Many teachers tell me that they can’t start selling on TpT because they’re not good at graphic design.
I have 5 reasons why that shouldn’t stop you
1 – It’s not that Big of a Deal
Yes, most of the best-selling products on TpT look beautiful. It’s part of the reason we saw all those memes once upon a time about our classrooms being Pinterest worthy.
But not everything on TpT is beautiful. Some of it is bland, plain, and simple. And that’s okay too. If you have something good to sell, the lack of a beautiful image is not going to turn someone away.
My first product on TpT was a Reteach Worksheet for Adding Integers. The worksheet was pretty good, if you ask me. And I sold enough of them to start making a small income, which motivated me to create and sell more products.
But you should have seen that first product! I had no cover image, no border, and no clipart! At the time, I didn’t even provide an answer sheet! But you know what? I put it on the website and it started making money in spite of that – because it was a decent product.
So you can sell something, even if it isn’t beautiful!
2 – It’s an Easy Skill to Learn
I recently spoke at my school’s NHS induction ceremony. I spoke on leadership.
I told the students that most people just do what everyone else is doing, except they try to do it faster, better, or first – and they call this leadership. I gave lots of humorous examples that I won’t relay here. Afterwards, I turned the conversation to cellphones. I spoke about how incredible they are.
Did you know, that with just a few clicks of a button, and a few minutes or hours invested, you can learn just about anything – and usually without spending any money. You could learn coding, website design, app creation, video production, a foreign language, anything! But you know what most of us are doing with these life-changing devices? Watching YouTube videos of dancing cats. Playing games. Scrolling on social media.
Graphic Design is not a terribly hard thing to learn. There are courses online that will teach you. There are YouTube videos that will give you the basics. There are even websites that will do most of the work for you.
Don’t let this easy-to-learn skill hold you back.
I have created an online course just for you, to teach you how to get started and be successful on Teachers Pay Teachers. In it, I will teach you the graphic design skills that you will need. Learn more about the course at the bottom of the page.
3 – There are plenty of free resources to help you
There are websites like Canva that will help you create beautiful images that you can use as your cover images for TpT. You don’t have to know how to use Photoshop or even PowerPoint. It’s basically just dragging and dropping stuff that comes out looking really good. And it’s free!
There are other websites with similar features, but Canva is by far the most recommended.
Plus, in my online course, part of the 30 day calendar that we go by has you register for a free Canva account. So go ahead and open a free Canva account now.
4 – Most of the Images are just Words Anyways
It’s true. Go over to TpT and look for something. Whatever skill you’re working on in class tomorrow, just type it into the search bar and what will you see? Tons of products listed out with their thumbnail image next to them. And the thumbnail images? The majority of them are dominantly words! And putting words onto a colored screen is not terribly difficult.
5 – I will Show You the Basics
I have an online class that will walk you through the steps of opening a TpT store, making products, uploading them, and driving traffic to them that will start generating you money.
It’s called “Your First $1,000 on TpT“
We will be walking through this process together. Part of the course will be helping you create products that are TpT worthy – so I will be showing you how to do the graphic design you need to be successful
You’re already a great teacher. Now let’s make some extra money off of these great resources.
If you would like to join me, sign up here.
This course is only offered twice a year. So click the link above to get on the waiting list and receive an email when the course goes live.
After you do that – and while you’re waiting for the course to begin – download the free eBook.
