TpT Town Hall, February 20, 2025
The town hall that just took place was full of great and exciting information. They are working on fixing TpT access, they updated us on their success with getting rid of fake / spam accounts, and they will be launching a Seller Super Power Project in the near future.
Seller Super Power Project
The Seller Super Power Project will equip us with advertising opportunities, promotional, tools, and better ways to read and interpret our data. More posts will come throughout the year on this new resources.
TpT Expansion
Another big takeaway is that TpT’s goal is expansion. They are looking for a new burst of innovation to grow the platform and find new customers; as over 85% of teachers in the United States are already using the platform.
To accomplish this goal, they are looking for a “burst” of new innovation. Part of that burst will be to allow us to sell “new products and services not currently possible on the current platform.”
I would love to hear your thoughts on what that could mean, I will share mine with you in our Facebook group.
Updates to the Platform
Buyer and Seller Signup Flow
Currently, the signup page for buyers is a but cumbersome and chunky, likely leading to some lost revenue as potential buyers abandon the registration process. This will change, be much simpler and look a lot better.
There will be a similar update for the seller signup page.
TEKS Science Standards
They are updating the TEKS Science Standards, which is something that a lot of sellers and buyers have been requesting for a while.
Tags and Filters System
New tags and filters are being added to the TpT product page based on buyer behavior and the current inventory of TpT products. And some are being removed due to redundancy. This will help improve our product listings’ SEP and help buyers find the perfect product for them.
The current tags are being rearranged into more appropriate sections as well.
The new tags (or at least some of the new tags) being added will be
- Theme
- Audience
- Language
- Programs and methods
- Individualized learning
Keep watching the TpT sellers’ blog post for more information, which will also come in your email from TpT.
Finally, we can change the file format tag. Currently, it auto populates when you upload the product, which is not always best. Now, you can edit this section and include more than one file type. This will be nice for those of us who compress files into a zipped drive. Currently, when we do that, the file format says “zipped” but now we can change that to say; “PDF, jpeg, and PPT” or whatever is appropriate for the resource you upload.
Product Page Updates
This is the big one!
The TpT Product page is changing! More information about the product is being moved up the page, above the scroll.
The layout is changing. First, and most obvious, is that the thumbnails will be more prominent. They will appear larger on the page and next to the cover image. More information on the thumbnails below.
The discount will also be more obvious. The product description and reviews are moving up as well, so that the buyer can see them more quickly, instead of having to scroll so far down the page. And the bundle that this product is included in is moving and changing as well.
Another big change is that the seller’s bio will appear on every product page. So if you haven’t filled this out, you should.
Preview Page and Thumbnails
Currently, when you hover over a thumbnail or click on the image, it appears on the product page in place of the cover image. This will no longer be the case.
When the new page is rolled out this Spring, your thumbnails will now appear with your preview file. The four thumbnails will be enlarged and combined onto one page at the top of your preview file.
If a customer clicks on one of your thumbnails, the preview file will open. This will have all four thumbnails enlarged and combined on the top page, and if the buyer scrolls down, they will see your preview file.
If the customer clicks on the “view preview” button, it will again open this file with your thumbnails and preview file combined, but it will open up, scrolled down on the file, to the preview section. The customers can scroll up to see the thumbnails.
If you would like to see the video of what this preview file looks like in action, click here.
NOTE: The file sizes and formats for your thumbnails and preview files are not changing. You don’t need to take any action if your thumbnails and preview files are already up to date and high quality.
For more help on preview files and thumbnails, read these articles:
TpT Algorithm
The town hall emphasized that there are no changes happening to the TpT Algorithm.
For more information on how the TpT Algorithm changed in 2023 to a “personalized search” format, watch this video:
Key Take Aways
- Make sure your thumbnails look great, and that they differ from your preview file
- I think (not said at the town hall) that you should have three thumbnail images. I think if you don’t, when it combines them and pulls them into your preview file, there will be a white space which won’t look good.
- Update your personal profile on your TpT page
- Use the tags that they give you, this will help with SEO and getting more traffic to your products
- Try to get more positive reviews by adding a request on your thank you page or to your download.