SECRET 1: PLAY & LEARN
I’ll let you in on my first little secret… I actually have no idea what I’m doing! But I’m learning through play. I’m experimenting with Teachers Pay Teachers and trying new products and techniques all the time. But I still don’t have the magic answer for how to use it. I think I’ve made a great product and then I post it and then boom!... barely any sales.
What? Why?
I don’t know!
Then early this year I made a last-minute card for Mother’s Day and it sells like hotcakes!
I’m learning, well more accurately, GUESSING with every product I upload. The key is, I’m trying to reflect and consider what is working, what isn’t and why. But that’s really a fundamental principle for all teachers, isn’t it? REFLECT and try again, reflect, try again, reflect, try again.
Apply the same to your TPT store.
Instead of saying, how can I make money, how can I help other teachers save time and provide deeper learning in their classrooms?
SUNFLOWER DRAWING ACTIVITY by Leah Grant
SECRET 2: WHAT IS SUCCESS?
Money isn’t everything! It really isn’t. Why do you want to open a store on TPT? Is it all about money because if that’s the case, then I recommend you give up.
It’s going to be a while before you are making enough to cover your time. Just start adding up all the hours you put into just uploading the product, writing about it and all that jazz to make it look awesome. Plus you’ve got to promote it on a platform like Facebook or Instagram. And again, all that is a lot of time. To make $1 or $2 per sale? You need a stack load of sales to make back the hours you’ve put into it.
Success needs to start with small, attainable goals. These have been my simple goals so far:
Get my store up and running with the first free product uploaded
Create 3 new products
Promote my products on socials
Find two other people to collaborate with and promote my store
Upload 2 more products and so on…
ADVENT CALENDAR made by Leah Grant
None of my goals have been based on MONEY or how many products I want to sell. I can’t control that. I notice and reflect on why one product may have been more successful than others.
MOTHER’S DAY BOOKMARKS made by Leah Grant
For example, my Mother’s Day Bookmark Activity is still my best seller. But several factors contributed to its success. It was promoted on Nicole’s Instagram Teaching This Way. She went above and beyond with videos and examples of her students using the template.
Immediately I had more traffic to my store.
But on top of that, there wasn’t any other products like mine on TPT. My design was not your typical-tacky bookmark.
It stood out.
Plus I kept the price low, so it was more appealing.
ADVENT CALENDAR made by Leah Grant
SECRET 3: BE AWARE THAT YOU’LL HAVE TO TIDY UP
Yep, be prepared to put even MORE TIME into those tried and tested resources you thought would be ready to go. You’ll have to tidy up your current resources.
As soon as I sit down at my computer, thinking this will be quick… it ends up being an entire evening and it’s still not ready!
A lot of the resources you make for your classroom need adjusting to be suitable and accessible for other teachers to use. This may mean you need to write up instructions, consider if it’s a printer-friendly, editable or universal language and age-appropriate.
FREE TONE WORKSHEET by Leah Grant
SECRET 4: PROMOTING IS KEY
Guess what? This tip means MORE TIME as well!
Even if you have an AMAZING store and BRILLIANT products if no one clicks on your store, how will they know about it? You need to build up an audience that trusts your products and has a need for the content you’re creating.
I’m still working this out. My Instagram is my artist side, but I’m trying to be a more authentic user and show a bit of my family, inspiration, blogging and teaching passion. That means that a lot of my followers aren’t teachers and are NOT interested in the resources I’m promoting. So I don’t want to overdo it and lose them all. But that brings me to my next secret…
FATHER’S DAY CARDS made by Leah Grant
SECRET 5: AIM TO COLLABORATE
My best sales have been thanks to the amazing collaborations I’ve had so far. Big shout out to Nicole from Teaching This Way and Lauren from Teacher Types.
But please, don’t be a douche and ask people to promote you without being willing to give them something. Respect that they have put a lot of hard work into their platform and deserve something for their effort.
The best collaborations I’ve done have been where we openly discuss how we can help each other. When both people are eager and passionate and excited about the product. I’ve just finished a really fun collaboration with Teaching This Way making an elf and angel template, where she approached me to design her idea. It’s such a great way to network and play to our strengths.
So with all of that in mind, has it been worth all the time and effort opening a TPT store? Well, no, not financially. But I have learnt so much and discovered I love creating resources to share with my community. It’s actually given me the motivation to make my teaching resources available on my website.