I decided to start a Teachers Pay Teacher’s store thinking it would be a great way to earn some extra money with resources I’d already made. I’ve heard all the success stories, and every time I make a TPT purchase, I find myself thinking, how hard can it be? Turns out, it’s a bit more complicated than I initially thought. I’ve spent many hours reading articles and watching tutorials on YouTube. (If you decide to start a TPT store, they give you access to TPT University, which is has lots of great articles and videos to help you get set up). Here are a few tips I’ve learned so far, all in one place! Hopefully this will save you time when you are getting your store set up.

1. Decide on your initial financial investment

Selling on TPT used to be free, according to my research, but now is $29 for a basic account. With a Basic Seller account, TPT charges a $0.30 per transaction fee, and keeps 45% of sales. With a Premium Seller account, you pay $59.95 a year, they charge $0.15 per resource on orders less than $3.00, and they keep 20% of sales. You can find all of this on their website, by the way. Premium sellers also have access to premium features and marketing tools. I’m starting with the Basic Seller account, because I’m trying to minimize expenses until I start seeing a profit.

2. Own your tools, and give credit where it’s due

As a seller, you can’t just post anything you’ve created. To follow copyright laws, anything you create to sell has to be made on a personal computer, on your own time (not while you are at work). So while you can use things you create for your own class if you’re a teacher, you need to create those resources outside of school hours. You also need to use a website that allows you to use resources copyright free when creating your resources, or you need to purchase or create your own. You can purchase fonts, backgrounds, and clip art right on TPT, or can go to outside sellers, but then you also need to ensure you have permission to use those materials commercially by checking their copyright notices.

When you create your materials, you will want to outline specifically the permissions you are giving to users–whether you are selling an individual license, if your customer can share the resources with a team, or if they can use them commercially to create their own resources (this would apply more to fonts or graphics).

If you are creating PDF files, you’ll want to password protect them. You can do that with Adobe Acrobat Pro. If you have a school email, you can subscribe to Creative Cloud (which gives you access to Photoshop, Acrobat Pro, etc.) for $19.99 a month for the first year, and then $34.99 after that. I’ve learned there are other programs that do this, but this one seems to be the most popular in the research I’ve done.

In order to save money, since the goal is to be making it, I’ve been looking into ways to create my own graphics. Apps like Procreate or Fontself allow you to design your own art and fonts, and Canva is a great resource for creating professional looking graphics for images and backgrounds. Procreate and Fontself require an initial purchase, about $20 each, but then you have them! Canva can be used for free, but you get much better features with Canva Pro. As an educator you have access to them with a school email, but to sell what you make, you need a personal account. Canva Pro is $120 year.

3. Create a quality, free product to launch your store

The first item you post for sale on TPT is required to be a free item. This is a great opportunity to make a good first impression on what type of store you will have and the quality of products you create. TPT recommends offering free resources from time to time, and other sellers have shared the offer some free samples of some of their bundles to get buyers interested in making further purchases.

4. Share your content through social media accounts.

This one is more of a given, but I’ll mention it anyway. Pinterest is a great social media platform for sharing ideas and linking them to your blog or store–this is how I find most resources for myself, honestly. Personal blogs are another great method! Quality content, both in what you post, and what you sell, are key to being successful. Researching what is trending and current keywords can help you focus in on what you create and share.

5. Set goals, and monitor your progress

I’m still at the beginning of my TPT journey. I’ve decided to start with sharing the resources I’m creating for my own store, and then I plan to create items for my own classroom that I’ll post in my store as well. TPT helps you track your sales, and most social media accounts will let you create a business account that can help you monitor how your efforts are going as well!

In Conclusion:

I was surprised at how little I knew getting into selling, especially regarding copyright laws, and the challenges of creating quality professional resources without needing to spend a lot of money. I’m excited for the challenge of starting a new business, and I’ll keep you posted on how things are going, and what I else I learn along the way!