TPT Avengers: Assembling a TPT Seller Community

Hey Teachers, we’re building a community of lifelong learners.

Time to LEVEL UP your own Social-Emotional Learning and Teacher Side Hustle!

Think Avengers, but better.

  • This is real-world “make the world a better place” kind of stuff.
  • It’s about being a lifelong learner, personal development, and financial freedom.
  • And maybe a few Marvel Avengers references.

How do you know if you’re a good fit?

Criteria 1: You watched the TPT Avengers video

Criteria 2: You agree with the core values in this video about How to Build a Successful TPT store:

Criteria 3: You can add to the conversation (disagree or build on ideas) in this live stream Master Class about dealing with changes to the TPT Search Algorithm

If you answered yes to the three questions, click here.

This is the start of something special.

PRO TIP for TPT Sellers: As you read this page and visit this site, think about what I’m doing to try to build my community. Then, think about what you could do to build a community for your TPT store. Leave a comment on this video.

PRO TIP for Teachers in the classroom (and out of the classroom): How do you personally build classroom community? Regardless of the age of students, people are people. What do you do that might transfer well to a TPT community or this TPT Seller community? Leave a comment on this video.

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Avengers, assemble!

I’m trying to gather Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to fight against … wait, wrong multiverse.

I’m trying to connect with like-minded TEACHERpreneurs who see selling on TPT as a way towards personal development and financial freedom.

This is all about me AND this is all about you.

If you agree with what I say in this keynote speech at 2:09, you will love this place.

This is all about me.

  • I want to find my people.
  • I want to level up my emotional intelligence and supercharge my own social-emotional learning by working on a difficult but important teacher side-hustle project (i.e. selling on TPT.)
  • I want to make a million dollars selling on TPT.
  • I also want to make a million dollars by helping TEACHERpreneurs sell on TPT.

This is all about you.

  • I want to bring as many of you up the financial freedom ladder with me as possible.
  • A rising tide lifts all boats.
  • I won’t steer your boat. You have to build your boat and do all the work. But I’ll help create the knowledge and infrastructure that lets us get there.
  • In other words, you do you; I’ll do me. You become a student of your own personal and financial growth; I’ll do the same. But we’ll hang out and help each other up along the way.

PHASE 1

The journey begins

PROJECT 1: Build a raving-fan YouTube Community

Find like-minded TPT Sellers (and TPT Sellers who haven’t started yet) to engage

YouTube Search is the second largest search engine (after Google), so having content with TPT Seller related keywords should make us attractive to the algorithm

SMART Goal:

Not set yet. But vaguely, trying to use YouTube as a third-party platform to find our people.

SEOT analysis:

  • STRATEGY: Create high-quality free content about selling on TPT through the lens of personal development and financial freedom.
  • EFFORT: I’m not sure what to write here. Committing to a video production schedule right now would be too intimidating for Mike. Basically, work non-stop.
  • OPTIMIZE: Figure out what works to increase 1) number of subscribers and 2) number of hours watched. Pay attention to YT Studio metrics, comments (count and engagement), and community polls to see which leads to increase subs and watch hours. Use TubeBuddy to do A/B testing and to do basic checklists of content.
  • TINKER: Try different formats to see what works: videos, shorts, live stream, pre-recorded live stream, interviews, master class

Mission Milestone #1: 500 subscribers

At 500 subscribers, YouTube unlocks the community tab where we can do polls.

This is probably the most transparent way to get feedback from the SEOTpreneur community about what kind of content they would like to see.

Mission Milestone #2: 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours

We need 1,000 subs and 4,000 hours of footage viewed to join the YouTube Partner Program.

When that happens, we’ll receive a portion of YouTube ads. (It’s not a lot.)

We’ll also be able to directly link from videos to the SEOTpreneur website. (I think.)

Joining the YouTube Partner Program is more of a signal that we’re a legit YouTube channel.

Mission Milestone #3: ???

Any suggestions? What do other YouTube channels do? Leave a comment on the TPT Avenger video.

PROJECT 2: Build a Website to Attract Organic Traffic

Find like-minded TPT Sellers (and TPT Sellers who haven’t started yet) to engage

Google Search is the largest search engine. By putting long form content on the website, we can attract people searching for TPT Seller keywords.

Then, we direct them into the YouTube community which is the base.

The website is where we cultivate our email list with strong lead magnets. (Not sure what those will be.)

