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Product lines are an easy way to make more resources and money once you know what they are and how to use them.  Here’s what you need to know to get started.

What Are Product Lines?

Product lines are a group of products that are similar and from the same brand.  Product lines might also be described as a group of products that function in a similar way and are targeted toward the same audience.  Both descriptions used by the world are true in my TpT business too. Once you find your niche, or your main thing, it’s much easier to create product lines.

Benefits of Product Lines

Product lines make it easier to make more resources because you know what it will look like and all the steps the students and teacher will need to complete an assignment.  The basic idea is planned you just have to fill in the details.  It’s like every curriculum you use in school.  Your math lesson might consist of a whole group lesson, followed by small group work, then independent work, and wrap up with an exit ticket.  You basically know what your math period will look like, but the details are different every day.  Predictability helps your class anticipate what’s coming next.  By creating product lines, you help yourself create lessons and teachers teach them.

A template is the basic outline of a product in which you can fill in the details.  You can even use the last resource you made as a template by duplicating it.  Once you have a template you can fill in the details and change out key directions.  Once your details are filled in you just need to add appropriate clip art.  Working from a template rather than a blank canvas makes resources creating much faster.

How Do You Decide What TpT Product Lines to Create?

Look at your Product Statistics page on TpT and play with the toggles.  You can see conversion rates and sales numbers.  Once you look at what’s selling you know what to create more of or stop creating.  

I create sensory table themes for my son.  I switch it out every month or so.  For a while, I was creating a resource to put on TpT, but they weren’t selling at all.  Some of them have been up for a year and not one has sold.  Clearly, there is not currently a need for these lessons on TpT or maybe I didn’t use SEO correctly.  But without any sales, I haven’t continued to make more sensory table resources.  The product statistic told me I didn’t need to create them.

I have created many poetry lessons.  It’s my thing and where I see a lot of my sales.  I wouldn’t have my students write an acrostic poem for every holiday, but I do sell one for every holiday because that is the form of poetry most teachers are familiar with.  Acrostic poems are a product line for me.  As long as they continue to sell I will continue to make them.

Since I started my TpT store a year ago I have learned a lot about product design.  As I rounded the first year of having my Teachers Pay Teachers store, I decided I should start updating my products.  I had heard of other sellers doing this once they had over 300 resources and I didn’t want to wait that long.  So, I started.

I am going to share some of the things I’m updating in my TpT resources. 

1. Fonts

I am updating my TpT fonts.  I found a good basic easy to read font early on and I love using it for just about everything.  Honestly, I am a little sick of it myself, but I haven’t come across a better font for text that needs to be easy to read. When you are creating resources for kids, they need to be able to read the fonts easily and I think this font is perfect for that.  The fonts that I am updating are for my titles and headings.  I’ve learned how to create a more attractive title that really pops off the page and grabs the buyer’s attention more.  Even the way you line up the fonts in your titles makes resources that are more desirable and cuter.

2. Clip Art

My clip art needed a makeover too.  As I update my resources, I am making sure that my clip art is cute and appealing.  I have never been a clip art person myself.  It won’t be the make-or-break buying point for me, but for some teachers it is. I also want my clip art in black line and color.  This leads me to my next update.

3. Black and White Edition

When I first started, I wasn’t making a black and white edition of my resources.  Again, I wouldn’t mind buying a color version and just printing it in black and white.  But some teachers look for the black and white version.  It’s a bit of a pain in the butt but making a black and white version should make more teachers consider buying my resource.  I’m adding a black and white version as I update my resources.

4. More Value in a Resource

As I’ve become a better curriculum creator, I’ve added some basic things to most of my products.  For example, now every resource I create has a revision and editing checklist specific to the resource (it only takes a few edits to do this).  When I first started, I didn’t have this checklist.  Now I am adding it into my resources.  It makes my resources more complete and easier to use.

5. Titles and Descriptions

I am also updating my product titles and descriptions using SEO.  I heard about SEO early in my TpT seller journey, but like everything else as I practiced more, I got better at using SEO.  So, I am writing more complete product descriptions with SEO. 

1. Social Media

Continue to plan my social media posts weekly.  I have reserved Saturday nights to write my social media posts.  I also want to use this time to check YouTube comments, and write an email.  If I don’t get to finish all this on Saturday nights then I finish it on Sundays.

