Teachers, did you know that you could have hundreds of dollars stored in your computer files? Homeschooling parents, did you know that you could earn hundreds of dollars from activities and worksheets that you created for your children?
How can you earn money from items you have already made? Simple.
What Is Teachers Pay Teachers?
Teachers Pay Teachers is an online store that connects educators with products created by other educators. After all, wouldn’t you rather help out a fellow teacher than line the pockets of textbook companies?
Last year I began searching for ways to earn some passive income–money that could be gained for an indefinite period of time from a small amount of work done once. Teachers Pay Teachers perfectly fits this mold.
I already had worksheets, quizzes, literature units, games, etc. that I had created over my years teaching middle school. I simply had to update/ revise them, add some graphics, and add them to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
The Ultimate Guide to Earning Money on Teachers Pay Teachers
Today I wanted to give you some tips for getting started with the program.
How to Get Started
1. Create an Account
Click on this link to go to the website. It is absolutely free to make an account, so no worries there!
2. Select Seller Upgrade
You will be asked what kind of account you wish to make. I recommend starting with the Seller Upgrade Account. This is a free account through which you can upload your products and access your sales information.
If you find that you are making enough money to justify the expense, you might consider upgrading to the Premium Seller Upgrade for $60. With the Premium Seller upgrade, you earn more in royalties and do not pay transaction fees. However, if you are just getting started, the Free Seller Upgrade is completely fine.
3. Complete Your Profile
Choose a name for your store. This could be your actual name or a creative one. You may want to check out what others have named their stores so that you don’t duplicate.
Also, you will want to upload a picture for your profile. This is what buyers will see when they are choosing your product, so make it personal but professional. It could be a graphic or a photograph.
4. Link to Your Paypal Account
You will be paid through Paypal–a secure online transaction company. If you do not already have a Paypal account, you can click on the link provided at Teachers Pay Teachers to set one up. I have had a Paypal account for years and have never experienced any problems.
5. Create Your Free Product
Every seller is required to create a free product for their store. This allows potential buyers to assess the quality of your work. It also allows thousands of teachers free access to a great product.
Make sure that your free product is of high quality with no spelling or grammatical errors. You’ll want to make it visually appealing and a good representation of the types of products you will be posting. (For example, if you are an expert at teaching elementary math, it wouldn’t make sense to have your free product be a game about the water cycle!) You can see my free product here.
6. Don’t Be Overwhelmed
If you begin perusing all of the TPT products out there, you can easily become overwhelmed. There are so many high-quality products with amazing graphics that you can wonder how yours will stand out.
Take it slow. Upload one product a week, spending a little time making each one excellent. I don’t have tons of graphics on my products, nor do I have hundreds of products. However, I am still able to make sales.
Remember, once your product is live on the site, you can earn money from it indefinitely. I posted my first product over a year ago. I spent around two hours revising it, adding graphics, and playing with fonts, etc. Now, each month I earn several dollars on that single product. Those dollars add up over the course of the year. Not bad for a few hours of work!
So, what are you waiting for? Go check out Teachers Pay Teachers!
Have you sold with Teachers Pay Teachers? What tips do you have?
(This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more details.)
Thanks for posting! I think I may just try this! Have a ton of worksheets!
I hope that you do, Lanise! It’s nice to have a side source of income. Last summer I spent time on several literature units and have seen good results from them.
I visited TPT a while back and thought it was such a great idea! I’m not a teacher but the hubby is a vice principal. I wonder if I could get him to do something. Lol! He needs a little more to do;0)
I have really had a good experience with TPT. I especially love that I can work on it only as much as I want! Right now I only have 9 items in my store, but I still have sales every month. One of my goals this year, though, is to add 10 new products to my store. I’ve done four so far! I’m sure your husband has items he could do with very little work. And like you said, principals have so much time 🙂