How Does Teachers Pay Teachers Work?
So let’s chat about how to get the best bang for your buck with Teachers Pay Teachers. This website is a huge site of educational resources that are available to teachers and the public as anyone can access the site to download the products.
You can create your own account for free, and the brilliant thing with the account is that you can keep track of your purchases and wish list of products as well as follow your favourite sellers.
These resources are great for teachers as well as homeschoolers and anyone looking for things like digital graphics. Resources are available immediately as a downloadable product so no waiting for postage or paying extra to receive your item.
Yes, I use affiliate links in my posts to products that I believe will help you and your kids. See my affiliate disclaimer for more info. Thanks, for supporting my work, you will not pay more for products or services when using my affiliates links.
How to Get Teachers Pay Teachers for Free
The brilliant thing with Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) is that there are a massive number of free resources that you can access.
Each seller is required to put up a free resource before they can upload their first paid product.
The free clip art is fabulous for creating your own visual resources for homeschooling! The really excellent stores will create free products which showcase their quality and the buyer really benefits from this.
The teacher-authors have not just created printable resources, you will also find many different digital resources such as google docs, boom cards, videos and other interactive files.
If you do download and use these free products please make sure that you are kind and leave feedback for the seller. This helps the seller lift the profile of their store and gets you in the habit of leaving feedback which can actually get you more freebies, see more info below.
Make the Most of Your TPT Wish List
Did you know that TPT will save a wish list for you to use?
You can put resources on your wish list by clicking the “add to wish list” writing that appears under the Big red download button on the right-hand side of the screen when you view a product.
You can use this list to your advantage in several ways. You can save products that you may consider buying and then compare them to similar products.
Making a wish list can be useful for sale time as you can get the resources you have had your eye on at a better price.
You can keep your budget intact by placing resources that you can’t afford this time around to consider for next time you have money to spend.
When Does Teachers Pay Teachers Have Sitewide Sales?
TPT will throw Sitewide sales approximately four times a year. During these sales, you can save up to 25% of products!!
Actually you can get 30% off products when you leave sellers reviews because you get 5% of every dollar you have spent as credit from TPT. Just for leaving a review!! It adds up.
Teachers Pay Teachers give the individual authors the opportunity to put their products on sale for up to 20% off and then TPT will give the buyer an extra 5% off.
To get the extra 5% off you will need to use a coupon code for that sale at the checkout. To find this code you will need to keep an eye out for storewide sales banners on some of the seller’s stores or on their social media.
This is a good reason to follow your favourite sellers.
You may also like to check back on this post from time to time as I will add the TPT sitewide sales banners as soon as they are available.
TPT sales
Sitewide sales are not the only sales on TPT. The individual store holders can choose to put their products on sale whenever they like. I have seen some stores place new products at 50% of for the first 48 hours after they launch it. Now there is value!! Keep an eye on sales by installing the TPT app on your phone. Some smaller stores may do more regular sales as a way of advertising their store whilst they try to break into the market. Be mindful that the seller pays extra fees to TPT for any purchases that are under $3. So if you buy 2 products for $1.50 then the seller will save on fees but if you just buy the one product then they get less money from the purchase.
Buy bundles especially on store-wide sales
Individual stores on Teachers Pay Teachers can choose to bundle their products together. They may then allocate a discount to the bundle as you are buying more than one of their products in one transaction. This bundled discount will be the everyday price for the resources. A sale price can then also be discounted from the bundle as well. So that means that the cheapest way to buy a product is when it is in a bundle, that the seller has discounted by 20% and then TPT will give you a bonus 5% on top of this!!
Earn USD Dollars just by buying TPT products
Leave a review and earn free resources! Yes, you can get free money!! The way you do this is by leaving a review on the seller’s product after you have bought their product.
Leave a review to get 5% of the cost of the product you bought and the credits are in USD!! So this means that if you have purchased a product/resource that was $3 then you can get a 0.15 cents credit. This may not seem like much but it does add up if you buy a couple of products.
As an Australian, it is worth more than 0.15 because it is in USD and when I use this credit to buy more things it is not subject to the current strength of the AUS against the USD!! To leave a review go to your name at the top of the page which takes you into your TPT account.
Then look for the heading My Purchases which is under Buy. Once you go into purchases look next to the product picture that you have bought and you will see some writing that says leave a review. Click this and leave your review. You will then have 5% of the purchase price credited to your account. Then check under account and account balance to see how much you have towards your next product.
(Listed Instructions Below)
How to leave a review on TPT
*TPT Account – (Top right of TPT page you are viewing)
*My Purchases (underBuy)
*Look for a product you have purchased
*Find green thumbs up
*Then click on leave a review (words in green)
*Follow TPT questions to fill in the review
*Check Account under your account settings
*Then Account Balance
*You then enter your credits at the checkout and enter the amount.
Please be kind when leaving reviews and be as helpful as you can so that the author can continue to make great products. Resources take hours and hours to make.
Follow Stores That You Like
For this reason, it is in your interests to follow Teacher-authors that you like and have already bought products from. Follow sellers on their blogs and social media for great info that can help you educate your kids. You can also follow sellers on their TPT store. There is a button near the seller’s logo that you just click on to follow them. They may then send you messages in your TPT account as each seller can send a message to all their followers once a month. You would be surprised by the wealth of information and value that the sellers will send you! Sellers may offer a competition for gift cards coming up to TPT Sitewide sale!! TPT gives a limited number of gift cards to sellers to promote their businesses. So you never know when someone you are following may have a gift card to give away which could mean you have the chance to get free Resources!!
Check your TPT messages as stores post information about products or individual sales. You don’t want to miss out!
Paying with Paypal
If you live outside of USA and are paying by PayPal, I recommend choosing to pay with USD. This forces the currency conversion to be done by your bank, and conversion fees from the bank are often cheaper than in PayPal. I find Pay Pal a safe way to pay for things online instead of using my visa card
Check out the TPT app
Search your app store for teachers pay teachers and you should find their green logo with their apple in the middle. In the app you can get notifications from sellers that you are following which come up when they post new products. You can also see which stores currently have sales and access recent blog posts. When searching for products on the go you can add them to your wish list to save time finding them again when you sit at your computer to purchase your next product. Great tool for researching products when you are waiting for your child at one of their activities!
Honour the terms and Conditions
Honour the terms and conditions of the seller. Each seller will have their own terms and conditions for how you are allowed to use their products. For example, you may not be able to share the product with others. I have specific terms and conditions for homeschool as I believe in strengthening families.
Is Teachers Pay Teachers Worth it?
Yes I have found huge value in TPT products. Excellent value can be found in purchasing a high quality product that meets the individual needs of your child or even for your self. Resources are also available for Adult learning.
All the best with exploring teachers pay teachers.
Please leave a comment below and let me know the best product you have found or used on teachers pay teachers.
Naomi
You may also like some of my other blog posts
Where Fractions Are Used in Everyday Life
What on Earth is Subitising?
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