Want to grow your TPT store faster without doubling your workload? After nearly a decade as a top 1% seller and years coaching other teacher-entrepreneurs, I've identified three game-changing hacks that most sellers overlook.
The first hack transforms how you approach multi-grade resources. Rather than creating one product for grades 3-6 (which limits your keywords and makes teachers question its suitability), create slightly differentiated versions for each grade level. This simple shift multiplies your store's visibility while making teachers feel you've created something specifically for their students. With minimal additional effort, you'll have four products appearing in search results instead of one, dramatically increasing your chances of being discovered.
The second strategy involves unbundling larger resources. That comprehensive unit or activity pack? Consider listing each component separately at a lower price point while maintaining the complete bundle. This approach creates multiple entry points for buyers, makes your bundle's value proposition crystal clear ("$10 worth of resources for just $5!"), and significantly increases your product count without requiring entirely new creations.
The final hack leverages strategic collaborations with other sellers. Even without a strong social media presence, you can drive traffic to your store by trading visibility with others. Whether it's promoting someone's product to your email list in exchange for Instagram exposure, participating in blog hops, or bartering with teacher influencers, these partnerships cost nothing while expanding your reach exponentially.
Ready to implement these strategies and see your TPT store flourish? Whether you're just starting out or working to reach that next income milestone, these proven approaches will help you work smarter, not harder, on your path to TPT success. Subscribe to our podcast for more insider strategies, and check out our YouTube channel for additional content on growing your teacher business!
If you're new to selling on TPT, then this podcast episode is for you, because I'm going to be sharing some secret hacks for growing your TPT store without having to do a lot of extra work. And even if you're not new, this can still absolutely be relevant for you. If you're still working towards growing on TPT and taking your business to the next level, this could be a benefit and a game changer for your store, because, after years of working with TPT sellers to help them grow their businesses, I found that a lot of times, there are some really basic things that a lot of TPT sellers do wrong. So let's talk about what those things are and how you can avoid them and, if you've already fallen for them, how you can correct them to accelerate your growth in 2025. If you're new here, hi. I'm Lauren. I've been selling on TPT for almost nine years. I'm in the top 1% of sellers and I've been out earning my old teaching salary since 2019. And I've spent the last almost four years now helping TPT sellers grow their businesses and take their business to the next level. And if that's you you're wanting to take your business to the next level, then stick around, because we're diving into those secret hacks right now, hack number one.
Speaker 0:
One of the biggest mistakes that I see sellers make and it's not necessarily like a mistake, it's just a missed opportunity, and I see sellers make this all the time, particularly in ELAR, primary grades, history things like that is when you have a resource that could overlap and work for multiple grade levels. A lot of times they'll try to list the resource as being ideal for multiple grade levels. Now, there are a couple of problems with this. The first problem is you can only tag up to four grade levels without getting penalized in search, so you can either choose up to four grade levels, even if your resource might truly be suitable for more than four grade levels, or you can tag just the four grade levels, or you can say not grade specific. For the vast majority of sellers, though, there really is an audience that your resource is best suited for. Even if it's an ELAR resource or a primary grades resource or something that students review over and over again throughout the years, there's usually one or maybe two specific grades that it's going to be best suitable for, and then maybe it could also be appropriate for a grade below or a grade or two above.
Speaker 0:
But here's the thing. By creating a resource that is suitable for multiple grade levels, you're really not casting out a wider net. You're actually probably narrowing your net down quite a bit Because when it comes to keywords that I can use in my title, I'm really only limited to 80 characters. So if I'm going to use all 80 characters for new sellers, many times some of those 80 characters are going to be dedicated towards grade levels like third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade. Well, if I have to put all of those grade levels on there, I'm eating into the number relevant keyword search terms that are actually relevant to the topic, the type of product that I have and more that I could be using, rather than all of those grade levels, which means I might be casting a really wide net. But in casting that really wide net, I might have a teacher. That goes well.
Speaker 0:
If I'm teaching third grade students, how can this resource really be tailored to a third grade student and to a sixth grade student? In many cases it can't be, and I know some of you are gonna try to argue with me in your head, but just keep listening, because I promise I've got an idea for you that's gonna make you wanna change your mind on this. Rather than trying to create a resource that casts a wide net and offers a lot to a variety of teachers, why not take that same resource, make small changes to the resource and make one version that is truly best fitted for third grade. Then make a second version that is best suitable for fourth grade Maybe it's just slightly more rigorous, fifth grade and sixth grade Increase the reading level, increase the difficulty a little bit, but create a resource that could truly be tailored to each one of those grades.
Speaker 0:
Now, I'm not talking about a major overhaul of the resource. I'm talking about small tweaks and changes to differentiate each grade just a little bit. What this is going to do is that, rather than having one resource that is going to cast a wide net and potentially alienate a lot of your buyers who might come and look at it and say, oh well, I'm a sixth grade teacher, I'm not gonna buy something if it's appropriate for third grade and making them feel like, is this really suitable for sixth graders, rather than making them question that, just create a version for each one. Now, instead of one product showing up for one set of search results, I have four products that are showing up for four different set of search results. So now I have four resources that are out there, casting a much wider net than that one resource ever could.
