TPT ROCKS! BUT YOU DON'T OWN IT...
Selling on Teachers Pay Teachers is great. I love it and owe so much to the opportunities they have given me, and I am sure you feel the same!
It’s just important to be aware that while it’s very possible that you can be very successful for years on end, it’s also important to recognize that if TpT decide to change something drastic (and they can), your business as you know it could end overnight.
If you’ve been around in the teacher seller space for the past few years, you might recall a site called Teacher’s Notebook. A lot of TpT sellers were also housing their resources there too, but in September 2018 it shut down. Completely gone. Vanished. Kaput. Sayonara.
That means everyone who relied on that site as their income stream had the rug pulled from under them in a flash and there wasn’t anything anyone could do about it.
A few months later, the same thing happened to Educents.com and TeachWise.com. I’m sure they aren’t the only ones.
So all that time spent transferring uploading to those sites – wasted time.
All those pins – now redundant and being directed to dead space.
All that marketing and brand awareness invested – vanished without a trace.
That income stream – gone. Overnight.
You have no control when you are renting land on someone else’s site and tomorrow’s success there is NEVER guaranteed.
You may get your TpT store banned some day from too many strikes, they may demand greater commission (which actually happened recently too) or they may decide to change to a subscription site (which is also in the works now) and all that could mean that you no longer make the kind of money you used to.
At the end of the day, it’s their prerogative to do whatever they want with the site and there’s nothing you can do about it.
This is why the only way to make sure your business can LAST is to diversify and branch out.
The fastest and easiest way you can do that is by selling your teaching resources in a range of different marketplaces.
BRANCH OUT TO DIFFERENT TEACHERPRENEUR MARKETPLACES
Over the past few years since TpT’s success has become more spoken about in the news and media, more and more marketplaces are starting to emerge to get a piece of the pie!
Not all are created equal however, and it is worth being selective about which sites you choose to sell on.
You don’t want to invest previous time, effort and money into building a new store to have it all just shut down overnight… Believe me. It sucks.
There are a few good different ones to choose from however, and it’s pretty low hanging fruit in that it’s an easy thing to set up and branch out with.
The benefits are that you already have all your teaching resources created so it’s literally a case of copying and pasting the content over to a new platform.
You could DIY this yourself adding a few products each day, you could hire the job out to a VA.
It’s also convenient for you, because the chances are other platforms offer a different audience.
For example, TES began their eCommerce site only a few years ago already having an extremely well established UK based audience who had been downloading user uploaded freebies for many, many years.
Over the past few years they’ve been making an effort to go global and have almost 12 million users on their site so far.
This means that even if you don’t do any fancy promotions or make any effort other than having your resources there, you are still able to expose your work to a wider audience and earn passively from them.
The cons to this are it’s very time consuming moving your resources over to a new platform, some charge more commission and you can never be sure of the longevity of the business.
You also need to consider whether the company is something you want to support. Could its success actually destroy TpT?
That is certainly something you don’t want, so choosing where you sell your teaching resources does take some care and consideration.
Remember, you don’t have to have your content everywhere and you might not earn the same across all platforms, but at least you can reach a wider audience.
WHERE ELSE CAN YOU SELL YOUR TEACHING RESOURCES?
Here’s a list of all the current marketplaces I’ve found where you can sell your teaching resources:
- TeachersPayTeachers.com
- TES.com
- Etsy.com
- Facebook.com/marketplace
- MadeByTeachers.com
- LessonPlanned.co.uk
- HelpMeTeach.co.uk
- EdGalaxy.com
- TheWheelEdu.com
- Ignite.Amazon.com
- ILoveToTeach101.com
- TeachingResources.co.za
- TeachersTrading.com
As you can see, there are certainly quite a few hopping on the bandwagon!
But be weary as not all of these are gaining significant traffic or will make it long term, so I would choose very carefully before making a decision on which platforms you would like to sell on.
After spending a few hours comparing them all, some look promising and others… not so much!
But don’t worry, you don’t have to spend hours researching as I am sharing my document with you to allow you to make a completely informed decision on which sites are worth your time and effort, and which you should probably stay away from.
In this Google Sheets document, you will find all comparison on the following: fees; commissions; monthly visitors; top countries visiting each site; currencies available; number of resources for sale; how you get paid and when the sites were established.
If you are curious about any other marketplaces you might have heard of that are not included in this list, simply reach out to me at katie@teachersresourceforce.com and I’ll research them in detail and add them to the list!
NOT ALL TEACHERPRENEUR MARKETPLACES ARE EQUAL...
I hope this free tool is helpful for you! Be sure to read the notes in particular, as you will see why something like Amazon Ignite that would initially seem exciting, might actually be a devastating site to support… and that’s coming from someone who adores Amazon!
But feel free to make your own judgments based on all the information available to you in the spreadsheet. Happy selling!
3 thoughts on “Why you shouldn’t keep all your eggs in your Teachers Pay Teachers basket”
Are you currently on any other platforms? Which ones you’re using and what has your experience been with them so far?
I think there’s also teacher dojo and twinkle.
Awesome, thanks Tammy I’m about to go digging for the deets and I’ll add them to the spreadsheet soon! ?