The Rebranded Teacher
The Rebranded Teacher
"I Want to Leave the Classroom"... Tips for Increasing Your Revenue on TPT
What if you could turn your teaching skills into a thriving business that matches or even exceeds your current salary? On this episode of the Rebranded Teacher Podcast, we explore how you can harness the power of Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) to create a sustainable income stream that might just allow you to leave the classroom behind. I, Lauren Fulton, promise to guide you through the process of developing high-quality, unique educational resources that not only stand out but also meet unmet needs in the marketplace. By employing creative differentiation and innovation, you can build a loyal customer base while still contributing meaningfully to education.
Whether you're new to TPT or an experienced seller looking to scale your business, this episode is packed with strategies to help you succeed. From analyzing customer feedback to identifying the common threads in your top-selling products, I'll provide insights on refining your offerings and enhancing your marketing efforts. Plus, you'll learn about Selling 101, our membership program designed to help beginners set up their TPT store with ease, offering step-by-step guidance and community support. Join me to unlock the potential of TPT as a viable path to financial freedom and fulfillment beyond the classroom.
Check out Selling 101!
https://rebrandedteacher.kartra.com/page/jpH254
Check out The TpT Profit Plan: Build The Business of Your Dreams in 2025
https://rebrandedteacher.kartra.com/page/hun253
Welcome to the Rebranded Teacher Podcast. My name is Lauren Fulton. I'm a full-time teacher, author and seller on Teachers, pay Teachers, and I help other teacher entrepreneurs grow their TPT businesses in a way that's purposeful and sustainable. So if you're looking for actionable, step-by-step ways to grow your business, you're in the right place. Let's get started.
Speaker 1:I cannot tell you how many times I've had a teacher say to me I want to leave the classroom and I feel like I don't have any options. And then their very next question is is it actually reasonable or is it actually possible to make enough money on teachers, pay teachers to leave the classroom and replace my teaching income? And that's what we're going to be talking about in today's podcast. Even if you are not interested in leaving the classroom maybe you're just interested in earning some additional income, maybe interested in supplementing your retirement income Chances are, if you're listening to this podcast, in the very least you are interested in supplementing your income and having more opportunities, and it can kind of feel like when you get into the classroom that you're making a lot of sacrifices. Yes, for a good cause Like education is incredible, and we can't say enough good things about the value that teachers add to society and to individual lives of kids and of adults, and how important of a role that they play of kids and of adults, and how important of a role that they play. However, it can be really daunting to think about being locked in at a certain salary and at a certain stress level for the rest of your working life, and so if you are interested in opening up some options whether that's just creating some additional revenue for your family, or if you are interested in actually leaving the classroom, we're going to talk about how yes, this is 100% possible to do, on Teachers Pay Teachers, but exactly how you can do that.
Speaker 1:So, first of all, let's talk about Teachers Pay Teachers as an option. I told you before 100%, it is an option. You can replace your teaching salary on TPT. Lots of people have done it, lots of people continue to do this, and it's not just people who replaced their teaching salary back in like 2016 or even 2020. We're talking about people who are actually inside of my membership Rebranded Teacher Academy. They're actively meeting this goal and it's not something that was attainable five or 10 years ago but not attainable today, or increasingly difficult today. It's really not about that. You can still do it today. The strategy just may look a little bit different than it did many years ago, but the market is not oversaturated. There's still a space for you and you can still achieve that goal if that's something that you want to accomplish. So TPT is absolutely an option.
Speaker 1:There are a couple of things that you need to know. Number one if you want to replace your teaching income on Teachers Pay Teachers then you're going to need to have one of two things, preferably both. The first thing that you're going to need is you are going to need to create high quality resources that buyers can only get from you, and so that's gonna need to be a primary focus for you. You're gonna need to find a need in the market, meet that need in a way that nobody else is meeting it. This doesn't mean that you have to reinvent the wheel. It just means that you need to have some creative, strategic product creation strategies. So that means, rather than just trying to knock out a whole bunch of task cards or coloring sheets or creating a whole bunch of the same thing that already exists on the market, find a way to set yourself apart. So, instead of just creating ordinary like color by number coloring sheets or color by code coloring sheets, find a way to differentiate that activity. So instead of just creating an ordinary like color by number or color by code activity, you can find a way to differentiate it and make it stand out from what's currently on the market.
