as being a stay at home Mom. It’s definitely not as easy as I thought it would be and I am working a lot more evenings then I would like to be. But I love that I can make my own scheduled now, spend more time with my family and I work a lot less hours than I did when I was with my full time job. On average I work about 20 -30 hours a week depending on whether or not I have someone to watch my little boy for me. But that’s a whole lot less than my previous 40 hour work week plus 5 hours per week commuting!

Can you give a ballpark figure on how much you make each month or per hour?

Between my Blogging Ad Income, Pinterest Management income, Affiliate income and Shopify income, I usually make anywhere between $6,000-$10,000 per month before taxes and expenses. However, that can be seasonal. January – May are great months for homemaking bloggers because everyone is interested in getting organized for the new year! My income slows down in the summer months and then picks back up once school starts.

At what point did you think this is going to be a reliable income?

It took about a year for my income to become stable. I used to have months where I would make $3,000 and the very next month only make $1000. But the best part about blogging is once you do something once, it usually pays off for a very long time! So after a year of posting on my blog 4-5 times a week, all of those posts keep on getting more popular and bringing in more traffic. Now I don’t post on my blog as much I used to because of my Pinterest Clients. But that’s okay! I love to help my clients grow their traffic from Pinterest so they can make an income online just like I do! With my Pinterest Management business, it took about 4 months before I was sure that it was going to be successful. I didn’t feel comfortable quitting my job until that portion of my business made the same as my full time job did. But once I had about 5 clients, I was making the same as my full time job and no longer had time to work full time and manage that many clients.

If you could go back what would you have done differently from the beginning?

If I could go back, the only thing I would have done differently would to be learn SEO from the start. It’s not as easy as growing with Social Media, but I know if I would have started from the beginning, I would be making a lot more than I am now and be much more established in my niche.

What Tips do you have for balancing working at home and taking care of your children?

Work whenever you can and never refuse help! I am lucky enough to have great parents and in-laws that love to babysit my little boy. So anytime I can I let them watch him so I can work. And then I spend a lot of evenings working as well! Just use any free time you can to grow your business. Even an hour a day can get you closer to your goal!

What’s the best advice you would give to someone who is thinking of working from home?

Invest in yourself. I know when you start to look into becoming a blogger or a virtual assistant it seems like everyone is wanting to sell you a course for astronomical amounts. But don’t be afraid to spend the money on courses if you are 100% committed to becoming a blogger or VA. Any money you spend on education most of the time pays you back tenfold. I know I wouldn’t be anywhere near as successful as I am now if I wouldn’t have invested in courses to teach me everything you need to know on blogging, graphic design, and Pinterest Management.

For information on how to get started setting up your own blog check out this post.