First Day on TpT
Welcome to TpT
I thought I would write down notes to jog my memory for the
next time and help anyone else who thought…. I could do that!
Well, you can do that but there are a lot of steps first.
First you have to create 1-2 wonderful and engaging
activities for TpT. Why 2? The first one must be free.
A few notes about
your items. First, your item shouldn’t
be word but should be converted to something else… I chose PDF. I looked around before I finally got ready to
post it and noticed that all the sellers had a cover page. The cover was
colorful, had a tile, and a frame. I
struggled with frames. Remember if you
are using someone else’s borders, frames, or clipart, you need to check their
copyright use rules. You can’t just use
them or you are breaking copyright laws.
Any hoo… for the free product, I used the border that came with Word… a
bit boring for TpT but hey I’m a newbie.
For the other two products, I downloaded font and saved it on my
computer.
I made several different files so I knew where
the font, border, and clipart came from and what the person wanted you to
do. Most (but not all) want you to give
them credit and have a cute icon for you to add to the last page entitled
credits It’s usually called Terms of Use.
Very important apparently you could get kicked off TpT or even fined
thousands of dollars. BE CAREFUL AND
GIVE CREDIT.
I probably spent days downloading free fonts and clipart and
how that person wanted credit for their work. I would go to TpT and type free clickart, font, border…. After I found something I liked it was a
loooong process to get the clickart, font or border. I started with opening a new folder on my
desktop and labeling it the persons name and a quick description like bw
borders for black and white borders.
Then I would download it, save the file, click on the blue arrow, click
on the most recent download to open it.
As it opened I would click File Move to…, Pull down arrow, find desktop
or file I wanted to put it in, Move, and close it with the red arrow. I had to do that will all the pictures. Someone smarter than me can probably do the
entire group of pictures. Make sure you
also move the terms of use and button for easy reference. I did one more thing… I saved a word document
that listed the different people I had downloaded for quick reference to their
names and what was in it. I figured some
day I would have TONS of clipart.
Next go to Paypal before TpT because you will need to set up
an account. Go to www.paypal.com and set up a business
account. As a teacher it will feel real
strange. This is my first day and I may
always be at $0 but right now I am considering it my hobby. They needed my
email (I didn’t use school’s), my address, a phone number, password with a
number, and the last 4 digits of my SSN. Later they will ask in an email to
confirm your email.
Now you can go to TpT.
I saw a lot of things on here but I had trouble finding where to add
myself as a seller. I chose basic because I don’t know if I will end up selling
anything. Later if it works I will
upgrade to Premium to get a higher percentage, but for right now go to basic
(free).
Once you get set up as a seller, look at the
top for My TpT. Hover over the TpT. It will open up a pull down menu. Look for SELL. It will contain many neat things but right
now you want to go to DASHBOARD. This
is the main part to go to but later it was neat to see sales detail (0) ,
product list (I had 3 by the end of the day), product statistics and my
store. I gave the store my first and
last name right now. Don’t know if I
should have been cute and said Firsties or All about First Grade but I know
some of the BIG sellers just use their name.
So now it’s time to
upload you’re your first product.
Remember that your first product is FREE. That means you are giving it away so others
can see the quality of your work. You
want something good but not something that you have spent weeks on to
finish. Also, I believe there is a limit
of 10 pages for the preview.
For the preview,
you will upload your file from your computer.
I had already changed it to a PDF when I did save as. For the first product because it is free you
don’t need a preview. You will upload
your file, give it a name, tell what grades, list 3 key words, tell what
subjects, how many pages, it’s free so no cost, and description. It also needs 4 thumbnails but I just chose
the first one and let TpT use my first four pictures. Now submit.
If it doesn’t submit it means you left something blank.
When you add your
second item, it will be slightly different because this one will be one that
you get paid for if someone buys it.
Before you start uploading it, make a preview of it. If it is multipages. Keep the cover and a few pages to show what
is is like and save as and write PREVIEW.
The only other big difference is the price. Remember that you don’t get paid 100%. They take out a percentage and tell you that
your minimum is $ .95. I priced my first one $4 that had 61 pages
for the whole year and $1.50 for one that had 30 pages. I read that it is about $1 for every 10 pages
but you have to factor in how long is the person going to use it. If it is one
lesson then probably go a bit cheaper.
Also, as you get well known you
can increase your price. Finally, I have
read that it if you price it too low, you won’t make any money because TpT
takes a percentage and people will not look at it if it is too low. Your time is worth money. Many teachers have the skill to make it but
they don’t have the time.
So now you have a
free and a paid on Teachers Pay Teachers.
You will look at the Dashboard and see your products. You will take a picture of it and send it to
your family. Wow!! You are published!! Big accomplishment!! Then you will go to TpT
and search for it and it won’t be there.
A big disappointment for me. I didn’t read that it takes about one hour
to be live and on TpT.
So now does the
money start rolling in…not quite.
Now it has to go to Pinterest for Marketing.
On your TpT there
is an icon on the left that you can click to put it on pinterest but after
reading several blogs they said your picture will be so small no one will pin
in so instead copy the link of your website on TpT where you can see it. I had
to go to the Dashboard and go to Products and go to VIEW to copy the link. Now sign into Pinterest. I have TONS of pins but apparently very few
things that I have pinned. I didn’t know
how to pin. I had to google it. Look for the PLUS sign. It said it should be at the top next to my
name but mine was on the lower right hand corner. Click
PIN FROM WEBSITE. It will be a
much better picture. Add the website
that you just copied and below it find a pencil and add it again so that it
says it is from TpT. Now here’s the
tricky part that I’m struggling with.
When I wanted to pin it, I thought I could pin my spelling to a spelling
board. NOPE! You can pin it to your board. I created a new one called K-2 Activities and
Lessons to make it wider than I normally use because I am creating a
board. The idea is to get it on other
board called collaboration boards. I
found a few activities that were in the same vein as mind and on the top
clicked go to WEBSITE. The website gave me
someone to email to ask if I could collaborate and most said that I need to pin
both paid and free in a prescribed ratio.
Honestly, I liked
everything until this point. How do I
get pinned on other people’s boards and they can’t let me pin unless they are
following me? So my board has two cute activities by itself and no
activity. I can see why one lady said it
takes about a year. I checked my email,
no response to the collaboration…
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