BONUS: News and Updates on TPT

Kirsten 0:00

Hey there and welcome to a bonus episode of the creative Teacher Podcast. I am recording this super early. So don't mind the morning voice. This is pretty much the only time I can do something sometimes. So Mama's got to do what Mama's got to do you know what it is, we are going to talk about seven new exciting things happening in TPT land in the TPT world. I'm going to share with you my takes on it and what it might mean and just some extra tips from that. All right, number one, they recently announced the location of the TPT conference and opened registration. And I totally cold somewhere in the south or west. I don't know if you remember one of those episodes. So we manifested it and now we are going to San Diego.

I already registered and we booked a hotel, my husband will be tagging along and my mom is going to be watching the kids. So we are going to make it a fun trip. So I'm excited. Hopefully he doesn't get tied up with work. You know, we're booking super far in advance, but I am hoping he comes with us. I am super excited to be attending in person. This year. For the first time I've gone virtually since 2020. But I have not gone to a in person event. So I'm looking forward to next summer. If you happen to be going and you've registered or you're thinking about going, you should tag me chat with me in the DMS on Instagram, at the southern teach dot designs. Let me know what you're thinking. If you're coming if you're not coming, I'd love to hear from you.

The second thing happening is that applications are now open to apply to be a TPT presenter. If you have something that you want to share with other TPT sellers, it is a really good experience. And I think it would be something beneficial to learn from somebody new or someone experienced it really doesn't matter. In my opinion. I love learning from all types of people. So if you are interested in becoming a presenter for the conference, there are steps on the new seller blog, which we'll talk about, on how to apply to be a presenter. Something that is new this year is that they want you to record a short video just sharing a little bit about yourself so they can get a feel for you. The other thing to note about the conference, it is entirely in person and virtual events will take place throughout the year based on the email that they said. So there I'm assuming won't be a virtual component where you have to as a presenter, record a pre recorded video and also present live if you're one of the in person presenters, which I think might be good because it's a lot of work to present and like two different mod you know modalities. I'll make sure to link to the blog post that specifically talks about tips to help you apply to be a presenter. One thing to keep in mind is make sure your profiles up to date. They end up looking at your store and your social media. They take a look at the number of followers and resources but I will say having presented in 2021 2022 and 2023 I had varying amounts of followers and I know things are different but they will be specifically looking for an experience in another area. So there are exceptions, depending on the topic that you're presenting on. The bonus of being a presenter is your conference ticket. is free. So that's always really great.

Before we continue, I just wanted to make it known that I am not endorsed or affiliated with TPT. I am just a TPT seller just like you. And I'm just sharing with you some updates if you haven't heard of it, and my takes on it, what I think about it.

So going into, the third thing to know about is that there is a new TPT seller blog that they have launched, you may or may not know, but they have the forum that has been out there since the beginning of time. And this is something I'm not personally in a lot. I know there are other sellers that are more active in the TPT forum for places to get information. There's different goals of this blog, from what they say they want it to be an easy one stop shop, where you can get all your information to thrive as a TPT seller. So if you're looking for from the source, ways to help create products with data, getting started with TPT, marketing, and just any news in general, straight from the horse's mouth, this is a great place to go. So yeah, that's just something that's there, I think this will be great. I know that they've published a few blog posts already with product updates, and one posts that you should definitely check out is what teachers are searching for on TPT in November and December. So this is a great source to look out for information for free, of course, from TPT.

Okay, number four, a really cool update that is happening is now we can schedule notes to followers woohoo. First, it was from being able to send a note to follower once a month, to once a week to being able to draft no default hours. Now we could schedule those note to followers just like we would in ConvertKit or flow desk. So if you're already scheduling your emails, for your email subscribers, you might as well you know, add some of those emails and schedule it for your TPT followers as well. I think this is a really great feature. I know a lot of us have been asking for it for a while. So that's my best tip on it for now, if you're like overwhelmed, like I have to schedule in two different places. Why not start with the emails you're already sending on the day like I always have a day where I'm scheduling emails, and writing emails, just take the time to copy and paste that same information to your TPT followers and schedule it out for the month. So that's my best tip on that.

Another new feature that they have that they've also rolled out is having the flexibility for bundles. This is really great, because I think the lowest you could or the highest you could discount is 30%. In the past, which is kind of tricky. If you want to put something out half price or you know, even 75% I know deep discounts. They always say that it affects the health of the whole community and all of that, of course, we don't want our bundles to all be like 80% off all the time. That's money that you're not getting in the long run. But it's great if you want something just even 50% off right now my growing bundles are 50% off for my social studies curriculum. And while I still have to add a placeholder to kind of, you know, have it at a certain price, it helps to have it at 50% off.

All right, another new feature that I'm loving is the throw new sale page. It's a nice fresh, new updated look to reflect the current times. And there is a toggle where you can opt in to all site wide sales without manually doing so every single sale. So you don't have to click anymore to you know, schedule the sale and click all the products included. And even if you're uploading a product before that said sale, you don't have to go in and make sure that's on sale, it'll automatically do it for your resources. So all you have to do is go to where it says throw a sale and just click that toggle on participate or opt in to all sitewide sales. It will automatically add a 20% discount to your store during those specific sitewide sale days. This is great. You can also toggle it off at any time if you don't want to participate in a sale which I don't recommend I definitely recommend participating in the sale. I know firsthand from the last sale, there was a clip artist who did not participate in the sale and I did not buy from that clip artist. So it does make a difference. Even you know, just because people are looking for different things at certain times.

All right. Now, maybe last but not least, I don't want to like, of course, you know, me loving branding and designing things. And, of course, I cannot have this episode without mentioning that soon, they will be improving the resolution of cover and thumbnail images. Whoa, this is something I know we've been waiting for. I'm thinking Lizzo song, It's about damn time, you know, this is something that they're going to be rolling out soon. And it's going to be happening over the next few weeks. Oh my gosh. So if you're listening to this, maybe a month now hopefully, it's already happened. This will automatically apply for resources created in 2017 or later. So if this is something that does not apply to you, if you did not create a view created a resource before 2017. Or you didn't upload a high resolution thumbnail, you might need to upload a new image file that's at least 750 by 750 pixels. You can always set this up in Canva. Just to kind of see, but it's going to be much more optimized. So check back in maybe in a month, and see how it's, you know, resolution wise, what it's what it looks like. So if you are one of those people who have a resource created from 2017, or earlier, sorry, 2016 or earlier, make sure you just check to make sure the resolution has been optimized. If not, you might need to re upload your covers and thumbnails. But this will be great. It'll be nice to see nice clean looks in your store without having to go through different hoops to make it happen. So yeah, this definitely will save a lot of time. This is probably one of the features I'm the most excited about.

All right, well, to recap those, you know, seven things. The TPT seller conference is officially open and open for registration, it will be in San Diego, you're able to apply to be a presenter. And I should I don't know if I mentioned this, but I believe the window is through Sunday, November 5. So it's a very short window. So if you're interested and you're listening in real time, now is the time to get started on your application. The new seller blog is live and on the TPT site, you can schedule note to followers, there are more flexibility to bundles, you can now throw a sale and have that toggle on to automatically participate in sales. And last but not certainly not least, of course, the new thumbnail and cover resolution that will be happening in the next few weeks. So hopefully this bonus episode is enlightening for you and you can check out some of those resources that TPT has to offer. Alright, I will talk to you again next week.

Thanks for listening to the creative teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to today's episode, feel free to subscribe and leave a review. I'd love to hear your feedback. You can also follow me on Instagram at the southern teach dot designs. Have an amazing day.