A blog is one of the best things that you can do to increase your sales on Teachers Pay Teachers. Here are 8 reasons why you need to start a blog today.
Blog Posts get Better Share Statistics
In my class, Your First $1,000 on Teachers Pay Teachers, I show the teachers my Pinterest stats from three Pins that were shared at the same time. The first is a link to a TpT product, and it received less than 50 views on Pinterest. On the same date, I shared a blog post to an article on my blog about the TpT product. The article merely talks about the TpT product and then links you to it (nothing great or fancy). The blog post link had two different images, both received over 500 views on Pinterest.
500 views to a blog post versus 50 views to a TpT product. Pinterest definitely favors links to blog posts over Teachers Pay Teachers products.
I’ve noticed similar results on other social media platforms as well.
Blog Posts don’t Feel Spammy when Shared on Social Media
I have a TpT product for adding integers. If someone asks a question on Facebook about adding integers, and I share the TpT product, it comes across as salesy instead of helpful. If, however, I share a link to a blog post called “3 great ways to teach Adding Integers.” They will thank me for the great resource.
Now the blog post I made about adding integers has value on its own. It teaches and helps teachers. But, it also has links to my TpT product, which helps me generate sales.
A Blog Builds Authority and Brand Recognition
Because blog posts get better share statistics and don’t come across as spammy, they are seen more than your TpT store. This helps it become familiar in the eyes and minds of potential customers. They will start to recognize your website as they see it in more places, which will help with brand recognition – which in turn helps with sales as people are more likely to purchase from something that they recognize.
Blogs give you more ways to connect with Customers
When someone visits my TpT store, they see what the site wants them to see. Which is usually my product, its description (which I can hyperlink to other products) and related products they might be interested in.
However, if they’re on my blog page, they can see the things I want them to see. So I can promote the TpT products I think are best, plus I can show off their images as well. I can also promote other things on my blog – like Amazon Merch, affiliate links, or Google advertising.
Beyond the sharing of other products, I can give viewers of my blog multiple opportunities to connect with me. I can link to my Facebook or Twitter profile, link to my free newsletter, or invite them to follow me on Instagram or YouTube. All of these ways to connect help me build authority and create more contacts with them, so they are more likely to buy my products.
Blogs Have More Ways to Generate an Income
As mentioned above, I am not limited to TpT products from my blog. I can advertise, promote affiliate products or merchandise, or even sell services from my blog.
A Blog allows you to Collect Emails
How do you promote your Teachers Pay Teachers products? On social media, where you hope teachers will stumble upon it and investigate?
How else?
If you have a blog, you have a way to capture email addresses. Which means you can promote your products to your customers anytime you like, by emailing it to them.
Obviously, there is more to email marketing then just sending out an email, but you can’t do any of that without a blog.
Blogs Give you More Opportunities to Promote your Product
If you build a great resource, how many ways can you promote it?
On teachers pay teachers, you can get one page for it. That’s one product description and a few images. You can, of course, create new Pin images so that you can have more opportunities that way. But with a blog, you have infinite ways to promote.
For example, I already alluded to an adding integers resource on my TpT store. How many blog posts can I write about adding integers? I already have several. I have an article about why students struggle to add integers, one called ‘3 different ways to teach adding integers’ and one dedicated to teaching integers through learning stations (the product I’m trying to sell).
Beyond those three, I have other articles that allude to adding integers. For example, in any article that I write about subtracting integers (which I also have a resource for) I will include the following: ‘If you’re student is struggling with subtracting integers, part of the problem might be that they still can’t add integers. Here’s a great resource to help.’
And I can do this over and over again with lots of different articles.
Here’s another bonus idea. I have a blog post where I give away a free four-day lesson plan for adding integers. It’s a free download. However, when people download it, I get their email, and they are automatically sent emails for my adding integers resource on Teachers Pay Teachers.
So I get their email and I get to promote several of my products – neither of which could I do without a blog.
The Biggest Money Maker
The one thing that I did that had the biggest impact on my TpT income was I added a “SHOP” button to the menu on my blog. When people click on it, they are automatically taken to my TpT page. Now, everyone who visits my blog sees this button and has the option to go to my TpT store.
CONLCUSION
You need a blog to help you get traffic generate sales on Teachers Pay Teachers. You don’t need to be a blog expert, or blog every day (or even every week). But having a blog will help you immensely.
