5 Tips You Should Know to Start Selling on Teachers Pay Teachers

How Do I Start Selling on Teachers Pay Teachers?

Have you ever bought something on Teachers Pay Teachers? Have you ever told yourself

 “I could totally do this!” Well guess what, YOU CAN!

9 years ago, I found the site Teachers Pay Teachers when I stepped away from teaching to raise my children. I took some time off, like so many teachers do, just to be a mom. It was the best thing I ever did! 

When I found TpT, I thought to myself, I could take my own teaching resources and sell them, this is going to be SO easy and earning some money really grabbed my attention. How hard could this really be??....

Type it up...     make it pretty...      and post it! That's it!

I heard crickets for a while until I figured out there was way more involved than those 3 simple steps.

This week, I’m going to walk you through what I found to be the most important things to know when becoming a Teachers Pay Teachers author. If you’re brand new to selling, I hope you find this advice helpful and I hope it motivates you to get started right away. If you’ve been selling for a long time and already know most of this, I hope it reminds you of the things you’re doing right and maybe even give you a few extra tips to remember.

So here are my 5 tips for getting started as a seller on Teachers Pay Teachers.

So how do I get started?

1.   The very first thing you need to do is set up an account, if you don’t have one already. Click the “Join Us” Button. 

     After clicking, you’ll see there are options on ways to join the community. I recommend starting with the Free Basic Seller account. This way you can test out the waters and get a feel for everything before you jump into paying something. You want to make sure this is something you’ll want to continue doing. 

     After choosing your options, you’ll be prompted to fill out your account information. If you plan on selling, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve come up with a name for your store. If you have a store name in mind, I recommend placing the name in the search bar to see if there is another store with a similar name. There is nothing worse than having a store name similar to someone else. You need to stand out! So get creative, even use your own name to start with. You can always go back and change this later. 

2.   After you have set up your account, you will need a resource to post as your FREE resource. All stores have a FREE download posted at the top of their stores for buyers to get a feel of their work. So I would spend some time thinking about what resource you want to post and making it AMAZING! 

     This FREE download at your store acts like the store front window. Buyers get a little peak into what you can create so you’ll want them coming back for more. Take your time on this! My FREE Download Beginning of the Year: Getting to Know you Interviews has been downloaded 16,856 times (the last time I checked). That's a lot of teachers so it's worth the time and effort to make this product stand out. 

3.   This next step will not happen right away. 

     You need to decide, what do I want my store to look like? 

     Do I want bright colors, simple layouts, fancy fonts, etc. 

     This changes all the time! The products I made 9 years ago look nothing like the products I’m making today. We will get into updating products later. This is something to keep in the back of your mind when you’re purchasing clipart and fonts. Some buyers stick with the same clip artists and that’s totally fine. However, if everyone uses the same clip artist, how will you stand out? Take the time to browse TPT for clip artists and font creators and decide what you like. After selling for a year on TpT, I decided to try creating clipart myself. 

    Check that out at my store by clicking below. 

4.   Once you start creating resources, you will want to sort your resources into categories. TpT has this wonderful feature where you can decide the categories in your own store. This will make it easier for buyers to locate exactly what they want.

    I do mine by grade level, subject, and clipart. The more resources you have, the more categories you will have. So create the categories as you go. You don’t want a category with nothing there. That will turn buyers away.

5.   The last tip is to look back on the ideas, resources, and lessons you have created in your own classroom. How can you make those to sell? 

     BE CAREFUL!! 

     Copyright is REAl! 

     Do not take a resource from a major publishing company or another TpT Author and just redo it as your own. 

    Bad idea. 
    
     Also, spend time searching your idea on TpT.  Honestly, most likely, someone has already done a version of what you want to do. The goal is to make it your own. How can you make your work unique and something teachers and their students will love?

So here is a little FREEBIE for you! I like making lists....well, I NEED to make lists. I used a checklist sheet to jot my ideas down. This kept me focused and allowed me to focus on one project at a time. It's easy to get overwhelmed because you have so many ideas in your head and you want to get them done right away and you need this extra money for a vacation with your family and staying up until 2am can be an option if needed.

Slow down. Use this check sheet to help you. 

I hope this post gives you a good idea of what it takes to get started as a seller on Teachers Pay Teachers. This is just the start. There is so much more to learn and do. Come back for the next post in this series on Creating Product Covers and Previews.