Speaker 1:So maybe you create three different versions of the same coloring activity, where maybe some are open-ended or some have answer choices. Or maybe, for example, if you're doing something like a color by sight word activity, you have one version that has 10 sight words on it and one version that has two or three sight words on it. That way students don't feel quite as overwhelmed and you're making it a whole lot simpler for them. You could also do something like create task cards to go alongside the coloring activity, so as they complete the task card, they're figuring out what color to use on that page. And so now you have task cards alongside of a coloring activity and you're kind of adding a unique element to it. Or maybe it's something as simple as providing two versions, where one version is in Spanish, the directions are in Spanish and the other the directions are in English, in order to help teachers who are in a bilingual classroom or who have ELL students.
Speaker 1:There are simple little ways and simple little things that you can do to help your resource stand out in a saturated market, or you could just create resources that don't exist at all. So, instead of creating coloring activities, you can reinvent the wheel. You can create something that you've never seen before and that buyers can completely only get from you. But basically, you're looking to make sure that you're creating standout resources and it's going to allow you to build a repeat customer base, because buyers are going to have to come back to you to get that exact same product. But it's also going to help you stand out in TPT search. So whenever buyers are searching for a product and they see a lot of the same thing, they come across your product and like, oh, that's different. I think I would rather have that than this, because I'm getting something a little extra, or I'm getting something a little bit more interesting, a little bit more engaging, or that's meeting the unique needs of my specific learners in my classroom better than everything else that I'm seeing, than the other options that I'm seeing.
Speaker 1:So, number one if you want TPT to be an option for you, you have to really think strategically about the products that you're creating, the other thing that you're really going to have to think about is having an audience. Is growing and building an audience. Those are going to be the two things. So for some people, having one or the other is enough. If you have a large enough audience, then you don't have to worry about standing out in TPT search because you can drive your own traffic. If you are meeting a unique enough need, or if you're meeting a unique need that's in high demand, then you may not have to worry about building your audience as much, because there isn't as much for buyers to choose from, but they might really be looking for it.
Speaker 1:So a good example of this is someone I've had on my podcast before, karlyn Laborio, who started creating resources that were specifically aligned to Texas state standards and helped teachers prep their students for a new type of question and test format that was on the state standardized tests, and so there was a lot of demand for this, because there are obviously a ton of teachers in Texas and there it was a unique product in because there wasn't anybody else that was creating resources specifically to meet that need, and so she kind of fell into I'm not going gonna say fell into, because she definitely planned it this way, but she was able to find a pocket inside of the industry that had a lot of demand but not a lot of supply. She was able to stand out and to get traction really, really quickly. Now, not everyone is going to be able to find something like that, and that's why I think that it's really important that you know ahead of time. There's a good chance. You're going to need to build your own audience and you're going to need to be able to create these unique, high quality resources if your overall goal is to earn enough income to replace your teaching salary. Those two things are going to be really important if you want to make that happen.
Speaker 1:The next thing is you really want to think about how can you scale. So, once you've decided that you're going to start selling on Teachers, pay Teachers and you know, okay, I'm going to have to have an audience, I'm going to have to create unique resources, you're going to eventually come to that question of, okay, I'm making a few hundred dollars a month, how do I actually scale to replacing my TPT salary? I feel like I've got the basics down. I'm creating the unique resources, I'm building my audience. How do I get to a point where I can replace my income. This is where it's gonna be really important to figure out what's working in your business so that you can double down on that thing. So once you start your marketing, once you dive into product creation, you have quite a few resources on the market. This is where you really need to sit down and take a look at what's currently selling. What is your audience currently interested in? What are they responding to?
Speaker 1:Marketing wise and come up with a very specific strategy for your business, not based on anybody else's business, not based on the advice that you're getting on YouTube or on a podcast, but specifically what is working for you. And when you're looking at where is the money coming from, ask yourself how can I double down on that to produce more revenue? So if I have a specific line of resources that are selling really well, how can I either expand on that product and make more products like that, or how can I take the knowledge of like? Why is that product resonating? Why are people finding that more than the rest of my resources? Why are those products leading to more sales and repeat customers? When you can start to really look and analyze that part of your business and definitively say oh, the feedback that I'm getting from them is they love these resources because A, B, c and D.
