Here are the top TPT Seller questions that I get asked.

Do you have a question?

  • If you’re an SEOTpreneur PRO member, click the blue “New Discussion” button on this page to start a new discussion thread.
  • If you’re not an SEOTpreneur PRO member, ask your question by leaving a comment on this video.
  • Learn more about SEOTpreneur PRO to increase your TPT earnings and level up your TPT business.

NOTE: This is NOT legal advice. Please consult a lawyer if you have questions about intellectual property.

TPT Seller Questions and Answers

Do I have to add a preview PDF or video to my TPT product? Does it boost TPT SEO position ranking?

I think, for me, the answer to all TPT questions is, “be so good, they can’t ignore you.”

But here’s a technical answer to your question:

  1. Forget about TPT SEO
  2. Just think about selling resources to teachers.
  3. Why might a teacher be afraid to buy your resource?
  4. They’re worried that they might waste their money on a resource that doesn’t meet their need.
  5. So, I try to reduce fear by showing teachers exactly what they get before they buy.
  6. One way to do that is by having previews and videos.

So, the issue isn’t if the TPT SEO algorithm gives bonus points if you have a preview PDF or video.

  • It might, actually, because that’s probably a pattern that good sellers do – they add a preview.
  • So, the TPT engineers might have programmed the algorithm to give TPT products with previews a few bonus points to outrank other TPT products that don’t have previews.
  • They could also hard-code the TPT search algorithm to prevent TPT products without previews from showing up on the first page. (I think I heard some TPT sellers complaining that there were products on the front page without previews…)

The bigger issue is the TPT SEO algorithm has to favor sales and conversion rates.

So, if your product makes teachers feel safe in buying your resource, then you’ll get more sales…. and more sales will boost your TPT position rank for that product.

Should I repurpose my TPT content and sell it on other marketplaces?

Some TPT Sellers will tell you that since you’ve already created the content, it’s easy to just post it on a different marketplace to sell and make extra money.

I think this is a bad idea for established TPT hamsters and TPT hawks. Here’s why: Episode 17 (at 8:50)

  • 9:53 The theory is you’ll get more sales from diversifying on different platforms
  • The reality is you’re increasing the complexity of your sales workflow and increasing your work 10:57
  • You’re creating customer confusion 12:16
  • You might be violating TPT Terms and Conditions and jepordizing your existing TPT products 13:08

How do I get more sales on TPT? What’s the TPT SEO Snowball Effect?

Essentially the idea is that sales have to be one of the top TPT SEO ranking factors in the Teachers Pay Teachers search algorithm. It has to be. The platform’s goal is to make money.

If two products are equal, but one has significantly higher earnings, which one would you give the best spot to?

So, the more your TPT product sells, the higher it will rank in the TPT search algorithm. It’s like a compound effect or a snowball effect.

When you’re rolling a snowball – in the beginning, you have just a small handful of snow, but eventually the ball grows bigger and picks up more snow and rolls into a boulder.

But, if TPT doesn’t rank your product high enough to get seen, you won’t get any sales on TPT, so you never really gain rank. Even though your product might be the best product.

(Likewise, if you have a legacy product that was made when TPT was a young marketplace, and you have lot of sales, even if your product is crappy very basic, and the covers are poor, you’ll still rank at the top of TPT search. Want an example? Ask me on this video.)

  • So, do your own marketing, find your own sales leads, send them to your TPT product page, make sales, get a boost in TPT search rankings,
  • so you’re seen more by teachers shopping on TPT
  • so you get more sales, and your product generates more money, which is a larger TPT SEO signal boost,
  • so you get more views and sales, etc, etc, etc.

Watch episode 24 at 9:05 to see an explanation of the TPT SEO Snowball Effect.

How do I become successful on TPT? How can I make money on TPT?

Can you become a millionaire selling teaching resources on Teachers Pay Teachers? Yup.

How much can you make on teachers pay teachers?

How can I give advice to other TPT sellers to become successful if I’m not a millionaire yet?

Because we can learn about success from other people who are successful in their space.

The answer to all questions about how to improve on TPT boils down to the following advice I learned from Steve Martin:

Be so good, they can’t ignore you.

I know you’re looking for technical answers (like TPT SEO strategy, or TPT tips and tricks), but watch Episode 13 at 14:56 to see why that’s not the answer.

I think someone has pretty much copied my resource, and they’re selling it on TPT. What can I do?

Great question.

First of all, I’m not a lawyer. Nothing here should be considered legal advice. It’s entertainment based on my lived experiences and understanding. Please consult an intellectual property lawyer for advice.

Again. This is NOT legal advice. Definitely consult an intellectual property lawyer about your options.

Copyright Infringement on TPT is an interesting thing.

TPT, like other user-generated content platforms, has an intellectual property infringement policy that has to follow the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and other laws.