2. Pinterest Fridays

Pinterest is a great way to get my TpT Resources seen by more teachers.  And it’s free to use, with the opportunity to promote pins or pay for ads later.  I started using Pinterest last spring, but have been terrible about consistently making pins.  I plan to work on Pinterest by simply planning to create pins every Friday.

3. Learning Goal

I am going to be working on listening to the coaching calls from The CEO Teacher School.   I have several calls downloaded but haven’t listened to them yet.  I am going to be working on this all month.  I want to listen to at least 10 this month.

4. Reach out to a Publisher About Copyright Material

I started to research how to contact a publisher or copyright own about using copyrighted material.  I have products that I mention books in.  I want to make sure that I am operating above board and have permission to use any material I reference.  

5. Read a Business or Personal Growth Book

This is a goal that I put to the side because I easily completed it each month.  However, once it was off my goal list I stopped doing it.  I think personal growth, mindset, and business knowledge are important areas of growth for an entrepreneur.  

6. Batch January Blogs and December YouTube Videos

I am trying to stick to a specific amount of time for creating blogs and YouTube videos.  I am only releasing what I manage to get done in that amount of time.  Surprisingly, this strategy has helped me become more efficient.

7. 10 Products for TpT

This goal is the goal that pushes me to use my creative time efficiently.  Working to get a set number of resources helps me create and stay motivated.  Regularly putting resources up on TpT helps teachers find my TpT store and increase my opportunity for revenue.  This month I am working on creating 5 new resources and updating 5 resources.

8. Make $100 on TpT

Last month I made just over $80.  It wasn’t quite my goal, but also 4 times what I made last November.  My goal is to consistently make $100 a month. Consistently creating new resources will help.  $100/ a month is $3.22/ a day this month.

1. Social Media

Continue to plan my social media posts weekly.  Reserve a weekly time to check YouTube comments, and write an email.

I have continued to successfully plan out my social media posts.  Right now my social media focuses on sharing my TpT resources, blog tips, motivation and self-care.  I would love to add more about me into my social media because I am my brand, but I am just not there yet.  

2. Learning Goal

There are some videos in the CEO Teacher School I haven’t watched yet that I would like to.  I think I will be ending the membership soon since I have worked through most of the material.

I set aside the last day of the month, November 30, to watch videos from The CEO Teacher.  Thanks to being able to watch them in double speed I was able to finish all the videos.  There were some great tips in them and I am glad I found the time.  I have a decision to make about the membership in the next few days.

3. Reach out to a Publisher About Copyright

I am going to see if I can get an actual answer from the publisher about the poem I want to use.  I can’t believe that it is this difficult to find an email address.  

I did set aside time to start this task.  I did some research about how to reach out to a publisher or copyright owner.  I downloaded some templates of letters that I can use to reach out, but haven’t finished the process.

4. Fix My Life Skills Lessons SEO

Now that I think I found a usable SEO term I should be able to fix the product descriptions on these products so that teachers find them.

I thought for sure I wasn’t going to manage to update these product descriptions again.  I started to update my Life Skills bundle about half way through the month.  I made new thumbnails and finished the SEO research.  I wrote out the description and got one posted before I ran out of time.  On November 29 I finished updating my lifeskills bundles.  I was really cutting it close this time, but it’s done and I am so happy because this task took me far too long.  I did learn a lot more about SEO research from it though.

5. Batch December Blogs and November YouTube Videos

I feel like both blogging and YouTube went better last month and I plan to continue this method of staying within the time I’ve allotted for content creation.  The only thing I might change is tracking my hours for each step because often times my work time will get cut short when my toddler wakes from his nap early.  I might change my writing plan specified hours to spend on content creation rather than days.

Since my blogging week was the week of Thanksgiving I did need an extra day this month.  I started with my plan of writing on the writing days.  I finished three blogs and outlined a fourth blog.  On my editing day I moved onto editing.  And I was lucky enough to finish editing the three blogs I finished early.  So I went back to the fourth blog and finished writing it out.  But writing it out took longer than I thought.  Editing carried over one more day.  So then I created my graphics a day late. 

I still think this plan worked better than trying to create all the blogs.  I was able to complete everything with a couple of extra hours rather than an extra week of stress.

6. 10 Products for TpT

I plan to continue to push for 10 products each month.  This goal pushes me to make the most of my creative work time.  However,  I am going to adjust it.  I am going to create 5 products and revise 5 products.  The revision could be the product itself or the SEO in the description.  Whatever creative time I have left for the month will go towards creating grammar.

