Do you want to learn how to sell educational printables?
Lisa Fink spent 15 years as a classroom teacher before transitioning to a full-time business creating and selling educational printables.
Within two years she reached six-figure income levels. Today her business generates over $400,000 per year, and she has sold more than $1,000,000 worth of printables in total.
Creating educational printables is an attractive way to earn income from home: you design a resource once and can sell it repeatedly without shipping physical products.
Printables are a popular way to make extra money because they require one-time creation and can be sold an unlimited number of times.
Below is an interview with Lisa where she explains how to sell educational printables and shares practical advice for getting started.
Common questions addressed in this interview include:
- What exactly is an educational printable?
- Why do teachers and parents purchase printables?
- How much can someone realistically earn selling printables?
- Do you need to be a teacher to create and sell printables?
- Can someone with limited technical skills create printable products?
This interview will help you understand the basics and may inspire you to start a new side income stream.
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How to sell educational printables
1. Please give us a little background on yourself and how you got started. How much have you earned from your educational printables business?
Selling printable educational escape rooms on ThinkTankTeacher.com began unexpectedly. In August 2017 my husband and I bought a new house, and a month later he lost his 21-year corporate job due to downsizing.
I was the primary income source and needed to find ways to supplement our household earnings. I started ThinkTankTeacher.com and opened a storefront on Teachers Pay Teachers to bring in extra income while still teaching full time.
At first I worked 20–30 hours a week on top of my teaching job. My initial goal was modest—just a few hundred dollars a month—but the business grew quickly. After three months I was earning four-figure months, and by six months I was consistently generating five-figure monthly revenue.
The business grew into something I was passionate about. Creating printables allowed me to reach classrooms around the world and transformed my financial future. To date, I’ve earned well over $1,000,000 from printables.
2. What is an educational printable?
An educational printable is a ready-to-use, no-prep activity teachers can download to complement lesson plans. These resources provide engaging, student-centered options that often fill gaps left by standard textbooks.
Think Tank Teacher’s mission is to supply no-prep, engagement-boosting activities that inject creativity and collaboration into the classroom.
3. Who buys your educational printables?
My printables have been downloaded more than 250,000 times by teachers, homeschool parents, and even party planners seeking kid-friendly activities. Teachers often look for last-minute, high-engagement activities that go beyond textbooks and introduce problem-solving elements.
4. Why do teachers buy printables?
Teachers need resources that help them differentiate instruction and avoid spending excessive time preparing lessons. A quick, print-and-go activity preserves their planning time and lets them leave work at the school bell to spend time with family.
5. What are some examples of what you sell?
I create a variety of resources—printable escape rooms, color-by-number activities, scavenger hunts, digital secret-message activities, and virtual tours—designed to support different learning styles. My best-seller is a U.S. Constitution printable escape room.
Each resource adds an element of play to learning and encourages students to take ownership of their thinking and problem solving.
6. What do you like about selling educational printables?
I love knowing my resources are classroom-tested and teacher-approved. The biggest advantage is passive income: once a resource is uploaded, it can sell repeatedly without physical inventory, packing, or shipping, and with very low overhead.
I’ve also expanded to a membership model on my website to make lesson plans more accessible and affordable for teachers.
7. How much money can a person earn by selling educational printables?
Results vary. I’ve sold over $1,000,000 in printables, but achieving that level required substantial effort and persistence. I later launched an Etsy shop with my brother focused on printable party games and earned over $60,000 there as well.
Other teacher-authors earn even more—some three times my income—so higher earnings are possible with the right strategy, consistency, and product-market fit.
8. Is there enough room for teachers to get started selling educational printables? Or, is the market saturated?
There’s room for new creators. Thinking the market is saturated is a limiting belief. Instead, focus on creating a unique product and differentiating your offering so it stands out among the many available resources.
9. Do you have to be a teacher in order to start doing this?
No—you don’t have to be a teacher to sell printables. Teaching experience helps, but homeschool parents, stay-at-home parents, or people from other professions can create and sell valuable resources. You only need one solid idea to begin.
10. How does a teacher come up with new ideas for printables?
Idea generation is one of the hardest parts. Start with a topic or format you’re passionate about and build from there. Aim to create activities that transform passive learners into active participants.
Keep a notebook for ideas—some will become real products, others won’t—but consistent idea capture fuels ongoing product development.
11. Can someone with no tech skills make a printable?
Yes. Creating printables requires some basic tech skills, but the tools are accessible. Most creators use PowerPoint or Canva. You’ll also learn to upload products, design covers, and create thumbnails—skills that improve with practice. My brother started with no experience and became proficient within a year.
12. What is Teachers Pay Teachers? How does it work?
Teachers Pay Teachers is an online marketplace for educational resources where teachers can buy and download pre-made lessons. Educators search by topic, purchase a resource, and use it the same day—covering a wide range of subjects and grade levels.
13. Can you list the steps needed to get started selling educational printables?
Getting started typically follows these steps:
- Choose a selling platform: your own website, an Etsy shop, or a Teachers Pay Teachers seller account.
- Create an engaging, polished printable.
- Design a compelling preview, an eye-catching cover, and clear thumbnails that explain the product at a glance.
- Write a descriptive title and product description rich in relevant keywords for SEO.
- Upload and publish your product—then promote it to drive traffic.
The process may feel daunting at first, but once you’ve completed it for one product, subsequent creations become faster and easier. Products can sell for months or years after publishing.
14. What other tips do you have to share?
Simply uploading a product isn’t enough—promotion is essential. My top organic traffic driver is email marketing. Email offers the highest return on investment among online marketing channels and helps convert casual visitors into repeat customers.
I built a substantial email list within months, which allowed me to leave teaching and run my business full time. By year two I reached multi six-figure income. If you do email marketing correctly, you can cultivate loyal customers and significantly boost product exposure.
You can also explore courses and resources specifically tailored to selling printables and building an audience.
Are you interested in learning how to sell educational printables?
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