Selling on Teachers Pay Teachers

How to Sell on Teachers Pay Teachers

·       Getting Started: There are two options for selling on teachers pay teachers.

 1.)  Basic- Don’t pay anything, earn 60% of your sales, and pay a $0.30 transaction fee on each sale.  If you do this, don’t price anything under $1.00, because you won’t make any money.

  2.) Premium- Pay $60 for a year-long membership, earn 85% of your sales, and don’t pay any transaction fee. 

Please put my name down for recommending you.  It won’t make any difference in the money you make, but it will help me. Here's the link:  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Signup/referral:MsRachelDale

·       Copyright:  You have to give credit on your documents for every image and font you use.  You can’t use fonts or clipart from Microsoft Word and you can’t use any images from Google.  I learned a lot about copyrighting from Margaret Whisnant's helpful document that you can find here:  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Top-5-Copyright-Questions-for-TpT-TeacherAuthors-258511.

·       Fonts- Downloading fonts is easy and fun.  I get all of my free fonts from www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts.  Another option is www.dafont.com.  

·       Images- Graphics are a little trickier than fonts because making money on an item that uses graphics requires a commercial license.  You either have to buy a commercial license or you can use images from someone who says it’s okay to make a profit while using their graphics.  I use www.etsy.com/shop/kpmdoodles or www.scrappindoodles.com for most of my images; these artists allow teachers to sell without a commercial license.   I have to buy the graphics in sets (around $$3-$6 per set), so I always try to buy graphics that can be used on multiple products.  You must save all of your products and previews as PDF files to lock the images down on the file.   

On the cover page or the last page of your product, give credit to the fonts and images.  Mine says,

Fonts by www.KevinandAmanda.com/fonts

Artwork by KPM Doodles www.kpmdoodles.com Copyright 2010

Artwork by www.scrappindoodles.com

You also need to put your own copyright on each page.  I put it in the footer of each page or use a text box and put it in the bottom corner.  It says, “Copyright © 2013 Rachel Creager.”

You also need to make it so your document can’t be distributed or used by more than one teacher by putting the following statement on your cover page or final page: 

Copyright © 2013 Rachel Creager

All rights reserved by author.

Permission to copy for single classroom use only.

Electronic distribution limited to single classroom use only.

Not for public display.

·       Creating:  I create all of my products in Microsoft Word.  I use a lot of text boxes (use the “draw text box” feature to keep everything from moving when you insert a new text box).  You can make the boxes disappear by right clicking and selecting format text box; change the fill and line color to “No color.”  For all text boxes and images, right click and select text wrapping then choose tight to make it easier to move everything around. 

Save it as a PDF document when you are done. You won’t be able to edit once you do this.

·       Thumbnail photos- In your original Word document, select View and set it to 33%.  Then, open the Snipping Tool on your computer.  Use the Snipping Tool to take pictures of 4 different pages of your document.  Make sure the first one is your cover page.  When uploading your document, you will select the box that lets you upload your own thumbnails (using TPT’s thumbnail generator takes a really long time, so this is easier)  then choose these 4 images. 

·       Preview- Go back to your Word document (not the PDF) and add WordArt over top of the document that says Preview(format it to tight and also right click, select Bring to Front or Order, and choose Bring in Front of Text).  Put it on every page and then save this document as a different PDF document.

·      Pricing: I use a handy pricing chart from Rachel Lynette to help price my products. You can find it here:  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-TpT-Pricing-Charts-for-Sellers-141010.  

·     Upload your documents and then pin them to your classroom Pinterest board to get them circulating to the teachers on Pinterest. 

·     Once you’ve done it a few times, it gets much easier.  If you have questions, let me know.