Plan, Focus, and Move Forward with Your TPT Store

The year is coming to a close, and it is time to start setting goals and planning for 2017. I didn't take planning and goal setting seriously until about a year ago. I have now settled into a routine that I use every 90 days. I am more organized, more focused, and more productive with my TPT work. I put everything together in a mini seller course. If you are looking for some structure to your planning, this might be what you are looking for. In this mini course, I share how I create a schedule, set goals,
plan out a product calendar, and plan my week. I also provide some tips on focusing and moving forward with your business. This is a mini course and focuses a great deal on the planning part. You can find this mini seller course in my store here. Let me help you get off to a great start for the new year!

Also, if you want to start tracking your TPT data, I have the data tracking spreadsheets that I have used for the last 3 years in my store. You can find them here.

Starting Out on TPT

You've created materials for your classroom for awhile now. You've decided you need a little extra cash. You decide to sell your created materials on TPT. Now what?

Here are a few things to do and know.

1) Add a photo or logo. You will be seen as a more serious buyer if you have a picture/logo vs the default logo. Go to My Account (or your name depending on the screen)>Store Profile>Edit and upload your profile image.

2) While you are on your Profile go ahead and fill out all of the information. You can always change anything later. Some people do look at your profile, so you should have answers in each category. You can also add images or links in this section.

3) The first product you upload will be your Primary Free item. Be sure everything you upload is copyright & trademark free. Check out this post for all of the other important things of what your product (free or paid) should include. This free item should be just as high of quality as anything else you put in your store.

4) Add paid products. Again be sure everything you upload is copyright & trademark free. Focus on making quality products that are unique and professional looking. Don't just copy someone else. Do your own thing!

5) Make sure your titles and descriptions are clear and buyer friendly.

6) Avoid all of the "bright shiny objects" that are distractions. They will eat away at your creation time. They can be time & joy suckers. Just because "everyone" has a blog, FB page, IG account, Twitter account, Pinterest account, is on Snapchat, is making videos, is turning everything digital, is using this scheduling app or that program, etc. doesn't mean you have to. Start with what you can handle. That may be just creating quality, professional products. You may be able to do a couple of things, but you don't need to do it all. There is something "new" that comes about all the time. We don't have time to do it all and be good at it all. Pick what you have time for. I would highly suggest a Pinterest account over everything as it is a way to advertise your products.

7) Be aware there are ups & downs and things will start slowly. If you spend all of your time worrying about, reading about, and commenting about the slow times and no one is buying your products, you won't have time to create and you won't have any joy. Leave the negative nellies behind you, and focus on the positives. TPT is not a get-rich-quick.

8) Followers and feedback will come in spurts. It will be slow. Organic is the best way to go. You want people to follow you that are interested in your products. You want your feedback to come from people who actually use (or will use) your products.

9) TPT product creation takes a lot of effort and hard work. You have to put in the work to see the rewards. Don't compare yourself to other sellers. Let your journey be yours.

10) Ask questions! Ask in the Forums, FB groups, or email/contact another seller.

Just Be You

I see way too often the complaint of "this product looks exactly like mine". I've had it happen to me. It appears the person took one of my free products, changed it from matching to open-ended, and created a product line with a similar title based off of my resource. Maybe they did, and maybe they didn't.

If you sit down with someone else's product and recreate it with some tweaks here and there, this is wrong! You definitely were not inspired. You are actually just copying someone else.

There are some ideas out there that have been tossed around classrooms for years. For example, bingo or a quiz show style game are not new ideas. And those type of resources will most likely look very similar from one seller to the next. That doesn't mean they stole your idea.

Sometimes you make a product that you think you created from your very creative and brilliant mind only to realize later that someone else made something similar before you. This happens!

I know it is hard not to be inspired by someone else if you spend a lot of time on Pinterest or searching through TPT for things to buy. Sometimes we struggle to know where the idea actually came from.

Some things to keep in mind before creating:
↣ Did you think of it on your own?
↣ Is this something that would benefit your students?
↣ Is it something new that you don't think has been done before?

Your products should be something that you have created based on your ideas.

What to Add to Your Product

Your final resource that you upload to TPT should have the following added to it:
⇛ An amazing cover
⇛ Your quality product
⇛ A Terms of Use (TOU) page
⇛ Your email, blog, and social media contacts with hyperlinks
⇛ Credit for clip art/photos and font artists per their TOU
⇛ Other products you offer (upsell) with hyperlinks

Some people put all of this on one page. I use 3 pages in my products: 1) Terms of Use Page, 2) Contacts/Upsell Page, and 3) Credit Page. I have a page long TOU (just covering my bases), and I use a lot of different artists in most of my products. I always give credit even if it is optional.

➯ The Terms of Use (TOU) page is highly important to include. We all know teachers are a sharing bunch. Most of us have shared a worksheet or activity in our time. The TOU page tells the buyer that the resource is only for their personal use and is not to be shared including in an on-line space that isn't password protected. I let them know what is okay as the buyer and what is not okay. Here's a copy of mine. I hope you find it useful. Feel free to use it, tweak it, or disregard it. If you are looking at others' TOUs, do not just copy it. Ask the seller first!

➯ Don't forget to add your contact information - email, blog, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. Be sure to hyperlink them so buyers can just click and go. Check all links after securing your product to be sure they are live and headed in the right direction.

➯ Offer other products. What else do you have that the buyer might like? I do 3 products with the cover image and hyperlinked to the product. You can choose however many you would like to do. Here's an example of my contact/upsell page. All images are hyperlinked to the contact or product.

➯ Be sure to give credit to all of the wonderful clip art and font artists. They each will have a Terms of Use. Be sure to read each one and give credit according to their directions. Here's how mine looks. All images are hyperlinked in my product to each person's store.

You can condense this information to 1 or 2 pages but be sure to add it to every product.

Here are my new pages. Please remember that you can use the wording but need to have your own design. Thanks!