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.