I have used Pinterest for quite awhile. I started well before I started on TPT. I used it to find recipes, craft ideas, and teaching ideas. Pinterest has made some changes over the years but one thing remains. Pinterest is a visual site. It works for me because I am a visual person. Here are some tips for using Pinterest as a marketing tool for your TPT business. 1) Business Account - Be sure you change your personal account over to a business account or start a new business account. I changed mine over from a personal account to a business one instead of starting over. I don't have enough time in my day to keep track of 2 Pinterest Accounts. To convert your account, go to Pinterest Business . Choose Convert Now and follow the steps. You will not lose followers by doing this, and you will not lose your boards. ⓣⓘⓟ ☞  Add your logo or picture that you use in your store & social media. Your profile description is only 160 characters, so be short and sweet in your description. 2) ...

Everyone has a different way to organize. This system has worked for me for several years. I start with a main folder for Teachers Pay Teachers. Inside that folder, I break it down into some categories: Marketing, Completed Products, Products to Finish, Data, etc. I then break each of those folders down. For example inside the Completed Products Folder is a folder for each product I have created. Inside the product folder is a copy of the product, a copy of the preview, and the editable pieces for the product. In my Design Tools folder, I have a Clip Art for TPT folder. Inside are several category folders including graphics, photos, borders, etc. I keep each product together inside the category. I don't group them by theme or artist. I did change the folder preview to the clip art preview to help me find things easier. On my Mac, I use Image2icon , which is a free download, to change my folder preview. This keeps me organized. Of course, I am terrible at putting things in the right...

Are you looking for success and the get-rich-quick scheme? Or are you looking to help others and be of value? As sellers, we should be providing value to TPT. We are helping teachers by creating quality resources that can be used with students in meaningful lessons. Be sure you are a seller that is providing value to others. Have a great week!...

You try to go to sleep at night - product ideas pop into your head. You drive to work - product ideas pop into your head. You sit down to create a product. Next thing you know 20 ideas are popping into your head for other products. What do you do? It's time to get those ideas out of your head and onto a list. You can create the standard list on paper. Keep a notebook handy just for product ideas. You can also make your list part of your planner. Use Evernote or Trello. With these apps, you can jot down your ideas and the app will sync across your devices. Both of these apps allow you to create notebooks or boards for organizing similar ideas or subjects. You could create a notebook/board for each idea and jot in some specifics you want to remember. I have tried both and prefer Evernote over Trello. In Evernote, I am able to do what I need to do without paying for the upgrade. The main thing is to do a "brain dump". Get your ideas and some specifics out of your head to cle...

Everyone loves a good freebie. Myself included! As a teacher, I would scrounge around for anything I could find to work with my kids. Funds were small and student needs were greatly varied. I found free things, and I paid for resources. I believe we should give back to teachers. Most teachers work hard at their profession and giving back feels great! But I feel that we should think through why we are providing a free resource. I have some thoughts on freebies. If you post it to your store as free, it should stay free. Some people call them Forever Freebies. Now I do think it is different if you post something for free, decide to add to it, and price it after that. Although the free piece could lead to the larger paid product.  No more than 10% of products in your store set to FREE. This is just a general rule. Some have less, some have more. I personally keep mine at or below this number. I do provide freebies on my blog and Facebook that are not posted in my store. Giving a product aw...

You don't have to do it all perfectly. Maybe you only post to your blog once a month. Maybe you only post to Facebook 3 times in a month. Maybe you only create one new product a month. You have other life responsibilities. Do what you can, when you can. Sometimes you have to let your idea of perfection go and do what works for you and your life. Have a great week!...

Sales, sales everywhere! It's my mother's birthday - throw a sale. I have a new puppy - throw a sale. I think the weather changed - throw a sale. I might eat at a fancy restaurant tonight - throw a sale. Okay, these are exaggerations, but it seems people are throwing sales all the time. You don't need to throw a sale every time the wind changes. That would be a lot here in Indiana. If you have something special you want to celebrate, then by all means do that. If you are throwing a sale just to throw a sale and get customers, don't do it. If you are new, you might be thinking that people will buy from you if it is on sale. Yes, I thought that as well when I was new. It isn't true! I wanted people to buy my resources right away. So I tried to have sales here and there. They never worked. I was a new seller that no one knew and I didn't have a marketing plan. Of course, I didn't think like that. I was just down on myself and my products. I didn't understan...

When writing product descriptions, you are able to use some HTML coding. This will allow you to: 1) bold text 2) italicize text 3) center items 4) create hyperlinks to other products 5) have bullets 6) create decorative separating lines So how do you do it? Be sure to take out the spaces! Bold: < strong>TEXT HERE< /strong> Italics: < em>TEXT HERE< /em> Center: < center>TEXT HERE< /center> Hyperlinks: < a href=INSERT URL HERE>TEXT HERE< /a> You should have a space between a and href. Bullets: Different bullets have different codes. Here are a few examples. Again leave out the spaces. Decorative Separating Lines: Use a repeating bullet or repeating symbol from your keyboard to create separating lines. ****************************************************************************** ◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈ Here are a few websites with different symbols that you can try. character-code.com for arrows Computer Tips Free h...

It takes consistent hard work to make your dreams happen. Keep working hard. Have a great week!...

So you've started selling on TPT. You have a few products in your store. You are ready to sell, sell, sell. You sell an item one day. Maybe two sales another day. You get excited. Maybe this will work. And then ... no sales for several days. Now you are feeling bad about yourself and your store. Maybe this isn't for you. Any of that sound familiar? That's how it goes for most TPT sellers. Selling at TPT is like a roller coaster ride. There will be ups and downs. Some days you'll feel like you're in a spiral downward slide. And some days you'll be thrown for a loop. You have to roll with the ups and downs, the twists and turns. The thing about this roller coaster ride is that it's yours and you are in control. It takes a lot of patience and hard work. You can't get down and out about not making a sale. You can't whine when sales are slow or non-existent. You can't compare your journey to someone else's. We've all been there - no sales days...

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 ...

What are you wanting to accomplish this week? Write it down to keep your goal in mind. Have a great week!...

Many teachers make resources to use in their classroom. I know as a Special Education Resource teacher, I was always creating things for my students due to lack of curriculum, supplies, and just to meet their needs. Now it's time to take those created resources and get them ready to sell. Here are some things to think about before you post an item to sell. 1) Does your product contain original content? You cannot sell a worksheet that you've downloaded from the internet. You cannot retype the workbook page and call it yours. You cannot retype a passage and call it yours. I've created learning centers for my students. I would take a worksheet or workbook page and rewrite the information on cute, themed cards. That was okay as I was just using it in my classroom. I cannot turn around and type it up on cute, themed cards to sell. It wasn't my original content. You need to write your own reading passages, create your own math problems, or write your own social studies ques...

February has come and gone. It's hard to believe it is already March 1st. Hopefully, spring is just around the corner. The first day of the month for me is a day spent charting data and thinking over the previous month. I have a routine that I follow and thought I'd share it. I'm always tweaking my routine, but here is what I am currently doing. I will start by saying that I LOVE data. I track a lot of data. That doesn't mean you have to track everything I mention, but I do suggest taking a look at your numbers. I don't suggest you track numbers you aren't going to look at just to be tracking something. So what do I track? ✎ Amount earned daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly ✎ Average $ Earned Daily/Monthly ✎ Average Number of Products Sold Daily/Monthly ✎ Number of TPT Followers/Votes/Overall Rank/State Rank ✎ Number of Followers on my blog, FB, IG, Google+, each Pinterest board I have for TPT ✎ Number of Products ✎ Number of Each Product Sold Each Month ✎ Num...