Using Data to Drive TPT Product Creation

Kirsten 0:00

Hello, hello, hello. I've been wanting to do that for the longest time. If you know where this is even coming from, if on Netflix, there's a show called a series of unfortunate events happened to be one of my favorite series as a kid. So of course, if they're going to, like come out with a whole Netflix show with all 13 books. Plus Neil Patrick Harris is in it. I mean, that's like a perfect combination. But in the first episode, count aloft says those welcoming words. And I always think in my mind, I guess, you know, as I'm recording these podcast episodes, Hello, guys. But anyway, enough about that, that's completely off topic. Today we're gonna be talking about BD E. And you might be wondering what this is like, I thought this was a show for TPT sellers, I don't know what you're talking about. But that's not the BD I'm talking about. I'm talking about something called Big Data energy, we're gonna be thinking about how we can use data to drive creation. I can't wait to dive in.

You're listening to the creative teacher podcast, a show for busy teachers looking for ways to engage, inspire and make an impact in their teacher businesses. I'm Kiersten, a teacher business owner who is all about simple and actionable tips, strategies and resources that result in wins, big or small. If you're looking for that extra spark of creativity, you've come to the right place. Let's dive in together.

I've always said this phrase, I don't know I like come up with it, or I say it on the fly use data to drive creation kind of like you use data to drive instruction in the classroom. So just like you would, you know, take a look at your students results on tests and assessments. And that kind of informs you what you need to do next, this is the same thing with the data that you have. So we're going to talk about that.

This episode is workshop style. So I want you to find a desk, find a comfy chair, a nice drink, whatever it is. And I want you to work with me through this, I'm going to give you some steps on what you need to do to figure it out. So you know what to create next. And you can pause this episode if you need to, and then unpause it or rewind and you know, do whatever you need to do. But you're going to by the end of this episode, you are going to have an idea of what type of products you're going to create next.

So let's start with the first thing you're going to do is go to your sellers dashboard. This is where we are going to start and if you go into the sellers dashboard, you're going to notice that it has the little drop down boxes show me earnings during this month for my entire store. That's kind of the default. I want you to change the custom range for in the last year. So whatever day you're listening to this episode, you're going to backtrack it exactly a year from today's date. Then you're going to take the drop down box where it says earnings, show me earnings. I want you to change it to units sold. And I'll share with you my reasoning for that. But you're looking at the top five individual resources by you units sold in the last year, unit sold will help you get more individual resources. So like how much has been sold in your store, earnings will tell you, you know how much the amount but it may include bundles and you if you know if you're in hashtag sales, they might be getting the resource at a certain discount before you raise the price with unit sold, you'll you'll know exactly how many units were purchased in the last year. That's how I feel like is a better source of data for you to figure out what's selling well. So take a look at that, and check out and write down the top five that you see. So just click the My entire store and just pick out the top five that you see. Just write it down for me my top five were. So in this last year Enneagram are classes of family black history, month posters, reading response menus, and fifth grade daily language. Those are all my individual resources.

All right. So once you have that all written down, go back and change something. Now you're going to go to during this month or during custom range, and then you're going to check all time, all time units sold, and then go into for my entire store, click on it, you should see all the resources. And you're going to now look at the top five for all time units sold. So write that down as well, you're going to probably see that a couple of resources. If not, you know, some of the resources that you already wrote down are also in the all time write it down again, we're going to do something with that. So my top five, all time unit sold Enneagram. Our thoughts is a family reading response for grades one and two reading response for grades three through five Natural Resources PowerPoint review game. All right, now that you've done that, you're going to group similar resources together. So this is where you're going to you know, you've got I've got two Enneagram resources in both of my lists. So I'm just going to put Enneagram. And I also have our classes of family reading response menus, black history, month natural resources, daily language, so I kind of grouped all of the similar resources together, I have a couple you know, so if you have maybe a few resources that are part of a product line, grouped them together, and just put it all on one line.

All right, after you've grouped your similar resources together, I want you to really think about what is in common with these resources. What do you notice? What characteristics do you notice about your top selling units? For me, what was in common for my resources were that they were mostly community building. And other than the natural resources resource, it was all social studies and ELA. I also noticed that most of them were not part of a year round curriculum, they were just, you know, a smaller resource, basically an activity or set of activities that could be used, anytime of the year. Most of these can be used anytime of the year. And that I know, with the resources I created, they are very colorful, they have color versions and black and white versions.

The last thing I want you to do is think about how you can create newer resources based off of your best selling resources, list out some ideas. This is your brain dump, basically, you don't have to list exactly what the new resource is going to be. But just an idea, maybe from this list, you're like, oh, I can kind of do a spin off of this and create something new. Some of my, you know, thoughts. I don't want to share my secrets. But I was thinking one example for like, say my Black History Month posters. Well, if the Black History Month posters did really well, I could create something along the lines of using those same people but maybe creating more Black History Month activities and resources. And in Additionally, if you know maybe doing something for Women's History Month or Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, something like that, maybe that could be a way to kind of get to get new resources out there. That might be what my target audience would be looking for.

So this is your creative action tip. Hopefully you are working with me on this right now, I want you, if you're so inclined, if you want to share this with me, you can always screenshot. And you know, take a list of your brain dump and your notes that you took in this episode, I promise I'm not going to steal any ideas, I've got plenty on my plate. And I've got my own plan based on the resources that are selling well in my store. So definitely make sure you list out those ideas. This is just a simple exercise. It's like sounds complicated, but if you look in the show notes, you can definitely get a feel for okay, this is actually doable, I can actually sit down and do this. If you're listening in the car, and you are like listening to this episode. I definitely recommend setting aside 20 to 30 minutes, really working on this and really looking in to see what your big data energy for your top selling resources are, and how you can see what needs to be created next. All right, well, that is the end of this episode. I will talk to you guys again next week.

Thanks for tuning in to the creative teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to today's episode, feel free to subscribe and leave a review. I'd love to hear your feedback. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I cannot wait for you to join me in the next episode for more tips and inspiration. Have an amazing day.