Your TPT Seller Burning Questions – Random Q&A

Kirsten 0:04

You're listening to the creative teacher podcast, a show for busy teachers looking for ways to engage, inspire and make an impact in their teacher businesses. I'm Kirsten, a teacher business owner who is all about simple and actionable tips, strategies and resources that result in wins, big or small. If you're looking for that extra spark of creativity, you've come to the right place. Let's dive in together.

Hello, TPT. Seller friend, welcome to another episode of the creative teacher podcast. Today's gonna be a fun and random episode all about your burning questions that you might have had once or twice. And this is all related specifically just to TPT selling. So selling as a TPT seller. If you have a TPT business TPT store, and you are marketing and all of that stuff. So it's kind of going into that. So it's a little bit of random questions that I have found on the Facebook groups in the TPT niche. And I just picked and pulled which ones I wanted to share my unsolicited opinions and thoughts about. So these are pretty common questions that I will see over and over again, throughout Facebook groups. And so I'm going to answer 10 of those questions. Question number one, what are your favorite script fonts or bold script fonts? So I'm just gonna go down the list and share with you the ones that I really like to do in designs for clients and for my own resources. For the Ag fonts, I really like a G rather be sleeping solid. I also like a G small talk survivor. K thoughts I have a lot of these. And there's a few that I really really enjoy. I like k a country fields. K a delightful I think that's a fun script 5k A Honeybun K, imagine ka whatever and que Winterberry. There are different volumes. I think for each of these scripts, they're not all in the same volume. And as far as kg fonts, I really like k g satisfied script. And kg always a good time is a nice clean cursive font that I like to use for some projects as well. Alright, number two, what are people selling more of lately? bundles with really big units or smaller packs? So this is for me, I'm interpreting this question as is it more efficient? Or is it better to sell, you know, are people selling more of the bundles with the big zesty units or the smaller type of units? For me, personally, I'm selling a little bit of both. And it really depends on the time of year and it depends on what people are wanting, I sell a lot of my big, hefty bundles like I should say, as far as like with the units by curriculum, I sell a lot of those. But my mega mega bundles with like, a lot of dozens of resources, I don't sell many of those, it's few and far in between, but it does happen. I'd say my mid sized bundles with the units and all of that, that are you know, within the price range of between 50 to $100. I sell a lot of those daily. And the smaller units I am noticing like the really small ones, maybe less than $25. Like the really small that you just kind of bundled together. I'm not selling as much of those. So it's like the mid range tier that I'm selling very few and far between above 100. Most of what I sell as far as bundles is like between 50 to $100. And then those really smaller bundles they happen. But I maybe I need to like look exactly to see the quantity but I feel like I sell more in the mid range and less in the like really small price range and really high price range. But when it happens, it's always welcomed. Number three, balancing work and family responsibilities is challenging, especially when it comes to managing social media, creating content and marketing. What strategies or tools do you use to stay organized? My tip is for sure having some type of productivity tool like clickup or asana and you're inputting every task you need to do. I always like to plan in the quarter for the upcoming quarter. And just making sure that you stick to that schedule and like not overloading yourself with a lot of tasks kind of spreading it out. I have like one week For a couple of weeks where I work on content creation, I have one where I work on product creation. And I have a week a lot with services. And I fill things in as needed depending on what kind of timely project I have, or what collaboration I'm a part of. It's a lot to juggle, of course, because I have three kids, but it is it can't be manageable. And even just recently, I had a week where I was sick, my three kids were sick, all of us were sick pretty much except for my husband. But we were able, I was able to push things around and kind of spread things out. And while yes, in the long run, you might have to play catch up on some aspects, it is something that is great, it's flexible, and just making sure you're spreading things out. So that if you do come across some, you know, unexpected life events, like being sick, you can always make sure to have that time readily available. And also just in general, just you know, not setting yourself up with high expectations of like, I need to get, you know, three hours of work done or six hours of work done. I have to you know, think about this a lot is really overestimating the time, it might take you to do something and just like, if you really think it's going to take maybe, oh, it's only going to take me an hour to write all these blog posts. Give yourself a whole day like that one day is writing blog posts so that you're not overwhelmed or disappointed when you do run out of time. And you're still not done. If you know you do happen to get done in an hour with the blog posts, that's really amazing. And you can always pick any other tasks up that maybe be scheduled in the future. So just to sum that up, make sure you have some type of task manager or product management tool like clickup or Asana, make sure not to over schedule yourself. And also just find those pockets of time where you can not stress over. If there's a lot going on, don't stress too much over it. Because