Want to make money selling on Teachers Pay Teachers?
If you’re reading this, I’m guessing two things:
1.) You’re a new TPT seller and,
2.) You’re debating whether to upgrade to premium.
Well if you’re stuck with indecision, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.

What is the difference between basic and premium?
They say a picture says one thousand words…so let this picture do the talking.

Why do you need to upgrade?
It all comes down to the payout rate. Let’s just say you spend HOURS creating a resource. You pour your heart and soul into it. You price it at $3 and you make…$1.65. But you keep creating. You spend weeks making a unit of work and upload it for $10. It takes ages to sell but when it does you’re SO excited! Then you realize that you only made $5.50.
The basic membership can be heartbreaking. It robs you. But this is intentional. TPT only wants people who are serious about selling. They know that by upgrading to premium, you are serious about this. You’re invested now.
Don’t waste time creating beautiful resources and lose money. Get your 80% cut. You’re worth it.
What if I don’t feel comfortable paying the upgrade fee?
I know how you feel. It feels like a big amount of money. Some people also have the mantra of, ‘I haven’t even earned $60 yet!’. But guess what? It’s pretty hard to earn $60 when you’re only keeping 55% of your profits on the basic plan. You’re going to need to make over $100 in earnings to get that $60. By then, you’ve lost crazy amounts of money by not upgrading. The weird irony is that once you upgrade and hand over that $60, you make it back pretty quick.
Here’s an example to open your eyes.
Let’s meet Sarah.
Sarah doesn’t want to pay the $60 to upgrade. It sounds like a lot of money. She says, ‘I’ll wait until I make $60, if not more, in earnings before I upgrade!’
It takes her weeks to sell anything (which is normal). After MONTHS and months, she manages to sell $109 worth of products. This is what she needs to cover the fee (due to her keeping 55% of her earnings on the basic plan). She’s finally got her $59.95. But in the meantime, she feels discouraged and dejected. Every time she sells something, she barely makes any money. Worse, if she hands over that premium fee now after MONTHS, she’s left with NOTHING! She gives up on TPT.
Now let’s meet Lucy.
Lucy is worried about spending $60 but after making some resources, she bites the bullet and upgrades.
It takes her a few weeks to make sales (which is normal). But when the sales start coming in, she keeps 80% of her profit. She enjoys that ca-ching! Lucy loves reading her sales emails and checking her dashboard. She only has to sell $75 worth of products to make the membership fee back. If she thinks about it, she realizes that $60 a year is only $5 a month. If she earns $5 a month, that covers the fee! She’s excited every time she sells something and watches her monthly totals grow!
The important thing in those examples isn’t just that Lucy earns the fee back quicker than Sarah. It’s that by keeping 80% of her profits, Lucy feels excited by TPT and rewarded for her hard work. Whereas Sarah gives up because she is literally broke at the end of it.
I’m yet to meet a person who says, ‘I regret upgrading to premium’.
I, along with every TPT seller I have ever met, have chorused the same thing – ‘I wish I upgraded sooner!’
Are you looking for more tips and advice?
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I hope you found this post helpful, I can’t wait to share more tips!
Alex.
Pss! Join my free Facebook group here to learn more about selling on TPT.
[…] getting yourself ready. But you WILL need to upgrade after those first few weeks. Check out my blog post about why you need to upgrade. The image below is for your […]