Some lessons I learned during this week's fast induction into the TpT seller world
Without getting into the details of producing useful quality products (that’s another story), at the get-go, I reconfirmed that the presentation of your product is critical. This I knew already and was the reason I had not posted any creations earlier. I wasn’t comfortable using Mickey-Mouse clipart here and there (and I don’t mean the brand name! I mean the mishmash of styles often seen in other teacher files).
However, I finally decided that I was missing out on the Teachers Pay Teachers party (Thank you, Michele!) and pushed myself to get going. I wanted to:
· avoid amateurish (mishmash or home-made) or cookie cutter designs, which I am tired of seeing everywhere around school (i.e. mycutedesigns, whimsical art, etc.—--no offense to the artists, just not my style).
· have some basic go-to art of my own and knowledge to feel confident to create at a moment’s notice the actual content of whatever lesson or plan I want.
· maybe sell those new artistic creations to others who need them?
· use some original fonts in my documents, like I’ve seen done—which I like when it’s not overdone.
So here are my newly-found secrets:
FONTS:
I discovered a favorite font called GoodDog Plain (thank you Ethan!), which I got the font from http://1001fonts.com/free-fonts-for-commercial-use.html. The site has tons of choices for different styles of fonts. Pay attention to the different colored icons. Truly free, with no attribution are the green $ tags. There are also pink $ tags. Those require some credit or attribution or something, if used for commercial purposes.
CLIPART AND BORDERS: I will always attempt to have my own art and creations first. I’d rather choose my style and not get encumbered with lots of credits to others. This might not always be possible, however. I have learned about a great website for royalty-free clipart called http://pixabay.com.
If you are not good at borders, there are several resources on TpT of cute designs to use for free or for a small licensing fee.
FONT CREATION: By far my most ambitious and fun project has been how to create fonts, or any type of digital art, for that matter. I am using several windows-based or open source freebie software programs for this. The beautiful thing about having font icons (art assigned to your keyboard!) is that it is always at your fingertips, it is scalable, it is of crisp quality (debatable, based on what you made or got) and can be colorized with a quick change of text color on your word processor. You can use it as decorations, side or background images, borders, etc. So far, I’ve made an ABC font where each icon is a vocabulary word starting with that letter of the alphabet (lower case, primarily). But I will make more! The programs I’ve used for this include: Paint, GIMP2, Inkscape, and once the files are ready and vectorized, I go to https://icomoon.io/app to create the TrueType Fonts. The site comes with a lot of step-by-step instructions to guide you through the process. Plus, it’s really fun!
And last, but not least,
COVERS and SECURITY: After completing all of the work above, when you are ready to post your file to the TpT world, you have the added pressure of, again, making the best first impression. For this you need a well-designed cover. I made my first one today. I used the art created above and designed using Powerpoint, Paint and Inkscape. Finally, you wrap everything up in a secured PDF file.
Next, I will be the one selling my wiggles and doodles for top dollar! (I wish.)
You know, You can do it, too! Go ahead. Empower Your Life!
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Empower-Your-Life
You can get a downloadable copy of this text, here.