SMART Goal:

Not set yet.

SEOT analysis:

  • STRATEGY: Get transcripts from YouTube videos to create SEO structured posts from the YouTube content. (i.e. Repurpose the YouTube content onto the website) Submit to Google for priority indexing.
  • EFFORT: I need to outsource this.
  • OPTIMIZE: Do keyword analysis and tracking using free services i.e. Google Search, Google Search Console.
  • TINKER: Consider searching on SEMRUSH for high traffic, low competition keywords.

Mission Milestone #1: Repurpose 20 YouTube videos

At 500 subscribers, YouTube unlocks the community tab where we can do polls.

This is probably the most transparent way to get feedback from the SEOTpreneur community about what kind of content they would like to see.

PROJECT 3: Create a Club Newsletter that people want to read

Nurture relationships with TPT Sellers who have signed up for our club newsletter.

Initially, make it really easy to sign up.

Lots of free content; high-quality stuff targeted towards building TPT Products, TPT Stores, TPT Brands, and TPT Businesses. (Those are not the same thing.)

Eventually, we need to monetize the newsletter.

SMART Goal:

Not set yet.

SEOT analysis:

  • STRATEGY:
  • EFFORT:
  • OPTIMIZE:
  • TINKER:

Mission Milestone #1: 100 Subscribers

At this point, we’ll release our first freebie TPT Blueprint for TPT tadpoles (but with high quality strategies that TPT hamsters may not be using.)

  • Collect ideas from the community

IDEAS

So many shiny objects

Here are some possible ideas and services we could provide fellow TPT sellers.

Once we hit 500 subs, we can start doing some community polls on the YouTube channel to see what subscribers are interested in.

(Here are some free ways you can help us get to 500 subscribers.)

Note: Although free is lovely, we need to create a sustainable business model. (You don’t only have free products on your TPT store, either.)

IDEA A: Tools to help TPT Sellers

A1. FREE and PREMIUM Teacher Seller Websites

  • WordPress websites so teachers can start building on their own land
  • SEO Strategies
  • Tutorials on Google Search Console
  • Tutorials on Google Analytics
  • Tutorials on Google Tag Manager (event tracking)

A2. TPT SEO Product Description Tool

  • You copy the TPT Product Description’s text into the website.
  • You identify the keywords you’re trying to rank for.
  • The online tool gives suggestions on what you should tweak and where to put the keywords.
  • You paste the revised text back into your TPT product description.
  • And, Bob’s yer uncle.

A3. TPT Data Analysis Tool

  • Essentially a Google Data Studio template that you connect to your own Google Sheet of data from your TPT store.
  • The tricky part is that humans don’t have the discipline to collect product data on a consistent basis.
  • Yes, we could automate it, but it’s against TPT policy. I’m currently waiting for TPT support to clarify what we can and cannot do.

“Don’t use any automated means such as bots, spiders, or crawlers to download or otherwise obtain data from our services.”

SOURCE: Guideline for All TPT’ers

A4. TPT Seller Social Network

  • Basically, a modern version of the TPT Seller Forum.
  • An independent think-tank focusing on personal development and financial freedom
  • Read more about the Stark Tower, er SEOTpreneur Social Network.

I want to be a part of the magic!

Awesome! Me too!

The first thing we need to do is grow. Here’s how you can help us grow.

We also need to figure out a sustainable business model.

And, a secret handshake.

I’m not sure which one should take a higher priority, but I’ve got ideas about secret handshakes.

More seriously, here are some things I currently need help with:

  • Someone with demonstrated experience using WordPress
  • Someone with experience moderating conversations and keeping the peace in online communities
  • Someone with a pet tadpole. (Seriously. Do we need a mascot? Priorities, people!)
  • Someone with developer experience with WP and BP. Words like wp-config, PHP, functions, javascript, and coffee do not scare you.
  • Someone who speaks fluent English and can transcribe the How to Sell on TPT (Teachers Pay Teachers) playlist on the SEOTpreneur channel. (Grammarly checked with proper paragraphing.)
  • Someone with a flair for writing social media posts (Facebook)
  • Someone with developer experience with Zoho, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Search Console; Must love pokemon go.
  • Someone who can look at themselves in the mirror with their eyes closed.
  • Someone who can tidy up the YouTube AI automated transcripts from the YouTube videos using Grammarly (or proper grammar and paragraphs if you speaks English good.)
  • (List last updated Dec 19, 2022)