Grow with Angie and April: A Podcast for Teacherpreneurs

What time management tips can you give to a teacher seller?

We both struggle with time management, but we have learned a few things over the years that has helped. Here are our tips for time management, and some awesome tips from our group!

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. You don’t have to purchase them through our links, but if you do, it helps us pay for the costs of the podcast and blog! 

Seriously, just LET IT GO! If it’s not important to your business, don’t do it. If you don’t see a return on your time investment, it’s time to let it go. It’s hard for us to let things go when others are doing them, but it’s so important to focus on the things that help your business the most. Letting things go will free up a lot of precious time.

Over the last year, we’ve found ourselves automating a lot more. This helps us free up valuable time for the things we can’t automate, like product creation.

We both use a tool called SmarterQueue to automate posts that get sent to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We don’t use Twitter much, but we rely on this tool for a lot of what we do on Facebook. With Facebook organic reach being down, we didn’t think it was worth as much time as it used to be to do the posts ourselves. I use it to automate discussion questions in my Facebook groups, which used to take a substantial amount of time. Starting a Facebook group is a huge commitment. Angie uses it to automate her Facebook page queue, so that she has quality content going out all the time, even when she doesn’t have time to post. We both use the Solo plan, which is $19.99/month. I used Meet Edgar before, but it’s way more expensive for the same exact service. I actually helped beta test SmarterQueue a couple of years ago, so I got the chance to have an impact on the features they developed!

Why isn’t my promoted pin running?!

Lately we’ve noticed a lot of people asking about why their promoted pins aren’t taking off, or suddenly stop running. Angie and I have asked this ourselves many, many times. In this episode, we talk about some of the reasons we’ve discovered that promoted pins don’t perform.

We only run traffic campaigns in our businesses, so this advice is focused on those promoted pin types only.

When we first started running promoted pins, you had to bid at least $0.10/click. However, recently we’ve noticed there are two low categories for bids: “too low” and “low bid”. We typically set ours for $0.01-$0.10 higher than “too low”. We do not spend what they as for a “good bid”, unless it’s magically under $0.25 (this is rare).

If you have an established pin that stops running, go to your ad group page and click “Edit Ad Group”. Scroll to the bottom to see if your bid is indicated as “too low”. Change it to a low bid amount, and if you want it to do even better, add a few extra cents.

One main takeaway from our chat was that popular keywords = more competition = higher bid. Angie had an issue with a St. Patrick’s day pin’s bid because the keywords were super popular across the board.

Promoted pins are great because you can just let them

Let’s talk about the Teachers Pay Teachers conference & Social Media Marketing World!

Are conferences worth it? Two weeks after attending Social Media Marketing World, Angie and I are discussing our experience. In this episode, we also talk about how to get the most value out of conferences, and why you should attend the Teachers Pay Teachers conference.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. You don’t have to purchase them through our links, but if you do, it’s much appreciated! 

It was my second time, and Angie’s first, attending SMMW 2018. Our conclusion was that it’s a good conference to attend if you are already at the point in your business where you are running ads and utilizing a website and/or mailing list. The conference gave us motivation to refine what we were already doing in our businesses.

Angie flew across country for this conference. With conference ticket, flight, and hotel, it was pricey. She concluded that it was a lot of money to spend for just one conference.

I drove to the conference, and thought it was worth the money just to attend in order to network with other TpT sellers and get motivated to refine the systems she already has in place. Her favorite session was put on by Leslie Samuel, who has a great podcast on Blogging.

The price averages around $900 for the conference tickets, but you can save money by buying it early. Another good option if you don’t want to pay for travel expenses is the virtual ticket. With the virtual ticket, you get every session recorded to watch whenever you want. Go here to get the details. 

The main takeaway from this conversation was that you should do whatever it takes to attend this annual conference. It’s very motivating, and you will learn things specific to selling on Teachers Pay Teachers. Even if the sessions aren’t what you’re looking for, collaboration with other sellers during this conference is highly valuable.

The 2018 conference is in Nashville, TN at the Opryland. Angie suggests finding a cheaper hotel to stay at if you’re attending on a budget. We both agreed that it’s a nice convenience to stay where the conference is taking place, but the venue is on the pricier side.

Click here for more TpT conference information.

Make sure to join our Teacher Seller Facebook group!