things will get done eventually, you might just have to push some stuff aside. All right, question number four, I update my TPT titles, do I need to also update my blog titles. So the great thing about TPT on the marketplace, it's completely separate. As far as your blog posts and your own website, you know, thinking about where it's hosted TPT, the resources are usually hosted on the TPT domain, Teachers Pay Teachers, and then your blog posts are hosted on your own domain. So mine would be the southern teach. That's where my blog posts are. So if you have a TPT resource, and you're changing the title, it's not at all connected to your blog titles. And even if you happen to have a link with a title, and you change that title on TPT, it's going to automatically redirect because it's always going to have this maybe six or seven or eight digit number at the end of the URL. So if you change the title on TPT, you do not have to go back and like find all where your links are on the websites you have or on Instagram or email, you don't have to change those links, it's going to automatically redirect based on that six or seven or eight digit number. Number five, when your product includes a variety of activities, or worksheet types, do you lean towards trying to show them all on the cover, or just showing one or two close up? So it really depends on how many activities there are. But if there is so you know, I always say less is more uncovers. But there's also a trend in graphic designers as far as maximalism and you just like put a you know a ton of different, really great elements together to make it all cohesive in its own way. So there's two routes you can go about it. I think either of these could be good. But I would just say I would caution against the more screenshots you have or the more photos you have an uncovered, the harder is it's going to be able to see in the first place, you won't be able to see what we're getting. You can see the text and you can see a little bit of what's going on. But the more you add, the less you're going to be able to see it's a lot smaller. So it just depends on what the overall look might turnout. You could always do both options side by side and see which one might be more click worthy. And some really great suggestion is to like take a screenshot, maybe searching your keywords related to your resource in the search results. Take a screenshot of that search results. And when you're done updating your cover, and even if hopefully you happen to see your resource and you can superimpose was those new cover options on the screenshot to kind of see how it would look against other similar resources. So this is in this way, you can see, okay, this having a bunch of different screenshots of the activities and worksheets, this could actually be in my favor, because everybody else is kind of doing it really simple, really conservative. Whereas maybe it might be beneficial to just have one or two really highlighting the best activities in this resource or bundle, having that on this screenshot, and just kind of really going in with elements and color and the fonts to help you stand out and just maybe keeping it simple with one or two photographs. Alright. Number six, I have a resource that uses clip art of famous individuals. Some are historical, some are modern, and I'm updating it to use real photographs. Instead, I'm using Wikimedia Commons to find the photographs. But for a few of the people, there are no photos available. What is another way to legally source images of famous figures. So these are hurdles I personally had to come across as creating, I'm creating a curricula, Texas history, US history, like there are some really famous names that I can easily find on Wikimedia Commons. No problem, public domain were gravy. But there are some people, especially in Texas history, I have found a much harder time finding photographs of them, even like licensed ones, where you have to attribute the link, you know, you have to put the source under the photograph where you got it and all that stuff. And so that's kind of my first step number one, if it's not public domain, are there photographs of this person that you can utilize. But you have to have a small like a source or a link showing the attribution. If so I just recommend downloading that photograph downloading the attribution link, and just putting it under the photo, just make it really small, but it's there. If even after going, you know, it's not, you cannot find any photos that are public domain, you cannot find any photos that are licensed. Another thing to check is the Library of Congress, there's a section free to use and reuse, you can always check there to see maybe if there's something and worst case scenario, you may have to resort to an illustration of that person, or maybe like a photo of where they're from, or maybe their house. So unfortunately, I don't have a clear cut answer for that. But sometimes you might have to resort to photograph of a setting or like something related to their life, or just in illustration. Alright, number seven, I'm looking to rebrand my store, change my name, logo, etc. Is there someone you recommend to help with creating a logo color schemes and banners, and I'm just gonna put a little plug in here, I do this. I don't outwardly advertise this all the time, just because I have a very busy schedule. But I do still have spots available each quarter. And just, if you want to go on my website, the southern teach designs.com forward slash branding, you can see what packages are available. I have a small package that is just like a quick refresh banner logo. Then there's a medium sized package that includes quote box and many banners. And then there is a really big hefty one, if you have a course or membership. It includes a variety of different graphics that you can utilize, I think at least three or four logo variations. So there's a lot of different things included