How to Set Up a Site Like Teachers Pay Teachers with WordPress

Creating an online marketplace for educational resources can be incredibly rewarding for educators and content creators. One such marketplace is Teachers Pay Teachers.

With WordPress, you can easily set up a site like Teachers Pay Teachers to share and sell your teaching materials while enabling other teachers to do the same.

Using the right tools and plugins, you can transform your WordPress site into a fully functional marketplace. This guide will walk you through each step, ensuring your site is ready to help teachers find and share valuable resources.

You can use the quick links below to jump straight to the section you want to learn about first:

Step 1:  Setting Up Hosting for Your Teachers Pay Teachers Like Website

To make a Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) like website in WordPress, you’ll need a few things to get started.

First, you’ll need a domain name (such as teacherspayteachers.com) and a web hosting account to store your website files.

Although the WordPress software is free, hosting and domain names are where the costs can really start to add up. 

Normally, a domain name will cost you $16.99 per year, and web hosting starts at $7.99 per month (paid annually).

Luckily, Bluehost has agreed to offer WPBeginner users a generous discount with a free domain name and an SSL certificate (which encrypts your website’s data and is crucial if you’re going to accept payment online). Basically, you’ll be able to get started for $1.99 per month.

After you sign up, Bluehost will automatically install WordPress for you. You’ll be able to log in to your WordPress website from your hosting account dashboard.

Next, you need to set up a WooCommerce store on your website. This will allow you to convert your website into an eCommerce platform and accept online payments from your customers.

For complete step-by-step instructions, see our tutorial on how to create an online store.

Step 2. Convert your Website into a Marketplace for Educators

Now you’ve set up an online store, you’ll need to open it up for other educators to create an account and list their resources for sale.

By default, WooCommerce is a single-vendor eCommerce store. To let other teachers sell their resources on your platform, you’ll need to convert it into a multi-vendor marketplace.

First, you need to visit the WoooCommerce » Settings page and switch to the ‘Accounts & Privacy’ tab.

From here, you’ll need to check the boxes to enable user registration and specifically allow users to register on the ‘My Account’ page.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Next, you need to install and activate WC Vendors. This plugin allows you to convert your WooCommerce store into a multi-vendor platform, and in our opinion it’s the best multi-vendor plugin on the market.

For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will ask you to install the WC Vendors marketplace plugin. This is the limited free version of the plugin that acts as the base for the pro version.

The free version lacks all the features you’ll need to create a professional marketplace platform, which is why you need to install both items.

Next, the plugin will show you a setup wizard. You can just click ‘Skip’ as we’ll show you how to set up the plugin manually.

After that, you need to head over to WC Vendors » Settings to configure the plugin.

Here, check the box next to the ‘Allow users to apply to become a vendor’ option. This will allow teachers to register as a vendor on your platform.

After that, you need to switch to the ‘Commission’ tab and set up the default commission you want to pay your sellers.

You can pay a commission in a few different ways, including percentage, fixed amount, percentage + fee, and based on total sales.

Next, you need to switch to the ‘Capabilities’ tab. From here, you can choose how other educators will add their products on your website.

From here you need to check the box next to the ‘Allow vendors to add/edit products’ option. By default, you’ll need to approve all the products on your site before they go live.

Next, click the ‘Products’ link at the top and select which type of products vendors can add.

You can choose a Simple Product type with Virtual and Downloadable product type options. This will allow teachers to upload their resources in a downloadable format, ready for other teachers to buy.

Next, switch to the ‘Display’ page. From here, you will need to set up pages that will be used for crucial sections of your marketplace platform.

For each option, you need to copy the shortcode shown below it. After that, create a new page in WordPress and paste the shortcode into the content area.

For example, we created a page called Vendor Dashboard and then placed the shortcode [wcv_vendor_dashboard] inside it.

Don’t want to use ‘Vendors’ as a label for sellers? Don’t worry. You can name your pages anything you like. You can also tell the plugin what label to use by clicking on the ‘Labels’ link.

As always, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Step 3. Adding Links to Your Marketplace in Navigation Menus

Now you’ve set up an online marketplace for teachers, you can go ahead and add the links to the signup and account management pages.

If you are using a block theme with site editor support, then go to Appearance » Editor page to launch the site editor.

Next, click the ‘Navigation’ tab to select and edit your navigation menu.

You can simply point and click on a menu item to edit it or click the add (+) button to create a new menu item.

With that done, look for the ‘My Account’ and ‘Shop’ pages and add them to your navigation menu. Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button to store your changes.

Alternatively, if you’re using a classic WordPress theme (without site editor support) then go to the Appearance » Menus page and add the My Account page to your navigation menu.

You can change the label of the My Account page to anything you want and even add it as a button in the navigation menu. For more detailed instructions, please see our guide on how to create a navigation menu.

