Are you looking for a TpT Seller Course?
There are literally hundreds of courses out there marketed to TpT Sellers – not all of them are great and not all of them are offering what you need in your business right now. Courses can take up a lot of time -time that you could be spending actually working ON your business – so it’s important to choose wisely.
How to choose a TpT Seller Course
Most courses are created by sellers who have done well on Teachers Pay Teachers, but that doesn’t mean they have qualifications to help you improve your store.
Having a successful TpT store might be proof that a seller “knows what they’re doing” but it’s also important to remember that it was much easier to be successful in the early years of TpT. There are sellers out there who are very successful, but a lot of their success was built when the competition was much smaller.
When you’re choosing a TpT seller course, look for course creators who can offer you more than just their own experience. Training or background in marketing, small business, entrepreneurship, or other related skills beyond TpT itself are good indicators that the course will be high quality.
- Look for qualifications beyond being a TpT Seller
- Look for evidence that the course is frequently updated, since best practices on online platforms can change rapidly
When it comes to Teachers Pay Teachers Courses, buyer beware
Unfortunately, there are some sellers out there who not only lack qualifications, but actually offer advice that is not accurate. I had a bad experience once with a TpT course provider who advised a very time-consuming and useless practice to supposedly improve SEO. The worst part was that when I asked some questions about how this practice worked, I was kicked out of the course and called a bully. There are people out there, sadly, who are more interested in making money than in providing high quality.
There are some EXCELLENT course providers out there, so please don’t let me dissuade you from trying them out. But it’s also important to do your homework first and always take advice with a small grain of salt, just in case.
- A course provider will only post the best reviews on their own website. Look for reviews on third-party sites, and consider asking for recommendations (be careful where you do this though, because some course providers host FB groups and won’t allow recommendations for other courses)
Look at the pricing and refund options
The more expensive a course is, and the more difficult it is to get a refund, the more picky you should be before purchasing. Some courses have a high price tag for “lifetime” access, but if the course doesn’t fit your needs then it’s not worth it. Some courses will not refund at all after you have received access to the material, so make sure you are clear on the policies.
- Look for clear refund policies and make sure you know exactly what will happen if you are not satisfied.
- Do the math on monthly vs lifetime prices. Monthly can be better if you are able to subscribe for a single month to try it out, but can be more expensive if you plan to use it long term.
Consider looking outside of the TpT “World” for more targeted training
The same information seems to dominate most TpT seller courses. Most TpT sellers don’t have any business experience outside of Teachers Pay Teachers, and so I tend to see a lot of the same advice over and over.
If you’re just getting started and literally don’t know where to start, then a general TpT seller course might work best for you. However, if you have any indication at all at what areas you think you need the most help with, I would encourage you to look at specific trainings for those areas.
Look for experts in those skills, NOT necessarily those who are TpT-focused. I find you get better training and a more balanced perspective. Good business strategies will work with any type of business – they don’t need to be specific to TpT. I would much rather learn a specific skill from one of the best than learn a watered down version from a TpT Seller.
Recommended Non-TpT Resources for Professional Development
- Storybrand – Marketing mindset & messaging (you don’t need the expensive course either – buy the book and listen to the podcast and you’ll be good to go)
- Marie Forleo – Copywriting
- Rick Mulready – Facebook Ads
Look for Teacherpreneur Courses that teach the way you want to learn
There are hundreds of video-based courses out there. I don’t know about you, but I actually hate learning from video. There are very few people that I will tolerate video content from (one of them being the magnificent Marie Forleo).
For me, the problem with video is that I am also a busy mom. I am working while my kids are interrupting to ask for things. I can’t always find time alone to put on headphones or turn on my computer speakers and focus on video.
Also, I don’t have a lot of time, so I find videos far more time-consuming than reading text. I often turn up the speed of videos so I can get through them faster. Because of this I also favour courses that provide full transcripts of their video (again, one of the reasons I love Marie Forleo) or provide them in audio-only format (so I can listen in the car or while going for a walk).
Don’t get me wrong. There are times where video is definitely the way to go – such as when you are trying to lean a new piece of software. But I find a lot of courses use video for the sake of video. I just want to learn how to do the thing – watching a talking head doesn’t add anything to the experience for me.
- Research how the content in the course is shared. Is it only video? Video with transcripts? Are there worksheets or handouts to help you work through the material?
(I hate video so much that it’s one of the reasons that I created the Teacherpreneur Architect Planner – it’s basically most of the same info you’d get in a course, but in worksheet form. So you can just find the worksheet for whatever task you are doing, fill it out, and go)
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