depending on what you're looking for. And I do have spots available beginning in quarter three and four. So you can always go on to the southern teach designs.com forward slash branding. I've got a portfolio out there if you want to check out my work and what I've been doing to help sellers for the past three years. Number eight, what email domain providers do you recommend? I am looking for something cheap and good. So I'm gonna go with going short term and long term I would say ConvertKit you start off you don't really have as much traction you're you might have 50 people on your email list. 100 people on your email list. I feel like ConvertKit has a really great starting point where you can have a free account for up to 1000 subscribers. And if you want to pay a little extra for the different added benefits and perks I believe it's like $9 a month so it's really really cost efficient. And one of the things I see commonly, as far as long term, let's say you do have 3000 5000 10,000, it goes on and on, you do pay more to, you know, the price increases. So there's not a flat fee across the board that you pay, it just depends on how many subscribers you have over time, for a really long time, I paid one set fee. And like just recently, in the last few months, I have gotten gone up the little bracket, just because I'm growing my email list a lot quicker, because I'm running lists building ads constantly to get people on my email list. And I would say it's still not breaking the bank or anything like that. It's definitely affordable. So either way, I do think ConvertKit is a good starting point. If you're new, it's reliable. I've heard a lot of, you know, tricky things happening with flow desk as far especially with the whole debacle on, you know, getting our email, domain verification, and all of that stuff. Like some people had a really hard time on flow desk, or there just wasn't a lot of support. But ConvertKit was so helpful. they email me with all the things I needed to do. And there was one thing I didn't even know I had to do. They're like, hey, you need to do this. And I'm like, Oh, my gosh, thank you. Okay, great, we're good. So I didn't have any issues, as far as you know, emails going to spam in February. So I do know there is a benefit to having flow desk, it's just depending on the you know, what you are looking for in an email service provider. Flow desk is great, because you basically have unlimited subscribers for a flat fee. And it does not change as your list grows. But there's also some just some analytics and technological stuff, some there, it's just a different ballgame. And if you're willing to like, you know, it's you, if you are okay, with not having maybe as many tools of the trade that you might be able to see a lot more clearly, as in ConvertKit, as with flow desk, then definitely go with like, if you're like I literally don't care, I just want it cheap as possible over. Like, as I grow my business, then definitely make sure you go with flow desk, but I still think even though ConvertKit raises its prices, the more subscribers you have, I do think it's like, overall, it's really beneficial in the long run. And this is coming from somebody who did utilize flow desk for a few months, I utilized Kajabi email for a few months, I used MailChimp for a few months. And each time I always went back to ConvertKit, because there was just something about it, even though it's not, you know, the most pretty, they don't have the prettiest templates. It's something about it that just, it's really reliable and efficient. And it just helps me get things done. And it's easy. We don't have to like to go through a ton of hoops to get what you're looking for. So that's just my unsolicited thoughts on email. Basically, I recommend ConvertKit. But if you're okay with you know, you're not like trying to get old Super techie or analytical and you're fine with that, then you could always go with flow desk. But if you ever change your mind, either way, you can even if you want to go to flow desk, if you want to go to ConvertKit, you are always able to take your email list and move over to whichever platform you want. So those are just some two starting points. Question number nine A common question I see and hear all the time like which course platforms do you recommend. And I used to recommend Kajabi. And now I'm recommending Thrive cart, learn, I have the Learn. Like there's an upgrade with it. And there's a lot more capabilities with that upgrade where you can add bundles. But also the great thing about Thrive cart in general is that it's not only a checkout, you know platform and all of that but the Thrive cart learn portion of it, you can create unlimited courses. And this is a one time fee. Those are the big things. And a lot of it is a customizable, there is really a lot you can do with it. There's a few features I've wished that they had and I talked more about it in a previous episode on 10 business tools that TPT sellers are like really helpful for TPT sellers. But if you are looking for a pretty seamless cost efficient course platform that doesn't charge you an arm and a leg and they don't read raise prices or anything like that. I definitely recommend going with Thrive cart learn Kajabi if only they could just sell the Course Platform itself rather than everything that goes along with it. I don't need all of those things. I don't use all of those things. And that's part of why I'm no longer going with Kajabi in general. I Have tried Thinkific I never like really, I always end up just leaving because I like try to build a course with it. I'm just like I get frustrated, teachable. It's okay. I think there's you have to there's a lot of upgrades, it's like a freemium type of thing. But with Thrive cart, Lauren, you literally can make as many courses as you want. And there's only a few features if you like, or want to upgrade. Like, if you want to be able to bundle a variety of