As a service provider hosting content produced by our community, TpT isn’t in a position to make legal judgment calls or resource comparisons, so we often have to rely on formal Notices to take action.

SOURCE: TPT Copyright Policy

That’s why you can find teaching resources that look suspiciously like copyright infringement on TPT.

  • Basically, TPT doesn’t pro-actively take down copyright violations.
  • Only the copyright owner can ask TPT to take down a resource (through a formal copyright complaints process.)

Here are some options you can do if someone is selling your stuff on TPT

This is NOT legal advice. Definitely consult an intellectual property lawyer about your options.

Here are some things you might do:

  1. Contact the other TPT store directly and ask them to take it down.
  2. Do nothing.
  3. Consult with an intellectual property attorney about your options and then file a formal notice to TPT here that you are the copyright owner.

Filing a formal copyright complaint on TPT is serious stuff

This is NOT legal advice. Definitely consult an intellectual property lawyer about your options.

Here’s some information from the TPT Copyright Policy.

If your notice has all of the required information and TPT processes your request, they will

  1. Reach out to the other TPT store…
  2. Forward them your copyright claim notice
  3. Take down the material from the TPT platform.

Copyright Notices — We’ll review your Notice of Copyright Infringement to make sure it contains all of the required information. The more specific your explanation is about which parts of a resource you believe are infringing, the easier it will be for us to process your request and ensure that the infringing content is removed. When we do take action on a notice, we reach out to the member who posted the content, forward them your notice, and remove the material from our site.

SOURCE: TPT Copyright Policy

Note – it’s not over yet. The other TPT store might do nothing, and then in five days, the resource gets taken down permanently and refund are issued.

Or, the other TPT seller might file a counter-claim saying you made a mistake and they’re willing to accept a service of process (i.e. law suit) – see below.

What can I do if another TPT store says I’m infringing on their Copyright?

This is NOT legal advice. Definitely consult an intellectual property lawyer about your options.

If TPT forwards you a copyright infringement notice, this is serious stuff.

It means TPT has taken down the resource in question temporarily.

You have five business days to file a counter-notice, or

  • TPT will provide refunds to buyers who purchased the resource.
  • TPT will deduct those refunds from your current earnings (or future earnings.)
  • TPT will take the resource down permanently.

We [TPT] immediately 1) remove your resource from the TPT Marketplace so that it can no longer be purchased and 2) reach out to you to provide you with information about the removal. Five business days later, if you have not filed a counter-notice, we will provide refunds to those Buyers who purchased your resource within a year of this removal. We do this because Buyers lose access to resources that are removed. Your earnings from those refunded purchases will be deducted from your current or future earnings.

SOURCE: TPT Seller Questions – What happens when my resource is removed from TPT for Intellectual Property Infringement under the DMCA process

Here are some options you can do if TPT forwards you a Copyright Infringement legal notice

This is NOT legal advice. Definitely consult an intellectual property lawyer about your options.

Here are some options:

  1. You can do nothing. In this case, TPT will refund purchases to previous buyers and deduct the refund from your current and future TPT earnings.
  2. You can file a Copyright Counter-Notice to TPT.

TPT does not make any legal decisions about whether a resource is copyright infringement or not. They simply follow a process (and ultimately let the courts decide if something is copyright infringement, if it gets to that stage.)

If you have made the determination that your resource is NOT copyright violation, then you can file a legal counter-notice to TPT.

Copyright Counter-Notice Process — If you’ve received a Notice of Copyright Infringement from us about one or more of your resources and you wish to dispute the claim that your work is violating the copyright of the notifier, you can submit a Counter-Notice to our Designated Agent. A reply to the email we sent you works just fine. Your Counter-Notice needs to contain…

SOURCE: TPT Copyright Policy

Basically, you’re telling TPT that under penalty of perjury,

  • you have good faith that a mistake has been made and your resource should not have been removed.
  • you agree to accept legal action from the person who filed the copyright notice.

Your Counter-Notice needs to contain … Statement by you stating that: a) you consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal Court for the judicial district in which your address is located or, if your address is outside of the USA, for the judicial district in which TeachersPayTeachers is located, and b) that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of the alleged infringement;

SOURCE: TPT Copyright Policy

This means that if you file a counter-notice, the other person can sue you for copyright infringement, and this can become a costly legal battle.

Note: If your address is outside of the US, it looks like the legal case will take place in New York which is the judicial district where TPT is located.

What can I do if I file a TPT copyright infringement notice and the other TPT store says I made a mistake and files a Copyright Counter-Notice?

This is NOT legal advice. Definitely consult an intellectual property lawyer about your options.

So, you filed a copyright complaint to TPT.

TPT took down the resource (temporarily) and forwarded the complaint to the store in question.

The other store responded within five days to TPT with a copyright counter-notice saying that their resource is NOT copyright infringement.

