How to turn classroom resources into TPT products

Hi there,

Does this sound like you?

You’re going to be teaching a concept in the coming weeks, but you just can’t find what you’re looking for. You search on TPT, google, and any other website you can get your hands upon. But you just can’t find the right lesson, worksheet, or activity.

The thing is though, you’re resourceful. Literally. You can the resource yourself, so you do.

You hear about how other teachers are selling their lesson plans and activities on Teachers Pay Teachers, so you think, ‘why not me?’

Well I’m here to help you out. It’s not quite as simple as uploading that document you made. Remember, you’re going to charge someone for this! A hard working teacher somewhere is going to pay you for that resource. It can’t be something they could have thrown together themselves, otherwise they would have! They’ve come to you to make their lives easier and they want quality.

So how do I turn my classroom resources that I have made into TPT products that I can sell?

Here are my tips. Yes, some may take a tiny bit of effort, but it’s worth it if you’re getting paid!

1.) First things first, what’s your competition? What does a ‘good’ resource even look like? What are other people making and selling like hotcakes? So, head over to TPT and research. Look at successful sellers. Download their freebies. DON’T COPY! Just get inspired by the quality. It’s been downloaded 100,00 times and has 6,000 five star reviews? They must be doing something right. Go and see what TPT products are supposed to look like. Because I’m telling you now, it’s not times new roman and dodgy google clip art on Microsoft Word.

2.) Stick around on TPT and get ready to commence a mega download session. You’re going to download a LOT of clip art, borders, frames, and fonts. Don’t worry, it can be free.

There’s great quality free stuff out there. Make sure it is for commercial use and you’re allowed to use it. My go-to clip artists are: Creative Clips, Whimsy Clips, EduClips, and Creating 4 The Classroom.

3.) Now you’re done with TPT, let’s start creating. First, use PowerPoint. Stop using Microsoft Word right now. It’s terrible for dragging things around! So open up PowerPoint and copy and paste your work ASAP if you’ve been using Word.

Make sure that what you have created is attractive. Add the pretty fonts and borders. Use attractive clip art (especially for elementary). Make your activity STUNNING. You’re going to be trying to make someone buy this, remember? You want them to fall in love with it and scream, ‘I need this for my writing lesson on Tuesday!’ If it’s plain, unattractive, or very basic, they could have made it themselves.

What’s next?

4.) So you’ve got a pretty resource now. However, you need to show someone how to use it. Create a cover page with the title, a picture of the resource, and some instructions.

5.) You’ll need what’s called a credits page next. Simply a place where you say thank you for downloading, link to your social media accounts if you have them, remind customers to leave a review, credit your clip artists, and write a terms of use. You can credit the clip artists by inserting a picture of their logo and hyperlinking to their store.

A terms of use can be a brief paragraph about how people don’t own your work and they shouldn’t share it or steal it. Sounds a bit overwhelming? Check out the credits pages of other sellers.

6.) The next step is protecting your work and securing it. The world is an unscrupulous place. People can and will steal your stuff. They can and will lift your clip art (which violates the clip artist’s terms of use). So flatten it! Simply save your slides as jpegs.

Create a blank PowerPoint and re-insert the jpegs on the slides. Save as a PDF. In terms of claiming your work as your own? Add your copyright info onto every page, nice and small at the bottom (copyright symbol + your store name + the year).

Voila! That’s the basics, so do those steps and ensure you’ve got a product worthy of TPT. Remember, the golden rule is this –

Make something good quality that someone will want to PAY for!

I hope you’ve found this helpful, however, if you’re looking for more tips and advice, join the Terrific Selling Tactics community by signing up with your email HERE and get tips straight to your inbox!

Make sure to also follow me on Instagram @terrificsellingtactics. It is full of FREE tips and advice for sellers making TPT products!

Thanks for reading!