5 Tips for Selling on TeachersPayTeachers.com
Are you looking to make a few extra bucks? Selling your own products on Teacherspayteachers.com can be a great way to share the great things that you’ve made for your classroom with other teachers while making some money at the same time!
Upgrade to Premium…the sooner, the better!
There are two kinds of seller memberships, basic and premium. The Basic membership is free, and the Premium membership is $59.95 annually. With a Basic Membership, you receive 55% of all sales and have to pay 30 cents per resource in transaction fees.
But… in the premium membership you get 80% of all sales, and the transaction fee is only 15 cents per resource IF THE TOTAL TRANSACTION IS LESS THAN $3!
The other differences are that you can upload resources that total 1GB vs. 200 MB, you can upload video resources and you have access to premium marketing tools.
Upgrading to premium can be an expense that you don’t want to incur until you’ve started making money. But paying for premium and receiving 80% instead of 55% makes a big difference. I upgraded two months after opening my store, and it had paid for itself within the first two months after that! If you keep creating strong content and promoting on Pinterest, the sales will come!
Keep Organized
Keep yourself organized at all time you want to have your financial information, store information, and product information handy. Have routines and establish a work setting. As much as I think I can get as much done sitting on my couch with my laptop and a Hallmark movie… I definitely get more work done with I sit at my dining room table and eliminate distractions. I would probably work even better if I set up a desk/office space but I haven’t gotten that far yet furnishing my house, and the dining room table will have to do for now!
For help with organization, I made this TPT Teacher Seller Planner it is everything that I use to keep my store organized. If there is anything you think is missing from this planner, let me know because I’m constantly looking to make my products better.
Research Before You Dive In
Spend time in the Forum, spend time in Facebook groups, learn what works. After I had made 50 products, I realized that the way that I was making my Terms of Use page and my previews were ALL WRONG!
Because of this mistake, I then had to go back and fix all of my products, and that took forever!
Doing it right the first time is really a better option! (I feel like you’re probably saying “duh!” to me at this point). But, my point to saying this is, if you spend some time browsing products that you’ve purchased in the past, and browsing the information available online from other sellers, you can find out what worked for them before you start. For example, always include a Terms of Use page, always credit the creators of the artwork that you use, square covers really do look better, etc.
Don’t Rush!
The best way to get your store off of the ground is to create high-quality resources. It is so tempting to just throw something out there as quick as possible to see if it sells. But you are going to get better ratings and better response if you take your time and really do good work. Is the product that you created good enough for your classroom?
Use the Forum
Going into the Seller’s Forum on TpT can be very overwhelming. You don’t go in for a day, and there are all of the sudden dozens and dozens of new messages. You will learn which boards you want to stay up with, and which boards you don’t have to check in on every day. But the forum is such a great place for getting information.
TpT is great about sending emails keeping us in the loop with a lot of what they are doing as a company. But, the creators at TpT are also very active on the Forum, answering questions, correcting misunderstandings, and listening to our feedback.
It is a great place to go to find out about new Beta Testing that you want to get in on. (Hello beautiful new bundles!!)
Be Patient
There is no magic pill to make your store super profitable right off the bat. The best thing that you can do is stay involved, use Facebook groups and Pinterest, and just create, create, create. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will your TpT store be.
But, a year from now when you really start to see major growth because you can compare the current month to the same month last year, it will be SO worth it!
Also, don’t worry when you get to your first June and sales stop…it’s normal, and it happens to everyone!
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