Teachers Pay Teachers Review – Legit or Scam

Teachers Pay Teachers is a website designed for teachers to buy or sell their lesson plans. On the site, you can offer your videos, PDF files, flash cards or any other form of digital media for sale on the site. The site is open to all educators worldwide and publishers of educational material. It is easy to upload and offer different lesson plans for teachers to use in their classroom. Furthermore, you’ll earn money for your time and efforts and help other educators with the material you’ve uploaded on the site.

How Does it Work?

1. In order to buy or sell lesson plans on the site, you’ll need to create an account as a buyer or a seller.
2. Only a seller can upload and sell their documents on the site.
3. The site offers you a free or paid membership. With a free membership, you’ll earn less of a commission on the sales of your material.
4. The premium membership is a yearly membership and will be automatically paid each year through your PayPal account. You can cancel this membership at any time through your PayPal account.

Is The Site Free to Join?

1. The site is free to join. You can easily create a membership on the site for free.
2. However, the site does offer a Premium membership. This is a yearly fee of $59.95 and is set for automatic renewal with your PayPal account. Many people who sell their educational plans on the site will choose a premium membership so they earn more money when selling their documents.
3. The website also has a Publisher Membership and invites publisher to market and sell their educational resources on the site.

What Can You Sell?

1. You can create and upload resources to the site. The resources need to be listed under the appropriate grade level. For example, if you’ve created a resource to be used for 2^nd-grade  teachers, you’ll need to indicate this is for  2^nd-grade teachers.
2. If your resources can be used with multiple grades, you’ll need to indicate this in your description of your resources.
3. It is possible to create and upload video or audio files to the site. However, you should compress these files to make it easier to upload and download the file. With the free membership, you are limited to files no more than 200MB. As a premium member, you can upload files no larger than 1GB.
4. Each seller on the site has a store they will use to list their documents, video or audio files on. In the store, you can also create bundles to sell to other teachers.
5. The company offers an advertising program that will help you to promote your resources from your store. If you choose to use the advertising program, your items are placed in a high-profile, high-traffic location on the site. This is a paid service and the fees for advertising with the company will be deducted from your monthly earning before you’re paid.
6. If you don’t have sufficient earning in your account for advertising, you can purchase advertising with your credit card.

How Much Can You Earn?

1. You’ll earn 55% of your asking price for any item sold on the site. You’ll also need to pay a $0.30 transaction fee for each item sold.
2. However, if you upgrade your account to a Premium Seller account, you’ll earn 80% of your asking price for any item sold on the site. The site will also charge you a $0.15 transaction fee on any order that is less than $3.
3. The site also offers a special limited access self-service TpT Publisher Membership. This membership is for companies that produce educational material and wish to sell it to teachers on this site. If you create a Publisher Membership, you spit the sale of your document with the company.
4. Keep in mind most resources sell on the site for $2.00 to $3.50. However, some bundles will sell for a much higher fee and some package can sell for $30 or higher. You’ll need to determine how much you want to ask for your resources.
5. Some professional teachers will offer free resources to other teachers. This gives the other teachers a chance to review your resources. This also helps you to gain more sales for your paid resources.

How to Report Your Income:

1. If the site requires you to submit a W-9 for tax purposes, they will send you an email with the necessary instructions.
2. The site will issue you a 1099-K if you’ve earned more than $20,000 selling your educational material online.
3. The company will report your total gross sales and expenses on the 1099-K. This isn’t your table income and you may be able to deduct certain expenses from your gross sales when you file your taxes.

How Are You Paid?

1. The company works with PayPal and Dwolla for US only members.
2. You’ll receive payment for the previous month sales on or before the 21^st of the following month.
3. If you’ve earned more than $10,000 in sales the previous month, the company is required to send your payment in two installments.

Conclusion:

This is a legitimate website for teachers and published to sell their educational resources on. The site does take a commission and processing fee for each sale you make on the site. As a free member, you’ll earn 55% of your asking price, minus $0.30 processing fees. The fees are rather high on the site, but many teachers make a decent amount of money selling their resources online.

If you’d like to earn a higher rate for the sale of your resources it is advised to register as a Premium member and pay the membership fees for the year. This way you’ll earn 80% of each resource sold on the site, instead of 55%. Furthermore, you’ll only be charged a $0.15 processing fee for any item you’ve sold that is under $3.00.

Many teachers create special lesson plans and material to sell on this site. According to a few teachers, they can make more each month selling their resources than teaching a class. This is a great opportunity for educators to earn an extra income creating and selling educational resources on Teacher Pay Teachers.