How to Get Started on Teachers Pay Teachers - A Classroom on Cloud Nine (2024)

Teachers Pay Teachers has become an anchor in most classrooms and lesson planning these days, but have you ever wondered how to get started on Teachers Pay Teachers as a seller? You could be selling on TPT and making money for the hard work and incredible lessons you’re already creating! First, sign up for your FREE Beginner Sellers TPT Checklist in the box below. It will come straight to your inbox!

Then, read the step by step guide below to help you get started making money on Teachers Pay Teachers. Your dreams are not out of reach! You’re not too late to the party! Let’s do this!

How to Get Started on Teachers Pay Teachers for Beginners

Step 1: Take the (Imperfect) First Step

“Take the first step” may seem like an obvious piece of advice in getting started, but the keyword here is IMPERFECT. Before taking any tangible steps, first, take a deep breath (especially my fellow Type A teachers!). Allow yourself to have some imperfections along the road to being a super seller on TPT. You will make mistakes. You will fail. You will also learn from them and get back up to soar because of it!

Today’s mantra is: take imperfect steps now, and improve on them later. In other words, If you wait until everything is ideal, you may be waiting forever (and therefore losing out on time to make that money, honey!). Allow yourself some grace in the process, and you’ll be successful one (imperfect) step at a time!

Step 2: Sign Up for a PayPal Account

Teachers Pay Teachers pays its sellers through PayPal. If you don’t have one already, you’re going to need a PayPal account. A personal account is all that’s necessary. Click here to get signed up for PayPal, and have your bank account ready to start hearing that *cha-ching*!

Step 3: Sign Up for a Teachers Pay Teachers Free Basic Sellers Account

Next, get ready to check off your to do list, because you’re about to take a BIG step. How to get started on Teachers Pay Teachers? Sign up for a free, basic, sellers account. TPT has two different accounts for Sellers: Free Basic Account and a Premium Account at a cost.

Is TPT Premium worth it? Short answer, ABSOLUTELY- but remember Step 1! Imperfect for now, improve as we go. Therefore, sign up for your Free Basic Sellers Account today, and you can upgrade to premium at a later date (more on that in my next blog post). Click here to sign up!

Step 4: Choose a Store Name

The time has come to make this truly feel real: choosing a store name! While you want to be thoughtful about your choice, you also want to remember Step 1: being imperfect is okay! You can change your name at any point later on and still remain successful.

There are some things to be mindful of as you choose a store name. First, is your name unique? In order to be remembered, you don’t want to be too similar to other sellers. Second, is your name easy to read, say, and thus, remember? Finally, keep in mind your role at school (and perhaps not including it in a store name). Life is unpredictable, and your role may change one day.

In conclusion, do give a store name some thought, but don’t stay here too long. The more steps you take, the closer you are to making that first sale!

Step 5: Create and Upload a Free Product

Finally, the time has come to create your very first product! TPT requires all sellers to create a free product for buyers to see as a sample of your work. Here’s my free product. You can also check out some of my other freebies here if you want to get an idea of the types of things I feel are worth giving away for free to hard working teachers.

First, if you’re a complete newbie, I suggest beginning to create products on Powerpoint. Be mindful of copyright infringement, clipart/font infringement, and being sure to cite/credit any font or clipart creators in your products. Let this first freebie be practice at creating a cover, crediting fellow creators, writing up a description, and overall getting a feel for how to upload a product on TPT. It doesn’t need to be perfect! You can ALWAYS come back and upload a new freebie down the road. I had my original free product up for SIX years before I finally modernized and updated it (and in no way did my original lackluster freebie negatively impact my success or sales!).

CONGRATULATIONS! You are officially a TPT Seller!

WAHOO! You did it! What did you think? What questions do you still have? Let me know in the comments below. I absolutely LOVE talking with teachers and helping them live out the classroom and life (and TPT store!) of their dreams! Make sure to sign up in the box below to have a more detailed Beginner Sellers Checklist sent straight to your inbox! Keep your head in the clouds!