Speaker 0:
Now is there the potential that individually, those four resources may not get the same amount of traffic as that one resource? Yeah, there's that potential. But overall you're going to find for the vast majority of people, if you split one resource into four products that are perfectly tailored for a different grade level. You put that grade level on the cover and so it's going to catch that third grade teacher's eye, or it's going to catch that sixth grade teacher's eye, because they're going to realize this was made specifically for my students. You're able to put the grade level on the cover. You're able to really pinpoint hey, these are the specific standards that are covered here. Cover. You're able to really pinpoint hey, these are the specific standards that are covered here, and you're able to whittle it down to just one grade. Then you're going to find that cumulatively, those four resources are going to bring in more views, more traffic and probably much more earnings than the one resource ever could alone.
Speaker 0:
Now this hack is not only great for helping you get more eyes on your products and more visibility within your store by multiplying the number of product listings that you have, with small tweaks and changes. Again, we're not listing the same resource multiple times and just putting a different cover on it. You do need to have differences between each product. It would be against TPT's terms of use to take the same product, list it four times, each with a different cover, but have the same product on the inside. You do need to make some tweaks and changes to it, but for a small amount of effort you're really increasing the potential return on your investment and this is a really simple way to do that. Let's talk about secret hack number two Now. This one's a little less common but still really powerful if it applies to you.
Speaker 0:
A lot of times, I'll see TPT sellers group a bunch of items together. So a really good example of this might be to have a set of like 10 different St Patrick's Day worksheets or St Patrick's Day activities and they'll group them all together and sell them as a bundle, which is really great as a bundle. But what I would encourage you to do if you have a really big bundle of resources or even a unit In fact, there's a seller in RTA who's really incredible. She's been with us for a very long time and when she first started in RTA, one of the things that I told her was to unbundle her units. She had geometry units and I told her unbundle all of those, list the notes separately, list the tests separately, list your reviews separately, list everything separately. And her income skyrocketed because there are so many more opportunities for customers to buy into her products.
Speaker 0:
When I have a bundle of resources, that bundle of resources is naturally going to be a little bit more higher priced because it has more in it. But if I take some of those resources and I unbundle them and I create separate listings for each individual product, now we're talking about things that could stand alone. So, for example, if I have a set of 10 different coloring sheets on Rhythm, well, I might wanna separate those and list each coloring sheet individually. So I have 10 different listings for those 10 different coloring sheets and I can bundle them together at a much lower price. Now what this does is it makes my bundle look a whole lot more valuable, because if each one of those coloring activities individually is a dollar and I have 10 of them, I bundle them all together and it's worth $10, but I'm selling it for five. Originally I was gonna sell it for five anyway, but now it looks like and the buyer can see very clearly, they're getting $10 worth of product at a 50% discount when they purchase everything together in the bundle. And I now have 10 different individual listings leading to that one larger $5 bundle. So I am increasing the odds that I'm going to be able to drive traffic to that higher listing. And for someone who isn't quite ready to spend $5, $10, $20 on one of those higher ticket bundles or those units, they have a much lower cost buy-in so that they can try your resource, they can test your product and they can assess the quality of your work without having to spend very much money. Again, this works for all kinds of things. It works for bundles, it works for units. Just take a look at what's in your store If you have resources that maybe aren't doing well, all bundled together and you have the option to unbundle them.
Speaker 0:
Yes, you're going to have to create covers and previews for each individual listing and that might be a little bit of a pain, but you're able to literally multiply the number of products that you have in your store just by unbundling them and create so many more opportunities for buyers to find you. Hack number three you can collaborate with other TPT sellers to help drive traffic to your products. I've done this before whenever I didn't have a strong Instagram presence In fact, I still don't have a strong Instagram presence for my math store but I had a strong email list and so I bartered with other TPT sellers who had a strong math presence on Instagram social media and told them you share my product with your social media following and I'll share one of your products with my email list and we trade it out. You could also do something like around Robin, where you each take turns. You know, pick four or five different people on social media or in a blog and you can each take turns trading with each other to give a shout out or to talk about each other's products in a way that's natural and conversational and doesn't sound like a giant sales pitch. This can help bring more awareness to your store, bring more awareness to your brand and bring more traffic to your products.
Speaker 0:
Another way that you can do this is by trading with, say, a blog collab. You can do a collaborative blog or a blog hop. If you have a blog, each person would write a blog post that leads to their product line. So let's say you have five sellers. Each one of you has written a different blog about your product, about your product line or maybe some tips and tricks that leads to your product line or even leads to an email opt-in. And then you create one blog post where there's a short description and a link to each of the individual five blog posts and you guys all share out, send emails, share on social media, even send a note to your TPT followers linking to that one main blog post that links to all five. So now you're getting a lot more traffic to your blog and then sending out from your blog, sending more traffic to your TPT store, and the great thing about a blog is that it lives there forever.
Speaker 0:
You would be surprised at how many TPT sellers are eager to collaborate with other sellers, and regardless of the size of their account.
Speaker 0:
So many sellers want to be included in these types of collaborations and they don't know where to start.
Speaker 0:
So finding some different sellers that you can reach out to to collaborate with this can really help increase traffic to your own TPT store and cost you literally nothing. You might also be able to find a way to barter with a teacher influencer who may not even be a TPT seller, and you might even be able to ask them to advertise your products in exchange for sending them free products in your store, or something like that. Now, again, the terms of this is probably gonna depend on what size audience they have and how active and engaged that audience is, and you might not be able to barter something that doesn't cost you anything in return, but sometimes it might be worth a shot. You just never know. Thanks so much for being here this week. You guys, as always. I appreciate everything you guys do to support the podcast and for showing up and listening every single week. If you haven't checked out our YouTube channel, make sure to check us out on YouTube, and I'm gonna see you right back here next week.
