How to start a TPT website / blog to increase sales on your TPT store

So, you think you want to start a TPT website or TPT blog for your TPT store to drive more qualified sales leads to your TPT store.

And, you look around and see other TPT sellers trying to sell their TPT products on their own WordPress website, and you think you might want to do that too!

Or, you heard that you need to build on your own land (i.e. a domain name you own) to futureproof your business.

Maybe you want to start creating landing pages to give out a freebie (which upsells to your top selling bundles)

No problem.

Where do you begin? Right here.

What’s the point of starting a TPT website / blog?

You know all those TPT websites and TPT blogs you’ve seen other sellers create?

Forget about them.

They are way further along the TPT seller journey than you are.

If you’re looking at a TPT seller website or blog and it has all sorts of bells-and-whistles, just remember:

1. Just because the TPT seller has an e-commerce store of their own, doesn’t mean they are making any sales. (In fact, by having an e-commerce store on their TPT blog, they’ve just prevented themselves from backlinking from their TPT store. TPT terms of service don’t allow you to drive traffic to another e-commerce platform.)
2. That seller has spent either a lot of time (or paid someone) to set up that website.

Remember when you first started your TPT store and it was an empty little thing that paled in comparison to the TPT stores at the top of the TPT search pages?

It’s kind of like that.

Let’s start with the basics. Get proof of concept that this TPT website / blog has potential to increase sales. (And, that you enjoy working on it.)

As you start to see success from your website / blog, continue to work on it.

DO NOT SELL YOUR TPT PRODUCTS on your TPT website. Do this instead.

The point of your TPT website / blog is NOT to create a sales platform. (We use TPT for our sales mechanism.)

You create a TPT website or blog to showcase your Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness in your TPT seller niche.

By the way, EEAT is how the Google algorithm judges the credibility of your website. Google’s search algorithm basically tries to find quality stuff for people searching on their platform.

In other words, follow the EEAT principle on your TPT website and blog, and you will help build rapport and trust with your TPT store community.

People who trust you will feel more confident about buying your resources.

(Or, to put it differently, if people don’t trust you, they won’t buy your products.)

Learn more on this SEMRUSH page about Google’s EEAT principle and how to create content for your TPT seller website. That’s what we’re going to be doing on our website.

Here’s what I’d recommend.

STEP 1. Play with the free WordPress website that you get for being an SEOTpreneur PRO member.

If I you’re an SEOTpreneur PRO member and I haven’t set up your WordPress website on the SEOTpreneur.com network yet, just send me a note in the SEOTpreneur PRO discussion form.

Don’t worry about themes or making it pretty. Just create blog posts about your topic.

The point is not to create a perfect site and launch. The point is to get proof of concept that this process can work for you. Think about EEAT.

STEP 2. Buy a domain name and set it up on your WordPress website on the SEOTpreneur.com network

Buy a domain from me (SEOT hosting) for $12 USD.

• You can buy a domain name from anywhere. Companies charge different annual prices but the registration is the same.
• Watch out for first-year pricing at $12.99 which renews at regular pricing of $19.99. (Source: Bluehost domain pricing)
• Find a domain name registrar that includes free domain privacy (like SEOT hosting or Cloudflare) instead of charging you $15 per year for domain privacy.
• The cheapest place to buy .com domain names is from CloudFlare which includes domain privacy for free. They’re so big, their wholesale pricing is cheaper than what I can buy through my business. This is where I buy my domain names because I’m technically savvy to know what I’m doing.

If you don’t want to worry about the technical stuff, or you plan on using the “lifetime FREE .com domain name” promotion with SEOT hosting, you’ll have to register your domain with SEOT hosting.

• When you buy your domain name from SEOT hosting, I’ll set it up on your SEOTpreneur.com wordpress website so you don’t have to do anything.
• If you buy your own domain name, you’ll have to point the DNS servers yourself.