I am so proud because I over achieved on this goal.  I created seven new resources for my TpT store and I revised 5 resources for my TpT store.  If you count my Life Skills resources I also revised 8 product descriptions.

7. Make $100 on TpT

Last month I made over $100. I am hoping I will be able to consistently make $100 a month on TpT.  Consistently creating new resources will help.  $100/ a month is $3.33/ a day this month.

I did not reach this goal this month I made $80.50.  I was really bummed about this because last month was so great.  I hit the toggle on my dashboard that lets me compare this year to last year.  Last November is when my resources started to sell.  Last November I made $20 on TpT this NovemberI made four times that.  I may not have met my goal, but I like to think positive about what I have accomplished.

Time is the most valuable commodity of a teacher and TpT author.  There is just never enough time and if you are managing your TpT store while still in the classroom then I have to tip my hat to you because you are amazing.

Time is a popular topic and there have been many books written about time management and productivity.  I recommend you read some because they are amazing and eye-opening.  I have read several of these books and heard about many tips on podcasts and they have influenced and changed the way I run my TpT business.

Here are a few of my favorite tips in no particular order:

1. Schedule everything
2. Set due dates
3. Start with the hardest thing on your list and get it done
4. Use completing a few easy tasks as motivation by gettting them crossed off your list. (Honestly I don’t love this one because I have a toddler so I need every minute I have for bigger tasks, but I know some people love this.)
5. Work for 25 minutes and take a 5 minute break
6. Schedule just enough time to complete a task.
7. Make a plan
8. Plan to get 2-3 things done in a working period/day 
9. Plan on one large task each week
10. Batch

Today I am going to talk a little bit about how some of these have influenced my business, particularly in the area of blogging.

Over the last several months I decided that I would put on my writer’s hat for a week and try to get all my blogs done for the following month.  Every podcast and book I read talked about batching and I was experienced enough in my business that I thought I was ready to try it out.  I was also learning about how to write a more effective blog at the same time.

What I quickly realized was that batching is not easy.  It’s really hard to plan, write, edit, and create graphics for 4-5 blogs that are at least 1,500 words in one week.  It sounds easy and doable since I had been writing a blog every week for at least 6 months, but it wasn’t easy.  It always took me much longer than I intended, which also meant that I wasn’t creating as many products as I wanted.

As teachers, we are constantly ready to revaluate and rework the problematic areas of our day/week/month.  So that’s what I did.  I asked myself how I could get it done in the amount of time I wanted.  I had already applied several time management and productivity tips.

1. I scheduled 5 days each month for blogging
2. I had the due date of the end of the week, but at the latest it needed to be done by the following Thursday for posting.
3. I planned a day for research and brainstorm, three days for writing, a day for editing and a day to create graphics.
4. I’d work on writing and take a break.
5. The entire process was batching.

So with these in place, I still needed to reevaluate how to make this work.  My schedule is mostly restricted by my toddler so that’s was the biggest challenge.

The Fix to My Time Management Problem

I did two things to fix this scheduling problem.  

1. I went from five days of writing to seven.  I just planned that it would take Sunday and Saturday too.  Writing always took me longer than I expected and sometimes I am not a great judge of time.  I try not to schedule TpT for the weekends.  If I finish everything then I have free relaxing time and if I don’t there is time for me to finish some work. However I decided that during my blogging week I should plan to take this time for blogging.  It gives me a more realistic time frame.

2. I decided that whatever I got done during the time I scheduled would be what I would post. Blogging is a long-term growth plan for my business.  I started a blog literally because I heard other TpT sellers say that I should and then found that I like it.  I don’t have to post every week.  It’s good for my website if I do, but okay if I don’t.  

So I changed my mindset. I decided to stick with my plan.  One day to plan, three days to write, two days to edit, and one day for graphics.  These might overlap slightly, but I will stick to my plan.  If I get three blogs planned, written, and edited then those are the three I will post that month.  If I get one for each week that’s great, but if I only get two done that’s okay too.  

The funny thing is I think this plan to publish what’s done took some of the pressure off to finish all the blogs.  It was so much easier to blog when I knew if it wasn’t done there might be a week without a blog.  

I’ve only had success with this time management plan for one month so far, but I’m hoping that it will continue to work for me in future months.  I am hoping that as time goes on my writing will get more efficient and will maybe even take less time than I plan for.