Additionally, don’t forget to add the shop page to your navigation menu so users can easily browse and buy available resources.

When you’re happy with how the menu is set up, click on the ‘Save Menu’ button to store your changes.

You can now preview your website to see your navigation menu in action. Try clicking on the My Account page – it should take you to the Login or Registration page.

Users can now register on your website and apply to become a vendor or seller.

After that, they can access the Vendor dashboard, where they can add their own products to sell on your website.

Step 4. Approving Products Submitted by Sellers

Once users start registering and submitting their resources to be listed as products on your website, you’ll see a notification on the ‘Products’ label right in your WordPress dashboard.

From here, you can edit a pending product and review its description and details.

If everything looks good, then you can go ahead and publish the product so it appears on your website.

These resources will now appear as products on your Shop page with a ‘Sold by:’ label with the seller’s name.

Users can now buy these resources from your website, just like they would buy any other product.

Step 5. Paying Sellers on Your Website

As the platform service provider, you’re responsible for accepting online payments from your customers. WooCommerce offers a variety of reliable payment gateways, including popular options like PayPal and Stripe, to handle these transactions.

Once you’ve sold enough products, you’ll need a system to pay your vendors their commissions.

The easiest and most reliable way to do this is by exporting all unpaid transactions to a CSV file. You can find this option by going to WC Vendors » Commissions in your WordPress dashboard.

You can then manually process these payments using PayPal or bank transfers. This gives you a clear overview of each seller’s performance on your site and allows sellers to build up sales and ratings before they receive payments.

You can also automate this process by installing the plugin’s Stripe Connect extension. Simply head over to the WC Vendors » Extensions page and install the WC Vendors Stripe Connect extension.

Step 6. Promoting Your Marketplace to Grow Your Business

Now that your marketplace for teachers and educators is all set up, it’s time to start promoting your website.

To help grow your business online, there are a ton of fantastic tools and plugins available. Here are some of the absolute must-have options you can start using right away to get the word out.

1. All in One SEO for WordPress

All in One SEO for WordPress is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market. It allows you to easily optimize your website for search engines and social media platforms.

Crucially for your marketplace, AIOSEO comes with built-in WooCommerce SEO support for your products. This means you can easily optimize each listing to rank higher.

Plus, it includes powerful schema markup, which makes your search listings appear with rich snippets, leading to higher organic click-through rates.

2. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the #1 conversion optimization and lead generation software in the world. Basically, it helps you convert website visitors into paying customers.

It comes with tools like lightbox popups, countdown timers, spin to win, header and footer banners, and more. All of them help you nudge visitors into making a purchase.

3. SeedProd

SeedProd is the best WordPress page builder plugin on the market. It allows you to quickly create professional-looking web pages for your website no matter what WordPress theme you’re using.

Plus, it works well with WooCommerce, allowing you to create highly optimized product pages, landing pages, sales, and marketing pages.

We use SeedProd across many of our partner websites, and have seen great results. To learn more about our firsthand experiences, be sure to see our SeedProd review.

4. MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights allows you to easily track your website visitors using Google Analytics. It comes with a powerful eCommerce tracking feature, which is essential for your marketplace. This helps you see exactly which teacher resources are performing well and bringing in sales.

It also simplifies tracking conversions, giving you a crystal-clear picture of what’s truly working on your website. With this valuable data, you can plan and adjust your marketing strategy to focus on what drives the best results for your marketplace.

We use MonsterInsights across WPBeginner and many of our partner websites, to track conversions, referral links, bounce rates, most visited pages, and more. You can see our detailed MonsterInsights review for more information.

Frequently Asked Questions: FAQs

Building an online marketplace can seem complicated, and you probably have a lot of questions. Don’t worry, we’re here to help!

Below are the answers to some of the most common questions we hear from our readers:

Can I use free plugins to create my marketplace?

Yes, you can set up your site using free plugins. However, keep in mind that premium versions often come with extra features that can really boost your marketplace’s functionality and overall user experience.

Do I need coding skills to set up my marketplace?

Nope! The beauty of using WordPress combined with the right plugins is that you don’t need any coding skills to build your marketplace.

All the tools are designed to be super user-friendly, so you should have no problems creating a successful site – even if you have zero coding skills.

How can I ensure secure transactions on my site?

To keep transactions on your marketplace safe and sound, you’ll need two key things:

1. An SSL certificate: This encrypts data between your customers and your site, showing visitors that your site is secure (look for the padlock icon in the browser!)
2. Secure payment gateways: Always use trusted services like PayPal or Stripe. They handle the sensitive payment information, which helps to protect your customers’ data during every transaction.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily create a Teachers Pay Teachers-like eCommerce marketplace using WordPress. You may also want to see our complete WordPress SEO guide and take a look at these practical tips to easily grow your website traffic.

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