Experienced Sellers Share Advice for A New TpT Seller

Learn to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers and start your own teacher side hustle.

Being a new TpT seller can be very overwhelming. Creating products, learning new software, flattening and locking products, using Pinterest for traffic generation, and all this while keeping up with your family and classroom. It’s a learning curve.

There are a few resources that you can use when you are ready to learn how to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers. This Mega-List of How to Sell on TPT is a great place to start.

Reading the TPT forums as well as their help pages is another great way to learn. Reading on the forum and Googling different ideas and questions that I had is how I learned to sell (and having previously started stores on Etsy helped). I have learned enough to take my store far enough to earn the same amount that I do teaching full-time, with 13 years of experience!

The best way to learn is to ask questions and follow the advice of teacher-sellers who have established successful stores on Teachers Pay Teachers. Below you will find some of the top advice from experienced sellers.

Learn to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers. Top Tips for New TpT Sellers. Make money online as a teacher by creating a side-hustle selling lesson plans. Rhoda Design Studio

What better way to figure out your next steps than some advice from experienced sellers on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Create Bundles:

I wish I had known to think big when it came to creating products! When I started selling, I posted a bunch of one-page worksheets. A few of them sold decently well, but I didn’t see any sizable earnings until I started grouping resources into bundles and other sets costing $5-20. I’ve learned that since larger products are a better deal and bigger time-savers for buyers, they are the best way for me to earn, too! ~English Teacher Mommy

Think About Your Brand:

I wish I had taken more time with the design aspect of my resources in the beginning. I’ve had to make updates to most of my resources so they look more professional. I didn’t really pay attention to covers in the beginning and then had to go back and redo so many. It really does make sense to really think things through and take a bit more time at the beginning instead of having to go back later and update everything. ~Rosie’s Superstars

Quality Over Quantity:

I think one really important tip for starting out is to not worry about jumping into social media and marketing right away. Just focus your time (which always seems to be limited!) on quality product creation. Then, once you have your store built up more, think about starting on one social media platform at a time. ~Erin Guge

Creating and Selling Resources 101

You already create so many things from scratch to supplement your students’ education. Selling those same resources to other tired, stressed, and overworked teachers will help make their days easier and put a little “cha-ching” in your pocket! Taking an online course that walks you through the creative process will save you time and major headaches!!

Start your own blog with step by step directions. Grow your traffic and increase your sales by blogging and learning about content marketing.

Focus on Your Journey:

My tip for a new tpt seller is not to compare your TpT journey to anyone else’s- just create products you love at a pace which suits you. ~Curriculum For Autism

Tried and True Products:

My tip would be to create things that you use successfully in your own classroom!  These are the tried and true!  Many times these are things that you create because you couldn’t find what you needed elsewhere.  If you need the resource chances are someone else does too! ~STEM to STEAM Trio

Link to Other Products:

I wish I’d hyperlinked other products/custom categories in my product descriptions sooner. Going back and adding hyperlinks to all my descriptions was time-consuming. I also wish I’d saved those hyperlinks to a file on my computer so I could have easily gone back and found them to insert them into other product descriptions. ~Let’s Get Literature

Plan For the Long Haul:

I think one of the things that would have been helpful for me early on as a new TPT seller was to be able to understand that building a store here is a long-term kind of project.  You hope for (and I think a few do achieve) an instant success story.  But the truth is, this is a long haul kind of build your business thing. You have to stay consistent, even on the days when it feels like it’s not going anywhere major.  It can be challenging because as someone above mentioned, there is a *steep* learning curve.  Even being the talented folks we are, there is a steep learning curve.  You might come to the table with video chops or design skills, but you still have to get in and paddle through the Pinterest waters or jump into blogging.  There’s a lot to it.

I think it’s really important to know that you’ll enjoy it.  There’s a lot of time investment involved, and your store becomes this personal tangible thing that you really want to see grow and bloom.  I think it would have helped to know that, too, at the beginning. ~Glimmercat Education

Learn to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers and start your own teacher side hustle.

Become a Premium Seller:

I wish I had become a premium seller right away. If you are serious about building your TPT store, then it’ll pay for itself pretty quickly. I know it seems counter-intuitive since you join TPT to make money, but you will thank yourself once the sales start coming in and you get to keep more of your money! ~Foreman Fun

Find Your Tribe:

Connect with other sellers in whatever way works for you. The forum is a great way to do that and there are Facebook groups and Pinterest groups designed to support new sellers. It always helps to have a support network. smile ~Blue Sky Design by Mrs. T

If you are still feeling overwhelmed, leave your questions or comments below. I’m happy to help. All of these topics are covered in my new online course, Creating and Selling Teacher Resources 101. This free checklist can help you track your progress and keep track of your to-do list!

Related:

10 Tips to Get Started Selling

Increase Your Sales with These Courses

Benefits of Creating ResourcesLearn to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers. Top Tips for New TpT Seller. Make money online as a teacher. Rhoda Design Studio

Learn to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers. Top Tips for New TpT Sellers. Make money online as a teacher by creating a side-hustle selling lesson plans. Rhoda Design Studio

9 Comments

  1. These are great! I appreciate all this advice!
    Can you give advice about where to look for up-to-date information on the technical aspects of selling on TpT? I’m mostly looking for image sizes for previews, product listing, etc. Also, how to protect images/products from being modified and sold as somebody else’s work.

  2. Thank you for your comment!
    I cover image sizes, product listings, and security of your product in my course about selling on Teachers Pay Teachers.
    https://selling-teaching-resources-101.teachable.com/p/creating-and-selling-classroom-resources-101
    It also covers what programs most sellers use to create products and other options if you are open to learning a different platform.
    It can be overwhelming and feel like there is a TON to learn. The best thing to do is to just jump in and start working on it. Learn as you go and grow 🙂

    Rhoda

  3. Thank you for your comment Melissa!
    I’m happy that you found the blog post and that the information was helpful. There is so much to learn. Getting advice from those who have already gone through it is a great way to get started! 🙂

    Rhoda

  4. Thank you for all of this information it has been very helpful! I’m excited to get started on my TPT journey. I’ve already signed up for your free course and will be saving up to take more.

  5. You are most welcome! I’m happy that the information is helpful for you. It’s a process to get started…but once you get going you will wonder why you waited so long. Jump in!! 🙂

    Rhoda

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