Have you ever wondered about the Teachers Pay Teachers process for content creation? I’m going to walk you through the whole process for one of my 4th grade resources on the Civil War!
I know Teachers Pay Teachers may seem like it’s saturated, but if you know how to market yourself and your products, there’s definitely a place for you! While blogs, Instagram, and Pinterest are helpful, truly the most important aspect of having a successful product is the Teachers Pay Teachers listing itself!
TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS PROCESS
STEP 1: CONTENT IDEA
Everyone has a different process, but I specifically use the Georgia state standards to search for content I know teachers NEED. Making what you want may seem fun, but teachers buy what THEY need.
Once I know my content, I decide on a learning activity. Am I creating a gallery walk? Learning stations? PowerPoint presentation? Virtual field trip? Game? For this product, I decided on an interactive notebook. The content lends itself to graphic organizers, so an interactive notebook is perfect. I always include the actual content students need to learn (rather than just the activity), so I decided I would create two documents. The first was a set of readings, and the second was a set of interactive notebook pages that go hand-in-hand with the readings.
STEP 2: GENERAL DESIGN
My next tip is to use PowerPoint to make ALL of your products. It allows you more design flexibility, and you don’t have to deal with any annoying pre-set text or image behavior like you do in a Word document.
For this product, I used green corners on the pages of readings and a full dashed border on the interactive notebook pages. I played with the look of it for far too long, and I suggest you find a template that works for you and don’t waste time on this step. I should take my own advice!
STEP 3: PRODUCT FINISHING TOUCHES
Okay so far in our Teachers Pay Teachers process we’ve come up with an idea, a delivery style, and a design. Add your content. (I wish I could do that part for you, but THAT’S ALL YOU!)
Check if your product needs any sprucing up. Do the fonts look good together? (TPT stores A Perfect Blend and Golly Miss Mollie sell fonts that go well together! Or just pick one fancy font and one standard font and move on.)
Edit for grammatical errors. (They’re there. Go check.)
Add your terms of use, link other products you’ve made, and add a credits page for your fonts and clipart. Below are the ones I included in the Civil War resource!
Save your work as a PDF to protect YOUR work and the work of any clipart artists included in your product. If you want to keep clickable links and moveable pieces, I suggest buying Flat Pack.
STEP 4: COVERS, THUMBNAILS, AND A PREVIEW
Like I mentioned earlier, everything with the Teachers Pay Teachers process is easier with a template. Get a template for your covers. Keep it simple: a large title and visible images of the product. Take a look at the process I used to make my cover image
For a cover image:
For a thumbnail:
For the preview:
There are several ways to make a product preview. I used to not showcase the whole product in the preview. I think that was a mistake because teachers want to know exactly what they’re getting.
Here are three examples of how I do previews.
THE LAZY ONE
In PowerPoint, choose the Slide Sorter view and grab a screenshot of all of your slides! Now, many TPT creators believe this to be less professional. And they may be right. But when you’re short on time, this preview shows buyers exactly what they’re getting with little stress on your part.
THE SCREENSHOT COLLAGE:
While this is essentially the same concept, it looks slightly more professional. I took individual screenshots of each slide (it’s a small product). Then, I arranged them in front of the same background you can find on the product’s cover image. It looks a little more put-together, which may help convince a buyer.
THE PREVIEW VIDEO
Preview videos initially scared me. But they’re actually not too difficult to make! I simply record my screen (can be done with Screen-o-Matic or Screen Castify), crop the video, and place it over a mockup photo. Right now, I use Movavi to edit videos…I can speed up the video, remove/add sound, and add transitions. Teachers Pay Teachers has said that video previews don’t necessarily result in better conversion rates. But since I also use videos for Pinterest, I go ahead and make at least one video per product so I can use it when I have the time!
STEP 5: UPLOAD TO TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS
This step takes longer than you’d think! It’s also where you can ensure buyers find your product by using good titles and descriptions.
TITLE
Nothing cutesy here! Your title should be something teachers are typing into the search box. So instead of “Survival Mission: Civil War” for a gamefied Civil War lesson, I would write “Civil War Causes, Effects, and Events 4th Grade Interactive Notebook SS4H5.” Those are the words teachers might use to search for activities. They’ll never find the “Survival Mission” title because it will be buried in pages and pages of listings.(SS4H5 is a Georgia state standard. While my products are easily used in any state, I make them with the GA standards in mind. So I include a standard in the title that a teacher might search.)
DESCRIPTION
Keywords, keywords, keywords! Again, I fill this section out with words I think teachers will type into the search box! Here’s an example:
“This engaging Civil War interactive notebook activity is great for your 4th grade social studies class! Print or digital interactive notebook activities are included for major causes, events, & effects of the Civil War. (SS4H5 for GA teachers, but this product is for everyone!) Cutting & gluing is NOT necessary with these ready-to-use printouts, but you CAN cut and glue if that’s your jam. These 4th grade Civil War readings and Civil War activities are perfect for your next social studies class!”
I used this description in a Pinterest listing, and Pinterest will read it and send anyone searching for those words/phrases my way!
MORE DETAILS
Before I’m done, I have to choose categories, activity type, length of lesson, pricing, and many other things that buyers use to filter their searches or determine if the activity is a good fit.
Then I submit!
STEP 6: ONLINE MARKETING
I’m new to this aspect of the Teachers Pay Teachers process. I reached a plateau in sales several months back, and the more research I did on improving, the more I learned that I needed to utilize online marketing tools! I didn’t do everything at once. I started using Pinterest several months ago. And only recently have I added Instagram and blogging!
So now my process includes making three pins per product and scheduling them out so they don’t all pin at the same time. (There’s a free scheduling tool in Pinterest!)
Then, I create an Instagram post using the same image as my product cover! No need to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes I write a blog post about the product and sometimes I don’t. I haven’t quite figured out my blogging style yet, so this will definitely change over time.
It takes me about 7-10 days to put out a new product that has quality images, pins, Instagram posts, and a relevant blog post. I’m sure this process will get faster the more I practice! I also only put about 10-15 hours towards TPT each week, so that affects my turnover rate as well. And that’s my whole Teachers Pay Teachers process!
What part of the Teachers Pay Teachers process do you struggle with? Leave a comment below!