Please note, if you buy your domain from me (SEOT hosting) for $12, this will cover your first year domain registration, and right now, will cover your TEACHERpreneur.VIP design fee later on.

This way, we can start building on your land (domain name) right away on your free WordPress website on the SEOTpreneur.com network

STEP 3. Create content on your TPT website / blog

Create content on your TPT website / blog (Go back to step 1. Remember, the point is to build EEAT and to send qualified traffic to your TPT products.)

Use the free version of All In One SEO (AIOSEO) to learn how to optimize your content for specific keywords

Use the free version of Monster Insights to set up Google Analytics

The goal is to get increased page views on your TPT products from your TPT website / blog.

NOTE: The TPT dashboard / UTM marketing traffic system is a little problematic. Sometimes, the TPT system doesn’t always attribute sales to a specific UTM code – instead, it just lumps this under “TPT” as the source, when in fact it’s not. If someone visits your website, clicks to your TPT product and doesn’t buy your product during that visit, it won’t be attributed to your website.

PRO TIP: If you don’t want to set up All In One SEO, Google Analytics, or Google Search Console yourself, then sign up for the TEACHERpreneur.VIP service and I’ll do it for you!

Step 4. Look for signs that your TPT website / blog is working

Spend 90 days of hard work creating regular content and submitting to Google Search Console.

It will take time for a new site to get indexed on Google. (Remember, you’re looking to build EEAT)

Here are some signs that your TPT website / blog is working.

• People are clicking from Google search to your TPT website. (i.e. Pageviews in Monster Analytics)
• You’re sending traffic from your TPT website / blog to your TPT store (i.e. TPT pageviews increase or you see visits showing up in the UTM dashboard, but without sales)
• People visit your TPT website / blog, and then click to visit your TPT product page and then buy immediately (i.e. TPT sale attributed to the UTM dashboard.)
• People visit a landing page on your TPT website / blog and download a unique freebie (i.e. # of downloads) – the unique freebie leads to upsells of a bundle product.
• Increased engagement from your audience (i.e. comments, or emails citing your website.)
• Increased email newsletter sign ups.

STEP 5. Once you see how the whole TPT seller website / blog thing works and you have your ah-ha moment (i.e. you start to see a little success / traffic / sales), then we get more serious.

I will be offering a TEACHERpreneur.VIP website design service for TPT sellers.

Basically, you pay me $12 USD (regular price $250) to set up your WordPress website

• I set up 1 homepage / landing page
• I set up 1 product page.
• I set up Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Cloudflare DNS
• I install the pro (ELITE) version of the All In One SEO plugin, the pro version of the Monster Insights (Google Analytics plugin), and set up Google Search Console within your WordPress website

Terms and Conditions apply.

• For example, it needs to be on an annual SEOT hosting plan. I’d recommend starting with the cheapest option (BASIC plan: $16.50 per month = $198 annually.)
• The $12 you paid for the domain name covers your design fee (because right now, you get a free lifetime .com domain name with annual SEOT hosting plans.)

Once we’re on an annual hosting plan, we’re committed to spending 12 months trying to grow your TPT seller website.

You ask questions in the SEOTpreneur PRO forums, and I try to make WordPress tutorials where I can. (You know me – too much to do, too little time.)

A few things:

1. Don’t start your SEMRUSH trial yet.

Instead, ask me to do a free keyword analysis for you on this page: https://seotpreneur.com/free-tpt-data-analysis-tool-80-20-visualization-chart-to-sharpen-your-tpt-business-strategy-episode-019/

When you’re ready to start a SEMRUSH trial, the 14-day extension is here: https://seotpreneur.com/review/semrush-for-tpt-sellers/

2. You’re going to want to create re-purpose your TPT product pages onto your TPT website, but I don’t think that’s the best idea. I think a better approach is to build trust and expertise by writing high-quality articles about your TPT niche (through blog posts.)

Let me know what questions you have!