Opening a TPT store? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Open your TPT store. Teachers are already searching there. Then open a second basket that belongs to you: a store of your own, with your name on it, for $25 a month. On TPT Basic you can sell in both from your first day.
Ready about 15 minutes after you order. No cut of your sales.
side by side
| TPT store | Your own store | |
|---|---|---|
| Teachers already searching | Yes | Not yet |
| Who sets the rate | TPT | You |
| Who holds the buyer list | TPT | You |
| Who can change the rules | TPT | You |
So open both. That is the point.
What sellers wish they had known in year one.
The deal can change.
Premium paid 80% and let sellers sell anywhere. It ends December 31, 2026. Sellers who built everything on it now choose between 77.5% on TPT only, or 55% and their other stores.
The buyer list stays with TPT.
You cannot take TPT reviews or the TPT buyer list with you. An email list of your own goes wherever you go, and it is easier to start with your first freebie than in your fifth year.
Do I have to pick one?
No. Keep your TPT store open. On Basic you can sell anywhere, and TPT stays your shop window while your own store grows.
Two baskets, two jobs.
They do not compete. One is where strangers find you. The other is where the teachers who know you come back.
TPT is your shop window.
Teachers arrive there already looking for resources. That search is worth having, and a new store of your own does not come with it.
- Buyers who have never heard of you
- TPT sets the rate: 55% on Basic, less $0.30 on every resource
- The reviews, the followers and the buyer list stay there
Your own store is the part you own.
Your name on your own domain from the start. Your files, your customers and your checkout, backed up off the server.
- Card fees of 2.9% plus 30 cents, and no cut of your sales
- A blog and a freebies page built in
- Nobody can close it on you
Which basket fills first? TPT, almost certainly. A new store has no audience yet, so the $25 is a bet on yourself until the sales show up. About six $5 sales a month cover the store. What you are buying in year one is the head start: a domain, a list and a shop that are yours when you need them.
The second basket also pays you more per sale.
- The teacher who found you in TPT search.TPT brought her, and TPT keeps 45% and 30 cents for it on Basic. For a buyer you would never have met, that is a fair trade.
- The teacher you brought yourself.She clicked your pin, your Instagram post, your blog or your email. Point those links at your own store, and that $10 sale keeps $9.41.
- About six $5 sales a month cover the $25.Everything after that is yours, less the card fees. Run your own numbers; a guess is fine.
Start your email list with your first freebie, not in your fifth year.
On TPT, the buyer list stays with TPT. In a store of your own, a free download can sign a teacher up to an email list that belongs to you, so every new resource you make has someone to go to.
- First: a list, one good freebie and your two tags.The list is the audience nobody can take away from you. The Meta Pixel and Pinterest tag start learning who visits from the first day.
- Then: pins and blog posts.Both are slow to start and keep working for years. The blog is built into your store.
- Last: ads.Paying for clicks makes sense once your Analytics shows which resources sell. Not before.
The get-found kit
An add-on, not part of the $25: your email list with a newsletter sign-up form on your store, a freebie sign-up and a welcome series, and both the Meta Pixel and the Pinterest tag, set up together. The email list is then from $10 a month. Every add-on, and which to add first.
- Store built, hosted and backed upDone for you, before you sign in
- Make the store yoursName, logo, look and two colors
- Connect Stripe, so you can take cards
- Answer the address and tax questions
- Add a first resource
- Write About me
- Publish your three policy pages
- Make a test purchase
- Open your store
It ticks itself off as you go.
You make the resources. The store builds itself in about 15 minutes.
You are a teacher, not a web developer. You order it, it builds itself, and a checklist called Start here walks you from an empty store to an open one.
- No domain needed to start.Buy one on the order form, bring your own, or start at yourname.upatlast.com and add one later.
- Nobody sees it until you say so.Visitors get an “Opening soon” page in your store’s own look until you open it.
