Saturday, September 1, 2012

Teachers Pay Teachers vs. Teachers Notebook

I have been on TpT for a while now and I am loving it. I can post the materials I make for my classroom to share with other teachers. I love how the world of teaching has evolved into a such a sharing environment and I am so thankful that websites like Teachers Pay Teachers are allowing us to do this.

Now, I haven't yet purchased the premium membership for TpT. I am not making thousands of dollars through TpT, so I can't decide if this would be worth it. But I have been contemplating becoming a selling member over at Teacher's Notebook. After a morning spent researching, I have decided to pay the $20 to set up a Teacher's Notebook lifetime seller membership. Here are the pro's and con's of each site as I have gathered from my research:



Teacher's Pay Teachers-
-Free to buy and sell under the non-premium memberships
-More traffic than Teacher's Notebook

Teacher's Notebook-
-Sellers get 100% of their sales immediately (minus PayPal fees)

Because I get more back as a seller, I am going to make my TN products cheaper! So I feel that this is a win-win for buyers and sellers of my store. You can find my Teacher's Notebook store here:



Remember, it's free to sign up as a buyer!

I will keep you all updated about how my membership through Teacher's Notebook goes. Anyone else have feedback about a preference for TN or TpT? I would love to add your thoughts to this blog post, so opinions are welcome!




If you'd like to sign up to Teachers Pay Teachers, click here:


UPDATE: Teachers Notebook has changed their policies since this was originally posted in 2012.

Please read this comment from this post (original comment below) from a representative from Teacher's Notebook-

"Hi there all:

Full disclosure, I am writing as a representative of Teachers Notebook, in hopes of clarifying. Jennifer, above is correct. Teachers Notebook made some big changes in January to last year's pricing model. You can now open a free shop, and everything is completely free. You take home 75% of your sales minus a 30 cent transaction fee.

Or you can choose to upgrade to a premium shop at anytime. You pay a one-time $49.95 fee, but you bring home more in sales profits -- 90% mins a $.15 transaction fee.

We usually recommend starting with a free shop and upgrading when you feel you are making enough sales to justify the $49.95 fee. Or if you are already confident in your sales on other sites and your materials, then start with the premium shop, because your take home profit is higher than on a free shop.

If you are considering the time involved in trying Teachers Notebook, our customer service is hands on -- we can advise you where to start, based on what kind of products we know sell well, and based on knowledge of our inventory. We are very sensitive to your time, and pride ourselves on reaching out to help new shop-authors maximize their time to make sales

Sorry for the marketing. Just wanted to clarify how Teachers Notebook works now in 2013. We also have video tips, clipart and other really cool new tools. Check us out!

--Ryan"


12 comments:

  1. I'm a fan of TpT! Best of luck with TN! :) Happy to be a new follower- stop by sometime!

    Kimberly
    The Learning Tree

    ReplyDelete
  2. I haven't tried TN yet and although I have been a seller on TPT since 2008, I really don't sell much. I started blogging this past July and it is amazing how much traffic that can bring to TPT. I pay for the premium membership because I read somewhere that if you profit at least $60 a quarter, it is worth it to pay the premium. Hope that helps! I teach 4th grade also and am your newest follower:)
    ~Holly
    Fourth Grade Flipper

    ReplyDelete
  3. So far I only sell on TpT but I feel the upgraded membership is definitely worth it! You will make a lot more money! Let me know how Teacher's Notebook works out. I've been contemplating opening up a store there as well but worry that I don't have the extra time.

    Liliris
    Fourth Grade Garden

    ReplyDelete
  4. I haven't tried Teacher's Notebook because I don't like to spend money before I make money. It was a year before I was making enough on TPT to justify the premium membership, but after I did my sales SHOT up. I'm not saying it was the upgrade that did it; I probably worked harder at it once I decided to make the commitment to it, but I'm glad I did it. I'm making more money selling materials I had to make ANYWAY than I am with other online ventures (ad revenue for article websites has totally tanked since 2008). I think teacher-publishers like us are more motivated to make better teaching materials, and that's the beauty of a free market! :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just opened oth, keep us posted on your progress!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was just googling TpT vs TN and stumbled upon your blog :) I have been a seller on TpT for about 9 months, and after I made about $100 I decided to to get a premium membership. I wish I had done it to begin with, because it has been SO worth it! :) Another plus with the premium membership is that you don't have to pay the $0.30 paypal fees for each item!

    I am thinking about setting up a TN account too.. $20 for a lifetime membership sounds pretty good to me! I just don't know how much traffic it gets vs. TpT!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I just started blogging and uploading things onto TpT 3 months ago. This past month I listed my first few items for sale and pretty much upgraded to a premium membership with them. It's slowly starting to pick up and get some traffic. I hadn't heard about Teacher's Notebook until this past week and I have been weighing the pros and cons of the two sites when I stumbled across your blog post. The membership is now $49.95 for a premium account and you still have to pay transaction fees on each item sold. However, the membership is a one time fee. I would love to do both but just don't have the time to post on both sites right now. How had your account with Teacher's Notebook been going?!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I just started blogging and uploading things onto TpT 3 months ago. This past month I listed my first few items for sale and pretty much upgraded to a premium membership with them. It's slowly starting to pick up and get some traffic. I hadn't heard about Teacher's Notebook until this past week and I have been weighing the pros and cons of the two sites when I stumbled across your blog post. The membership is now $49.95 for a premium account and you still have to pay transaction fees on each item sold. However, the membership is a one time fee. I would love to do both but just don't have the time to post on both sites right now. How had your account with Teacher's Notebook been going?!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi there all:

    Full disclosure, I am writing as a representative of Teachers Notebook, in hopes of clarifying. Jennifer, above is correct. Teachers Notebook made some big changes in January to last year's pricing model. You can now open a free shop, and everything is completely free. You take home 75% of your sales minus a 30 cent transaction fee.

    Or you can choose to upgrade to a premium shop at anytime. You pay a one-time $49.95 fee, but you bring home more in sales profits -- 90% mins a $.15 transaction fee.

    We usually recommend starting with a free shop and upgrading when you feel you are making enough sales to justify the $49.95 fee. Or if you are already confident in your sales on other sites and your materials, then start with the premium shop, because your take home profit is higher than on a free shop.

    If you are considering the time involved in trying Teachers Notebook, our customer service is hands on -- we can advise you where to start, based on what kind of products we know sell well, and based on knowledge of our inventory. We are very sensitive to your time, and pride ourselves on reaching out to help new shop-authors maximize their time to make sales

    Sorry for the marketing. Just wanted to clarify how Teachers Notebook works now in 2013. We also have video tips, clipart and other really cool new tools. Check us out!

    --Ryan



    ReplyDelete
  10. I seem to be late to the party. Nevertheless, I have a question. Is it okay to sell the same products on both TPT and TN? I haven't been able to find any information regarding that yet. Any thoughts from you would be most helpful! Thanks!!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. You guys should check out TeachShareGrow.com. It's brand new and sellers have no start-up fees, same commission as premium sellers on TPT for free, and immediately get paid after sells.

    ReplyDelete