I just had my one-year anniversary on TpT as a seller. I first started my TpT journey in August of 2020. My family needed more money and my son needed me. I thought this was a great opportunity to engage my brain, be involved in teaching, and possibly make some money. I started off with Youtube research because that’s what my students do when they need to learn something. I came across one seller from Becca’s Music Room who did a great job explaining how to start a TpT store. She really helped me get started.
I had used my TpT account as a teacher for years. I switched to the free Basic Sellers account in August 2020. Then while I researched, I started to create resources. Once I had about 10 resources ready to go, I talked with my husband about maybe switching my account to the Premium Account. This was my first investment in my business. Here are some of the differences between the two.
| Basic | Premium | |
| Cost | Free | $59.95 |
| Payout (What You Keep) | 55% | 80% |
| Transaction Fees | 30 cents per resource | 15 cents on orders less than $3.00 |
| File Size | 200MB | 1G |
| Video Uploads | No | Yes! You can upload video previews and video products |
| Access to Premium Features and Marketing Tools | No | Yes |
| Able to Participate in School Access Catalog | Yes | Yes |
| Maximum Number of Uploads | No | No |
Some sellers wait until they make $60 on the free account before they upgrade, but I didn’t. It was the first investment I made in my business. I decided that it would be worth it to keep more of my money from the start. I was confident that I was going to make my TpT store successful.
There is no right or wrong answer. It’s really just a matter of what you can afford, or what you want to do.
Here’s a little math. A quick google search will give you dozens of examples like this.
As a basic seller, a product listed at $2.50 will give you a payout of$1.07
As a premium seller, a product listed at 2.50 will give you a payout of 1.85
70 cents isn’t much, but when you multiply that by 100 it’s $107 compared to $185. I’ve been on TpT a little over a year and I’ve sold 177 products.