You can sell a wide variety of original, educator-created K-12 content on Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT), including printable worksheets, digital activities, lesson plans, classroom decor, task cards, interactive notebooks, clip art, fonts, and even full curriculum units, focusing on solving teachers' problems or bringing them joy, with popular items often being low-prep, subject-specific, or seasonal.
TPT has made it easier for teachers to sell original Canva resources. If you're interested in creating resources for sale, sign up for Canva Free or Canva Pro using a personal email that's not affiliated with your school email – you can check out Canva's seller guidelines here(opens in a new tab or window).
Yes, you can absolutely make money on Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT), ranging from a fun side income to a significant revenue stream, but it requires effort, creativity, and treating it like a real business, not just a hobby, by creating high-quality, original resources and potentially investing in a Premium membership for better payouts. Success depends on creating sought-after materials (like unique worksheets, lesson plans, or digital activities) and effectively marketing your store, with some sellers earning hundreds or even thousands monthly after putting in consistent work.
10 Best Things to Sell on Teachers Pay Teachers
For a $100 sale, Shopify typically takes around $3.20 on the Basic plan using Shopify Payments, which is 2.9% ($2.90) plus a 30¢ fixed fee, but this varies by plan, payment method, and location. If you use a third-party payment provider (like PayPal), you also pay Shopify's additional transaction fee (0.5% to 2%) plus the third-party's own fees, significantly increasing total costs.
For a $100 sale on Etsy (assuming item price + shipping = $100 in the US), you'd pay around $9.95 in base fees: $0.20 listing, $6.50 transaction (6.5% of $100), and about $3.25 for payment processing (3% + $0.25), totaling roughly $9.95; however, this jumps to $20-$25 or more with optional ads, international fees, or if you're in a high-cost country.
The Etsy shop setup fee—ranging from $15 to $29—is just one of several costs you may encounter when establishing a presence on the platform. While it can feel like a hurdle, knowing about it in advance and factoring it into your startup budget can help you launch smoothly.
Let's check the most common mistakes you, as a new Etsy seller, may make.
TPT isn't “too saturated.” It's too full of opportunity for you to sit it out. 💪 There are over 3 million teachers in U.S. classrooms alone—and they all need fresh, creative resources. What sets you apart isn't luck. It's strategy.
The 70/30 rule in teaching generally means students should spend 70% of their time practicing/talking and only 30% receiving direct instruction, shifting focus from teacher-led to student-centered learning for deeper engagement and skill-building, especially in language learning. It also applies to planning (70% activities, 30% content) or content selection (70% understandable, 30% for improvement).
Brief profiles top earners on TpT
1. Deanna Jump: Deanna Jump is perhaps the most well-known success story on TpT. A kindergarten teacher from Georgia, Deanna became the first millionaire on TpT by selling her innovative and engaging lesson plans.
Here are just a few of highest selling Canva templates!
Canva's Content License Agreement does allow you to use both Canva Free and Pro Content to design and sell a range of products (see section 5 of the Content License Agreement) such as: templates. posters, mugs, t-shirts, stickers, and other printed products. e-books and magazines.
Teachers Pay Teachers 101: Selling on the Side
The main downsides of Etsy include high and accumulating fees (listing, transaction, payment processing, and off-site ads), intense competition leading to price wars, difficulty building your own brand identity (customers often remember "Etsy" not the shop), and a marketplace increasingly filled with mass-produced items that dilute the handmade ethos, plus reliance on Etsy's policies and algorithm. Sellers also face risks of unexpected suspensions or bans, and significant effort is required for management and SEO.
In accordance with the Etsy Payments Policy, reserves are placed on accounts based on different risk factors, such as, but not limited to: A sudden sharp increase in orders. Orders are consistently missing tracking information or tracking events. Orders aren't shipped on time.
How much does it cost to sell? Transaction fees are only 6.5% per sale. It costs $0.20 to list an item for 4 months. Your first 40 listings are free!
You can choose to pay a monthly subscription for Etsy Plus. This is optional but does give some benefits of listing and marketing credits. This costs $10.00 per month (plus tax) and gives the following benefits: A monthly budget of credits for listings and Etsy Ads.
Yes, you can make good money on Etsy, but success depends on factors like product quality, pricing, marketing, and niche targeting. Successful Etsy shop owners invest time in optimizing their listings and engaging with customers.
Is Etsy cheaper than Shopify? Etsy is generally cheaper than Shopify since there are no monthly costs and most of the features for creating a store are free. But in the long term, when your business grows and you get more orders, managing an Etsy store might cost you the same amount of money that Shopify does monthly.
Creating your e-commerce shop on Shopify for free is feasible. However, consider quickly switching to the paid version if you intend to sell your products. This platform actually offers only a 3-day free trial.
The Basic plan is usually the best Shopify plan for a small business. It offers everything you need to build an online store, sell products, and accept payments at an affordable cost. As your sales increase, you can upgrade to the Advanced plan or even Shopify Plus if your business requires more scalability.