How to Sell Lesson Plans Online

Teachers can supplement their income by selling lesson plans online

Teachers work hard, of that there is no doubt. They are also one of the few professions out there that are expected to be creative enough to develop their own tools. One of the most important tools for any teacher is their lesson plans.

Teachers have begun to realize the value of these lesson plans they have created.

No longer are teachers keeping these gems all to themselves and their classrooms. Teachers have begun to share those lesson plans online with other teachers.

Not only is this of a great service to other teachers who really need the extra ideas and encouragement but teachers can make extra money for these efforts. Selling lesson plans is a way of selling unique ideas that someone has taken the time to illustrate, which can be priceless to the right recipient.

If you are a teacher looking to supplement your income in a creative way using the things you already do every day, selling lesson plans online may be just the thing you've been searching for.

Things You'll Need

• Lesson plans drawn up in a downloadable form such as Excel or Word document.
• A free account with one or more of the various online lesson plan vendors.
• Free PayPal account

Instructions

1. 

   Organize your lesson plan (or any other knowledge based curricula) into an easy to digest document using a variety of formats such as Excel or Word that can be later downloaded by other teachers.

2. 

   Sign up for a free sellers account at one or more online venues that allow the selling of downloadable teaching aides. These include Teachers Pay Teachers, We Are Teachers and even websites like eBay. You will also need to have a PayPal account set up, which is also free, so you can begin accepting payments online for your lesson plan sales.

3. 

   Upload your documents to the website you joined. Websites like Teachers Pay Teachers and We Are Teachers have made this process simple. They also handle the sales for you. Creating and uploading are your only tasks. Just follow the prompts. You could get more ambitious and upload them to your own website and run the whole show yourself but your results may not be as good and it will be more work.

   *Ebay banned the sale of digital products. Not to worry, eBay users, I have also included a link to an article on how you can still offer downloadable products for sale on eBay without breaking any rules.

4. 

   Promote your products. Joining social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace can help get the word out about your products, potentially reaching teachers who may be interested in the materials you can provide. These teacher sharing websites have become so popular, you really don't even need to do any promotion to see sales. There are currently hundreds of thousands of registered users to these sites.

5. 

   Get paid. You may use this money to fund classroom materials, school functions or even just to supplement your income to purchase things you need for yourself. It is YOUR money.

   Once you start making enough from this endeavor, as so many have, I would suggest looking into obtaining a free debit card through PayPal so you don't have to even transfer your funds to your bank. You can use this debit card for both online and offline transactions or ATM cash withdraws.

Tips & Warnings

• Homeschooling families can also take advantage of the buying and selling opportunities here.

• Print out your documents prior to offering them for sale to check for any potential errors.

• Consider purchasing some of materials some of the top sellers have to offer so you can examine their lay outs and organization.

• Research current prices for similar lesson plans before pricing your own.

• As a recently NY Times article stated, some schools are frowning on the use of these websites claiming the schools own at least a portion of the rights to these teacher created ideas and should benefit by a share in the revenue. If your school is aware of your entrepreneurial activities, be prepared to have it frowned upon.

Resources

• Teachers Pay Teachers
• We Are Teachers
• NY Times article: Selling Lessons Online Raises Cash and Questions
• How to Make Money Selling Digital Products on eBay (after the ban!)
• Sign up for a Free PayPal account here