Should I Start a Summer Side Hustle on TPT?

Kirsten 0:09

This is the social studies teacher podcast, a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm Kirsten, the southern teach, an educator and mom who is passionate about all things, social studies, I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.

well to this would be a really great starting point. So going in your desktop or going in your computer drive just to see what resources you've created for your classroom just kind of on the fly, and seeing if it's something that you could sell. Also think about your own strengths, or what others already come to you for. And then be honest with yourself. So are your strengths in math? Are they creating posters for bulletin boards? Are you good at hand lettering, because you can use hand lettering and create your own fonts with that. So there is a market for your strengths, you just got a think about what's available. And even if there are a lot of resources similar to what you want to sell, think about how you can make it in your own twist without copying. And we'll talk about that later, because you do not want to copy, but you want to give it your own personal touch your own personal spin. So that's step one, have an idea of what you want to sell. Step two, would be to sign up for a free account. And if you've already been on TPT, you likely already have a free account if you already have purchased things from TPT. But now it's time to be a seller instead of a buyer. Step number three, decide on a store name, Google Search possible names would also be helpful to search in TPT. So that you can avoid being making sure you don't have the same name as somebody else or that name, they're gonna let you know if the name is already taken, but just make sure that it doesn't coincide or too similar with somebody else. Also, just to avoid being too specific, like adding a specific grade level or a specific name, if you know, maybe you're gonna get married. So think about a nice store name, make sure it's concise. And it can give a fun spin on it depending on how you want your brand to be. But make sure it's available throughout the platforms like social media, Instagram, all of that good stuff. Decide on what your store name is going to be. Do not overthink this. Step number four would be to familiarize yourself with copyright and trademark rules. TPT has a really great resource on their website where you can read their FA Q's, and make sure your ideas do not violate the specific rule. So you can go into TPT FAQs in selling. And you'll be able to find that I also have a special resource for you where I will make sure that document is linked in there. So you can check out my show notes for more information on how to get that free resource that'll take you directly to that link for teachers pay teacher's on copyright and trademark rules. Alright, step number five would be to create a simple logo. And when you're just starting off, it does not have to be super fancy, it can be super simple. My TPT logo was a background screenshot for multiple years, which I'm not even sure if I should have done that. But I didn't even have the southern teach it was just a random picture. Because I didn't want to show my face, create a simple logo from PowerPoint, if you want to get it done, or you are would rather somebody do it for you, you're not the best at designing things. I actually do TPT logos and banners for TPT sellers. So you can always check out that as well. If you just go on my TPT store, it's on my first page, you'll be able to find the custom TPT logo and banner design and I will do it for you. So yours truly can help you out with that. All right. Step six would be to create your resource using PowerPoint, no word here, many, many people have started out with Microsoft Word. But there are so much more functions and so much more things you can do in PowerPoint, believe it or not, you won't have nearly as many formatting issues in PowerPoint as if you were to do it in Word. And all you have to do if you do have it in Word as you just copy and paste it in, add text boxes, you can add borders, all of that good stuff. So just make sure you if you have any resources that you want to sell that's in Word, or in another platform, make sure you convert it to PowerPoint. Step number seven is to invest in clipart and fonts. So I highly suggest going into TPT and finding free clipart and free fonts. So you can just type in fonts or you know, if you have a specific resource, let's say for fall, you can type in Fall clipart and you can specify it to be a free product. Those are some really great ways you can get some free clipart resources. But really if you see a TPT font artist or TPT clip artists that you really like

Find they're free. They're free resources, download those all and utilize them until you feel it necessary to invest in it. Just make sure to read the Terms of Use because every font artists and clip artists is different. Some allow for commercial use, which means you can use them in your resources and sell them on Teachers Pay Teachers, and others may only allow a personal classroom license. So you cannot sell the resource after unless you purchase a license from them. All right, step number eight is to start listing your product, your first product must be free, try listing one free and one paid product, you're going to need at least a product cover and some thumbnails to start with. So I'm a big proponent of revitalizing your product listings. But when you get started, it can be really overwhelming. But I highly recommend creating your product listings. In PowerPoint, all you need for a product covering thumbnail is a square cover. So you just need to make sure the slide size is set to square 12 by 12 dimensions, super easy, you can add in the title in your product cover of your resource, maybe take a picture or screenshot and add that in. And then the thumbnail could just contain some features or specific highlights of your resource and what it's all about. And you don't have to use all three thumbnail images. If especially if it's maybe just a parent letter or something like that, you can just use maybe one or two thumbnails. So don't try to get too fancy with it, just make sure you have something that's listed for your product cover so people can kind of see what it's like. Alright, step nine would be to publish your product listing. Thinking about your title, you want to make it super straightforward. Try to avoid any cutesy titles, it just has to be exactly what the customer would be trying to search for. And then with your description, make sure you add some detail about what is in your product, why it would be helpful for those teachers, what they could get out of it, how their students might learn from it, all of those types of things. And then just making sure that you're checking the appropriate grade levels that it's for. So really target. If it's really mostly better for third, fourth and fifth grade parents or third grade students, then you want to make sure you're just checking those specific grade levels. So making sure you are adding as much as you can as much information so that they can land on the top pages of the search results. And it's easy for other people to find you. And then the last step, step number 10 would be to share it with others start sharing with family, or teacher friends. Or if you have an Instagram or Facebook page share that you finally posted a product spread the word More times than not a lot of people will be very supportive, like oh, you just started a TPT store. That's really cool. Um, some family members may not even know what teachers pay teacher's says. And that's, you know, that's a thing that's normal. But definitely share it, don't try to keep it a secret, try to share it with other people that you know, if you're looking for more tips on selling on TPT, and starting a store, and all that good stuff, I do have a nother podcast called The creative teacher podcast, you can binge listen to a ton of episodes that I have related to selling on TPT and marketing for TPT. So I'm just plugging in my other podcast for you. And it's something you can possibly think about and consider into the summer months because it is the end of May. And I know that you know, you might have a little bit more time on hand. So I just wanted to kind of do a plug on my other podcast. If you may or may not know I do help other TPT sellers as well as helping you guys social studies teachers or upper elementary teachers. So hopefully this episode was useful to you or just maybe something you learned about getting started with a TPT store. If you're still not interested. That's totally fine. But I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and I will talk to you again next week. Thanks for listening to the social studies teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, hit that subscribe button and leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I can't wait for you to join me in the next episode. For more teacher tips and strategies