Teachers Pay Teachers Tips and Advice

Every now and then I get questions from teachers wanting to start creating and selling their own resources on TeachersayTeachers. On this post, I want to share with you some information I put together for some teachers at school with some Teachers Pay Teachers tips and advice for getting started with selling teacher created resources.

I am by no means an expert, but here are some things I have picked up along the way, mostly through trial and error!

These tips cover everything from getting started, to finding graphics, to marketing your products. There are several guides and courses available now if you wish to learn more (just search on TeachersPayTeachers). However, the best way to learn is to just get in there and get started. I think these tips will start you off on the right foot. If you want to download the printable version of these tips, use the download button found at the end of this post.

Creating Products on TeachersPayTeachers

1. Make an attractive cover page using:

• Digital papers
• Borders
• Fonts (Use “Fun” Fonts for Covers and Readable Fonts for Student Directions)

2. Include the following in your resources:

• Notes to Teachers or Suggested Use Page
• Student Directions
• Answer Keys
• Terms of Use Page
• Credits Page (to give credit to clipart and font designers)

3. Use PowerPoint to create your resources. You can easily move graphics around and add text boxes.

4. To come up with ideas for resources, ask yourself:

• What skill do I need more resources for?
• What skills are tricky for my students that I can create a unique product for?
• What are my strengths as a teacher and how can I incorporate those strengths into my resources?

5. Follow these tips when writing titles for your resources:

• Ask Yourself: What would a teacher type into Google if they were searching for this skill/resource?
• Avoid cute titles.
• Make your title clear and specific:
• Add Grade Levels
• Skill/Subject
  • Example: 5th Grade Common Core Math Assessments

6. Follow these tips when writing descriptions and creating previews for your resources.

• Make your descriptions clear and specific. Make sure there are no surprises when a teacher buys your resources. Use hyperlink coding to add links to relevant blog posts and related resources.
• Try and include previews for all your products, but especially for products $3 and over. Follow these guidelines for previews:
  • Include Table of Contents and Notes to the Teacher in preview
  • Include full size images of a few example pages versus tiny thumbnails
  • Include a variety of examples from the resources in your preview

Marketing Your Resources

Here are some tips for marketing your products:

• Make sure your store has at least 15-25 quality products before you dive into marketing. Teachers will want to see more of your resources if they like what they see.
• Create a blog to showcase your products in use and to share ideas and teaching tips with teachers.
• Use Pinterest to pin “in action” pictures of your products from your blog.
• Build your Pinterest boards by curating amazing content and freebies from your blog and other blogs.
• Create a Facebook page to interact with followers.
• Remember this sequence: Product Creation, then Blog, then Pinterest, then Facebook—Don’t try to do it all at once.
• Other marketing options:
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Copyright Tips

Remember these tips concerning copyright:

• Do not use images from Google
• Do not use images of book covers
• Do not create paid resources for Daily Five or Whole Brain Teaching Resources (Freebies are okay-see TpT Forum for more information).
• Do not create paid or free resources for Dr. Seuss, Pete the Cat, or Angry Birds.

Finding Graphics and Clipart

I buy all my clipart and fonts from TeacherspayTeachers because their terms of use are clear and allow for commercial use, or the ability to resell the resource. Here are some of my favorites (these sellers have several freebies to get you started with creating as well):

• Glitter Meets Glue
• Educlips
• Krista Wallden
• Graphics from the Pond
• Kimberly Geswein Fonts

Maybe this will give you some tips if you are just started out on TeachersPayTeachers, thinking of getting started, or have friends that want to sell and don’t know where to start.

Do you have any tips that you could also offer for selling on TeachersPayTeachers?