Tips for TPT Sellers with Full Time Jobs!

I started on TPT over a year ago now and at the time I was pregnant and working full time. I worked up until 3 days before I had my gorgeous little girl (now 8 months) and went back to full time work 6 weeks later (leaving my husband to be a stay at home daddy.) The time I have available to work on TPT is limited and I have to make sure I make the most of every free minute I get.

When I first started I spent hours reading advice and tips on the forum and I tried to do EVERYTHING they recommended. Thinking back, there are a lot of things I could have done differently that would have maximized my time and increase my sales much earlier on. Today I thought I would share those thoughts with you.

1)            Don’t be in it JUST for the money.

If you are just out to make money you won’t last. Coming home at night from one job to start work on another is much easier if you enjoy what you are doing. I love creating resources, it relaxes me. I call TPT a hobby! I get excited over each and every sale and am happy with any extra cash I earn. Unless you’re extremely lucky it can take a while to start earning a sizable amount.

2)            Sign up for premium seller straight away!

This will help you commit to TPT and motivate you to keep going whilst also earning more. You know how insurance companies always compare their premium to being less than a cup of coffee? Well so is the TPT premium (when spread out over a year). It’s worth the risk!

3)            Forget the social media!

Leave the Facebook, Pinterest, blogs and Instagram pages until your store picks up. Yes, these will help you get sales but not as fast as prioritizing the tips below.

4)            Build up quality products

I didn't start seeing every day sales until I had over 20 products in my store. Spend the time getting the products up then look at getting more complex thumbnails and previews. Many of my products just get screen shot/JPEGS of one item within the product rather than spending time trying to showcase all the pages over three thumbnails.

5) That being said...

 Have good cover pages and descriptions. People won't click on your products if they don't look inviting or offer more information then the title. They also won't buy a product if they don't know what they are getting.

6)            Find your Niche- Quickly!

Find that area that you excel at or is lacking on TPT. I found my Niche with ten week unit plans on specific topics. When I first started I wasted time producing more general stuff like job charts. Yes, they do sell…but at a much slower rate because there are so many of them out there on TPT. Leave them till later.

7)            Don’t undervalue your products

This is one that I am still guilty of. Your new to TPT and you think maybe my products aren’t as good as others or that they will sell better if they are competitively cheaper. NOPE! Trust yourself. People will pay for quality!

How to Find Your Ranking on TPT

2019 UPDATE: TPT has stopped doing the ranking system :-( Sorry!

Update: If you are in the top 50 000 sellers you can now find your ranking easily here http://tpt.naujok.com/index.php . Just type in your store name and click on 'get rank'. So simple and easy! If you don't come up you can still use the system below and start from page 1000.

I discovered a post on the sellers forum once that talked about his/her ranking on Teachers Pay Teacher. After quite a while I discovered how to find my own ranking. It is not the easiest thing to do but if you're curious or just the competitive type then keep reading.

Step 1: Go to the TPT homepage (not your dashboard).

Step 2: Scroll down a little way and in the left hand column you will find the heading 'View Sellers' Click either Top Sellers or by State/Provenience. Unless you fairly high up in the rankings of your State/provenience I don't recommend you go looking in Top Sellers....You will be there for quite some time!

Step 3: Click on your State/Provenience if you are going down that route.

Step 4: On each page press Ctrl - F which will bring up a search bar. Type in your user name. Do this for each page until you you find yourself. Like I said before...it isn't easy and it's time consuming. There are 50 results per page so multiply the page you are on by that to find out your rough ranking. Down the bottom where it says that it will also tell you the number of  people in total in that specified area.

Step 5: I am a little addicted to checking my ranking and after the first time you'll know which page to go to each time. It find it updates within 10 minute of me selling a product.

Remember that while your store is growing so is everyone else. Your ranking will go up and down.

Also remember that this is based on all time sale records. The ones in the top 50 have been on TPT for quite a while.

I like to look at who the people are above and below me so I can get to know my fellow sellers and find some interesting products (and check out the competition). 

Revamping Your Teaching Store

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Amy123

After taking (maternity) leave from my Teachers Pay Teachers store I felt like an update was needed upon my return. Here's a list of what I have gone through and done:

• New store banners
• Analysed statistics for views vs downloads. If your products are getting views then your thumbnails and titles are doing their jobs. If your views vs downloads ratio isn't good (high views/low download number) then your summary of the product (or the product itself) is not good enough. My free products average out to have about 1 download for every 5 views and my paid is approximately 1:20. Definitely room for improvement.
• Went 'searching' for my products to see what else was out there that was similar and where my products showed up in the list.
• Based on the analysis and search results I changed some product descriptions, titles and thumbnails. I plan to redo a few of my products but that will take more time.
• Adjusted prices for highly successful and unsuccessful products. Pricing products isn't an easy task and you shouldn't feel bad about adjusting prices as needed. 

Its definitely helped motivate me to start producing content again...now just to find the time....

Year 3 Number Test

How I Got Started on Teacherspayteacher

While I was in uni studying to be a teacher I had a part time job. What I loved about it was that I could easily do extra hours and earn more money whenever I wanted. If I didn't feel like extra work I didn't take anything extra on. Its nice being able to earn extra money and I often miss it. I have tried a couple of online things to make extra money.

In 2012 I began making Youtube videos, an enjoyable hobby that I hoped would end up putting a little extra in the bank. A year later I had made a tiny bit of money but was frustrated with putting up what I thought was quality videos and not getting the views or subscribers. I no longer enjoyed it and looked for my next opportunity.

Late 2012 I joined a host of survey sites online and spent countless hours (multi-tasking while being a couch potato) filling in surveys. Again I made a little bit of money but became frustrated at the constant time spent doing a survey only to have "this survey is not right for you" appear 20 minutes in and get no rewards for it. It quickly became repetitious and while I still receive the emails I don't do the surveys. I made a little more then Youtube but it took up more time and was less enjoyable.

In July last year I finally got on board the Pinterest train and quickly got addicted. It wasn't long before a pin lead me to Teacherspayteachers. Like so many other teachers I make a lot of my own resources and thought "I could do that." A little umming and arrhing later I had uploaded my first product!

Check back soon for the next part of my journey. Check out my store here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Amy123 

If you are interested in signing up and selling your own products on TeacherspayTeachers going through the link below will benefit both of us and I am happy to provide support for anyone that needs help getting started that uses the link.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Signup/referral:MrsAmy123