TPT does not make any legal decisions. They’re simply the content platform.

TPT will forward the counter-notice to you, and you have TEN DAYS to make a decision. (Consult an Intellectual Property Lawyer.)

  1. Do nothing. After ten days are up, TPT will put back the resource that they temporarily took down (as if nothing happened.)
  2. Take further action to legally protect your copyright and let TPT know that you’ve started a legal case. TPT will respect the legal action, and the resource in question will remain blocked.

Here’s what the TPT copyright policy says about whether the resource in question is taken down or restored at the end of this process:

If your notice [the Copyright Counter-Notice] includes all of the [required] information, we’ll [TPT] forward it to the folks who sent the original notice. Then they’ll have 10 days to let us know if they’ve initiated further action to legally protect their work. If so, we have to respect that and your material will remain blocked from the site. If we don’t receive anything from them, we’ll put your resource back up at the end of that 10 day period.

SOURCE: TPT Copyright Policy

Watch Episode 18 at 10:18 to see an example of a cost-benefit risk analysis I made using the CASEL Wheel (which is intellectual property owned by CASEL.)

SOURCE: TPT Copyright Policy

A seller has basically taken my resource, modified it for a younger / older grade, and they’re selling it on TPT. Can they do that? Is that copyright infringement?

This is NOT legal advice. Definitely consult an intellectual property lawyer about your options.

This is where it gets tricky.

Consider this: You find another TPT store that is basically selling a modified version of your resource. Is this copyright violation?

  • You think it’s copyright infringement.
  • The other TPT seller thinks it’s fair use.

To be honest, it doesn’t matter what you think, or what the other seller thinks.

It also doesn’t matter what your lawyer thinks, or what the other seller’s lawyer thinks.

What matters is, if the case goes to court, what a judge thinks. Only a judge can determine if this is copyright infringement or fair use.

So, the question is whether your modified resource would be considered by American courts as a “derivative piece.”

Why is this an American legal issue? I live outside of the US.

This is NOT legal advice. Definitely consult an intellectual property lawyer about your options.

Because as TPT sellers, we agree to the TPT Terms of Service in order to use their platform.

The Terms of Service means we agree to their Copyright and Trademark Policy

By using our Services as a Visitor, Member, or in any other manner, you agree to follow these Terms, including the terms of our Privacy Policy, Copyright & Trademark Policy…

SOURCE: TPT Terms of Service

TPT has a Copyright Policy that states what jurisdiction the copyright case will be determined in.

It looks like if the person with the infringing resource in question decides to file a Copyright Counter-Notice, then they consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal Court in their address, or in the judicial district of TPT if they are outside of the US.

Either way, the copyright case will be seen in a federal court under American copyright law (which can be different from other countries.)

Your Counter-Notice needs to contain … Statement by you stating that: a) you consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal Court for the judicial district in which your address is located or, if your address is outside of the USA, for the judicial district in which TeachersPayTeachers is located, and b) that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of the alleged infringement;

SOURCE: TPT Copyright Policy

If I modify another seller’s resource to sell on TPT, is that copyright infringement?

This is NOT legal advice. Definitely consult an intellectual property lawyer about your options.

Maybe. Maybe not.

It looks like American copyright law protects the rights of an author against the creation of derivative pieces.

Here’s what the TPT Copyright Policy points out as a general definition. And, they also point out that in no way should it be interpreted as legal advice.

Copyright refers to the rights of a creator or author of a unique piece of work to protect against copying, display, reproduction, creation of derivative pieces, and so on.

SOURCE: TPT Copyright Policy

Let’s see what else we can find on the internet:

Here’s what the US Copyright Office says.

A “derivative work” is a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications, which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a “derivative work”.

SOURCE: US Copyright Office Definitions

And US Copyright Law says that if you create something and you’re the copyright owner, you also control the rights to create derivative works

… the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following: (2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;

SOURCE: US Copyright Code s.106(2)

What I personally find interesting is that US law says that you can’t copyright an idea.

(I don’t know what that means, exactly. I’d have to pay a US Intellectual Property Lawyer to find out.)

In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.

SOURCE: US Copyright Code s. 102 (b)

Bottom line?

This is NOT legal advice. Definitely consult an intellectual property lawyer about your options.

Here are some things to consider:

  1. Consult an intellectual property lawyer.
  2. Do a cost / benefit analysis to decide if it’s worth creating a modified resource that might one day get a copyright infringement notice from another TPT store.
  3. Do a cost / benefit analysis to decide if it’s worth filing a copyright notice against another TPT seller and potentially take them to court because they modified your resource and posted it on their store.

Here’s an example of a cost / benefit analysis I made about copyright.

Have a question?

Ask in the comment section on this video.

See you in the next comment!

Cheers, Mike