- The technical part is ours.Hosting, backups, updates and fixes. Your sign-in opens on products, orders and your pages.
Six looks, picked by the grades you teach.
The order form asks which grades you teach, and your answer picks the look your store starts with. A kindergarten store and a college store should not look alike.
Pictures of our own test store, one in each look. The products in them are samples; a new store starts with none. The look is a starting point: on the Store setup screen you can switch to another look or set two colors of your own.
Read one box before you tick it.
TPT has two memberships from January 1. Basic pays 55%, less $0.30 on every resource, and lets you sell anywhere. Exclusive pays 77.5% and costs $59.95 a year, and you sell your digital teaching resources only on TPT.
On Basic you may
- Sell the same resources in a store of your own
- Sell on Etsy or anywhere else as well
- Join Exclusive later, any time
On Exclusive you may not
- Sell digital teaching resources anywhere but TPT, including ones never listed there
- Sell a membership or subscription that includes those resources
- Come straight back if you leave: there is a one-year wait
On small sales the gap between Exclusive and Basic is small, and Basic keeps every door open. Put a guess in the free calculator and see both. Read TPT’s own wording before you decide: Exclusive Seller FAQs. We describe the rules; we do not interpret TPT’s terms for you.
What is in the $25.
Everything below is in the store on the day it is made. You load your resources; a checklist walks you through the rest.
A store in your look
One of six looks, picked by the grades you teach. Then your store name, your logo and two colors of your own.
Product pages with previews
A cover, preview pictures a buyer can open large, the price, and the facts teachers look for: grades, subject, type, pages and file type.
Card checkout and instant downloads
Nothing to email, nothing to pack. A free resource needs no card.
Sales tax worked out at checkout
The store calculates and collects it. You file it with your state.
A blog built in
With your newest resources under every post, and your newest posts on your home page.
The hosting, looked after
Off-site backups, free SSL, updates tested before they go live. One bill, and one place to ask.
Pictures of our own test store. The products in them are samples; a new store starts with none.
Asked by teachers who have not sold anything yet.
Do I have to choose between TPT and my own store?
No. Keep your TPT store open. On Basic you can sell anywhere, and TPT stays your shop window while your own store grows. Exclusive is the one that means TPT only.
Will anyone find my store?
On day one, only the people you send. A store of your own does not come with TPT’s search. Your sales come from teachers who already know you: your email list, your followers, Pinterest, your blog. We do not promise visitor or sales numbers.
Is $25 a month worth it before I have sales?
A new store has no audience yet, so the $25 is a bet on yourself until the sales show up. About six $5 sales a month cover it. If you would sooner wait until you have a few followers, that is a fair answer too, and the store will still be here.
Who handles sales tax?
Your store works out the right tax at checkout and collects it. Filing it is yours, and for most sellers that means one state. Ask your accountant whether your state taxes digital downloads. We set up the tools; we are not tax advisers.
Do I need my own domain to start?
No. Buy one on the order form, bring one you already own, or start at an address like yourname.upatlast.com and add a domain later.
How do I get paid?
You connect your own Stripe account. It is a line on your checklist, with a guide. We take no cut of your sales; the card fees are 2.9% plus 30 cents a sale.
We are teacher-sellers too.
Up At Last is a family business. Rachael is a TPT seller, and Literacy Stations is her store. Her husband builds the stores and runs the hosting. Her store sells on its own site and on TPT, so we are making the same decisions you are.
The starter store is the one we would have wanted on day one: the shop already built, and a checklist instead of a manual.
Open both. Own one of them.
The starter store
$25 a month, or $250 a year. The store, the hosting and the person who runs the server, in one bill. No cut of your sales. Ready about 15 minutes after you order.
See everything in the starter store. Questions first? Talk it through with us, or write to hello@upatlast.com.
Rates are TPT’s, as published October 2026, and can change. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Teachers Pay Teachers. Terms & Privacy