Speaker 1:Then when you go to create new resources, then you can make sure that your new resources hit that same criteria, for whatever reason that people are purchasing. So in my niche, in my particular audience, the reason that people are buying my best-selling products is because it creates an experience inside of the math classroom and makes kids feel like they're not doing math, and so if I can create resources that replicate that experience or give that same experience to the teacher and to the student, they are more likely to purchase more products from me or to purchase products inside of that new product line. It's more likely to resonate with my particular audience because it has the same desired outcome as the other products that they're already attracted to. This is also going to help me with my marketing because I know specifically why they are purchasing those resources. So it helps me appeal to both my existing audience and new potential customers because I can repeat back to them the things that they want to hear.
Speaker 1:Start reading all of your reviews, start making notes for things that you see different customers repeating different reasons why they love it and then repeat those reasons back to them in your marketing or in your product previews, in your product descriptions for your other resources, and tell them why they're going to love your product, based on why other teachers have loved it. Advertising things like your product is no prep is great, but if you're finding that your buyers are consistently saying this saved me so much time, instead of advertising that it's no prep, advertise that it's going to be a time saving resource. Those little tweaks and changes by repeating back the same things that your buyers are saying about your product. Repeating it back to them is really going to help level up your marketing by speaking the language of your buyer. Okay, so once you're creating resources that buyers can only get from you and they're meeting unique needs, you then want to take a look step back. Making a few hundred dollars a month, you're getting some sales and you're getting some reviews and you really then want to go ahead. Take that deep dive, read your reviews, see what all of your top sellers have in common and start drawing conclusions based on that data. Drive your product creation decisions forward and also drive your marketing message. That is going to be the best way to scale your income once you get going.
Speaker 1:So we've talked about there's room in the business for you. You can absolutely replace your teaching salary on TPT and the two big things that you need to know that you need to be creating unique resources and you need to have a traffic source. You need to build an audience order to make that possible. And then, once you've got it going, that you really need to go back and review and take a deep dive into your own personal data rather than just relying on the advice of others. And then, finally, I wanna give you something that you can focus on right away, something that you can do right now.
Speaker 1:So if you're watching this video and you don't have a Teachers, pay Teachers store and you're interested in getting started, I have a membership called Selling 101 for people who've never sold on TPT before, never even created a product, don't know what terms of use is, don't know how to secure their resources or follow best practices when starting a TPT business, and it teaches you everything from how to create a resource to how to list your first resource, open your TPT store, create your banners, covers, previews all of that good stuff all in one place for a low monthly price. We also offer coaching and community and a lot of really great opportunities to help you level up, to get your business up and running and leveled up quickly. You can find a link to join Selling 101 or get on our wait list inside of the description. So I definitely would encourage you to start that right away If you're interested in starting your TPT business. That way, you're not wasting a lot of time trying to figure out how to get started. It's literally gonna walk you through step-by-step do this, do this, do this and then by the end you have your products listed, you have your TPT store up and running. We're gonna walk you through everything step-by-step. You just follow the process and then boom, you've got a TPT business. You just follow support from our community and from coaches right away.
Speaker 1:If you've already been on TPT for a length of time and you are trying to figure out where to focus, I have a workshop coming up at the end of December. You do not want to miss it. It's called the TPT Profit Plan. During this workshop, I'm going to walk you through building a business plan for 2025 that's going to help you build the TPT business of your dreams by focusing on your three main revenue generators. We're going to talk about that inside of the workshop and I'm going to give you everything that you need and together, during this workshop, you're going to walk away with a one-year plan for your business in 2025 to help you build the business of your dreams.
Speaker 1:The workshop is extremely affordable. It's just $10. You absolutely cannot lose and you can find the link down inside of the description to join that workshop. And if you're watching after the workshop has happened, you can find a way to access the replay of that workshop down inside of the description. So if you wanna get started on TPT, you'll find the link to the Selling 101 course and membership. And if you want to get started on TPT, you'll find the link to the Selling 101 course and membership.
Speaker 1:And if you want to level up your business and take your business from earning $50, $100, $200 a month or even $1,000 a month all the way to replacing your teacher's salary, come start with this $10 workshop I mean it doesn't get any more affordable than that $10 and build your business plan for 2025 alongside of us, alongside of RTA members, alongside of members who are already inside of Rebranded Teacher Academy. Come build your business plan with us. We are going to have. Not only are we going to have a great time, but just think about how much is going to be lifted off of your shoulders, knowing that you don't have to wonder what you're going to be doing next year to build your business. All right, thanks so much for being here. You guys. You've got the links to the workshop and to the membership down inside of the description. I hope to see you there, but for sure I'm going to see you right back here next week on the podcast.