courses together, you can always upgrade there. But again, it's a one time payment, so you do not have to pay again. And so that's what I really like about it is that I'm making my money back just by paying for it, you know, because let's say you pay the amount, I believe it's like 300 $400, it's one time payment, and then you launch your course you build it on Thrive car, you launch your course and you maybe make $600 in sales $1,000 In sales, you're making that money back right there. And then all you have to do is just keep launching it over and over if you want or make it a membership. Like there's a lot of ways you can customize it. And I think it's really great for people in our space. If you're just wanting something super easy. It also connects to ConvertKit. But if you have Flo desk, I believe it does. You can use Zapier with it, but not 100% Sure, but I love how it natively integrates with ConvertKit. That's another bonus for me. So if somebody purchases my membership or purchases my course, they are tagged with everything that needs to be tagged. There's nothing it works seamlessly. So I love that about. Alright, the last question I have course recommendations on XYZ, this is probably the most frequent question I see in a variety of TPT seller Facebook groups, they're like, hey, what course recommendations do you have on email marketing? What course recommendations do you have on selling on TPT? I think a lot of people hit the nail on the head. Because I see the same people answering it, you want to make sure that whatever course you're getting doesn't matter what topic it is, look at the person who is selling that course and see what experience they have in that specific topic. So if they are creating a course or selling a course on creating TPT resources that sell or marketing your TPT resources that sell go in their TPT store and see what they're doing. And, you know, if what they're doing seems to be successful go in the q&a is are they actually answering questions? This is a big thing to think about. If they're not if they've ghosted, all these people answering questions or trying to get quick answers, it's probably not a good idea to get a course from them if they are not actively on TPT. Or if their covers look outdated and you're looking for a or even just not really appealing and you're like, Oh, I could do that myself. I don't really need to buy from you that kind of thing. Don't buy their course on selling a resource or creating product listings and all of that, if it's something that you really admire about them, and they're like, oh my god, they do so well on this. They are so they're acing the Instagram game. They've got so many followers, they've got so many Tik Tok followers, I want to know strategies to grow my instagram or strategies to grow my tic tock, go on to those platforms to see what they're doing. And, and also see how long they've been doing it. I would also kind of add as well, like, I mean, it really depends, because I've been there. And I've also I know of people who like they grow huge following and they people are asking, like, how do I do this? How do I get people to grow by you know, all of that? Or what strategies are what a great engagement strategies, they might turn around in a couple of months and make a course about it. That's okay, too. But just the main thing to think about as far as like, do I have a course recommendation on email marketing or SEO? Just look to see what their website looks like? Like, is it something that you want to learn from? Is it or do they seem knowledgeable and a skill that they want to learn from? I'm gonna refrain from I think there's a lot of negative comments about people saying, Oh, these people, they're just here to make a quick buck. And you can tell pretty quickly of like, Are these people like mainly trying to focus on selling courses as their main job or is it DPT like you can kind of see, I know from you know, a lot of sellers who do sell courses that also happen to sell courses, including myself. These people, their main source of income is not selling courses for TPT sellers. Like this is like a little tiny bucket. It's a drop in the bucket compared to what they make Back on TPT, or in other avenues of their business, maybe they're a service provider, they make way more as far as being a service provider than they do on the actual courses that they sell. I know that's for me, like, way more is on TPT. So I would leave it to those type of people, if I were, you know, buying a course on, you know, if it's like not their main focus is selling courses and trying to get people to buy courses, I would say, that's a green flag, if a lot of what they're doing are saying like, they seem like a snake oil salesman, I don't know how to describe it. But one last tip I have on this is just, if you're not sure, you know, always kind of ask around and see what other people recommend on this specific topic. But I think in general, like the whole, like, what courses do you have? Or what courses do you recommend on selling for TPT? Or like it that's very broad. So if you are going to ask that question, maybe be really specific, like, I want to learn more about email marketing. Do you have any courses that specifically help build an email list and I think a lot of people are more than happy to give suggestions in our TPT niche and outside our TPT niche. So that being said, I really hope you enjoyed my random answers to these random questions. And of course, these are all my own opinions and thoughts, and I'm not affiliated with any like, thing I mentioned. I'm not affiliated with ConvertKit Well, actually, I kind of am. I do have a link, but I love it. I do not become an affiliate with something unless I absolutely have tried it and love it. So those are my best tips for you. Hopefully you enjoyed this episode, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your 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.