You may feel overwhelmed when starting your store on Teachers Pay Teachers. It seems like there’s so much to do. Products to create, designing your store, creating a logo; the list goes on and on. Take a minute to read some tips for staying on track and staying calm, cool, and collected.
Don’t Get Discouraged
One of the most important things to remember when starting on TPT is not to get discouraged! Keep your eyes steady on the prize and don’t get distracted by others. You will see and hear about hundreds of success stories.
You have to realize that your journey is your own and no one else. It takes some people a while to reach amazing milestones and others a shorter time. When first starting out, it’s human nature to want to compare yourself to others. There will always be someone ahead of you; know that you will get there in time. Just focus on being the best that you can be. Good things come to those who wait. Slow and steady wins the race on TPT.
Waiting for that first sell
You’ve spent forever working on your first product for TPT. You’re waiting on your product to sell and you’re waiting on your free product to be downloaded. But it’s not. Now what? Again, remember that patience is a virtue. It will happen, just not when and how you think it should.
I must have spent days and hours laboring over my first TPT product. Mostly because I didn’t know what I was doing and it took me even longer to figure things out. I must have reinvented the wheel at least a half dozen times (without meaning to!) After spending literally days trying to perfect my product, it was time to create my free product. I threw my free product together in less than half an hour. Do you know that it continues to be one of my most downloaded products to this day? It boggled my mind. How could something I spent days developing not sell at all, but something I put together in minutes fly off the shelves? That’s one of the things about TPT. It cannot be predicted. One could argue….was my product being downloaded because it was free…or because it really was that good? It’s hard to say! It’s hard to tell what will sell and what won’t. Don’t get discouraged, just keep moving ahead!
Fair Pricing
Speaking of laboring over your products… Pricing is (for me) the most difficult part of TPT. You don’t want to just give your product away, but you don’t want to price yourself out of business. Your pricing should match up to the quality and content of the product. There are tons of pricing guides and you can do a search on TPT to find the one right for you. Be sure to factor out how much work it took to make the product. This is huge! Try not to factor in the days, hours, sweat, and tears that it took me to make the product. Do a search on comparable products, to get an idea on pricing. Look at the amount of pages and quality of work. Make sure that your prices are comparable.
The Value of the Forums
One thing you will read and hear people say, is that you must visit the forums. This is 110% true. I didn’t start visiting the forums until several months later. So start off better than me and go to the forums immediately! You gain insight and learn ways to improve your craft. It is such a supportive community and people are ready and willing to help you out.
Don’t Fret Over Followers
Buyers will begin to appreciate the quality of your work and will become repeat buyers. Then over time, you will begin to build a following. It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen. Let followers happen naturally.
