TpT Cyber Smile Sale!

I can't miss an opportunity to share a childhood picture of myslef. :) I can count on 1 maybe 2 hands the number of childhood photos that exist of me. Photos are important to me because I have horrible memory. :)

My WHOLE store will be on sale! Please stop by and snag some deals. The sale starts tomorrow and runs through my Birthday (Dec. 1)!!

Helpful Blogger Network!

Yay! I just joined the Helpful Blogger Network! That means you get to ask me whatever questions you like. I can be pretty useful in the Technology and Blogging areas. :)

Here are the rules one must follow in order to link up with Fifth in the Middle:

• You agree to do your best to answer questions posed to you on your blog in a reasonable amount of time.
• If you cannot answer the question, you will still reply to the person asking the question.
• Add the button to your blog's sidebar.
• If you have another area of expertise on which you would be willing to field questions, state that in the Name field, ie. technology, TpT, behavior management, etc. 

You can go here to read more about the network and see if anyone else might be able to answer your questions. Enjoy and ask away. :)

How to use Google Web Fonts

Yay! Another awesome link up by The Teaching Tribune! Unfortunately, I did not have time to create another font of my own, but I am sure you will enjoy this post just as much.

The first thing is to not let the name "Google Web Font" fool you. Sure you can easily use these fonts on your blog but did you know that you can download them and use them in your commercial products? Yep! It's true. Check out this message form Google that talks all about it. This morning I downloaded 95 fonts to add to my collection. I love that these fonts are Truly Hassle Free and I don't have to worry about using them. They have 600+ fonts for you to choose from.

1. To download the fonts, you will first need to make a collection. Browse through all of the fonts and click "Add to Collection".

2. Once you have added all of your favorite fonts, you will need to download them by clicking this tiny arrow in the top left hand side of the screen.

3. Next, the window below will pop up and you can click "Download the font families in your Collection as a .zip file"

4. Once your download is done, unzip the file and follow your normal process for installing fonts.
5. Be sure to come back and let me know which font was your favorite. :)

Of course one of my favorites is the Great Vibes font. This is the one I am using for my blog design.

Tips for Participating in a Giveaway!

I am sure many of us have participated in a giveaway in one form or another. Most have probably entered 1 or 2 giveaways, but have you ever considered hosting your own? Or have you considered participating in a group giveaway? As a new seller with Teachers pay Teachers, I think giveaways are a great way to get your name out there. It allows new customers to find you and become aware of your products. This is going to be a really long post about giveaways. How to set them up, how to collect donations from other sellers, and anything else I can think of. If I happen to miss something that you want to know about, leave me a comment. I am certain someone else has the same question.

The first section I want to touch on is participating in another person or stores giveaway. Before a seller host their own giveaway the should participate in one being hosted by an expeienced seller. This allows the new seller to network and gain exposure. An experienced seller will likely have more followers than you. Their giveaway advertisement will send new potential customers to your store or blog. All of the sellers that I have worked with have been super friendly and helpful at answering any questions you have.

These giveaways are generally pretty simple for the participant. As the participant you will need to send the host your product and product cover. Giveaway host may also request other information such as your email address, Teachers pay Teachers store link, facebook link, pinterest link, and links to any other social media sites you use to promote your store. The data is normally collected on a Google Docs spreadsheet. The host will use this data to create a giveaway entry form (more on that later). Once they have created the group image, their blog post about the giveaway, and the entry form they will usually send an email to all of the participants alerting them to the next steps. Of course every host is different and may choose to do things differently. 

It is customary and sometimes required that any particpant in the giveaway creates their own blog post or shares the giveaway through the various social networking options. Check with your giveaway host for details. Remember the more people that share the giveaway the more entrants there will be, thus creating more exposure for everyone.

The giveaway normally last for 1 week, but can be longer or shorter. Sometimes the giveaways will be themed by holiday or grade level. Once the giveaway is over the host will choose a winner. If the host collected the products from each participant they will then forward the products to the winner. If some participants opted to send their product directly to the winner, the host will send out an email with the winners information. Make sure to send your product over promptly and include a nice note in your email.

I am sure you are just ready to jump in and particpate! Where can you find giveaways to participate in? The Teachers pay Teachers forums are a great place to start. Many sellers post topics requesting donations for their giveaway. I will try to host a monthly collaborative giveaway. Let me know if you want to join. :)

I hope that you have found this guide useful. The next topic I will discuss is how to host your own giveaway!

~Mrs. Bearfield~

New Terms of Use and a Button!

I have been planning to revamp my Terms of Use ever since I settled on a brand design but it is so much more fun to create new products. Updating my TOU kept getting pushed to the back burner. When one of my Teachers pay Teachers "friends" alerted me to an issue with my Terms of Use, I knew I couldn't procrastinate any longer. Proofreading is not my most favorite thing to do.
Since I spent so much time creating a new TOU, I thought I would share it and my new blog button with you.  My first TOU caused me tons of frustration. Most sellers use Adobe Pro (I think) to set up their TOU's and protect them. Me, I like keeping my cost low and since I am not making school products yet I don't think this is something I need. I went with OpenOffice. While it is FREE, it can be a bit frustrating to use because it is not set up like what you may be use to. I have always been a fan of Google's products. I have no idea why I did not try that first. I made this with Google Presentation and Photoshop. This is just the image but in the actual PDF the apples at the bottom can be clicked!

Here is my new blog button! I also have the button in my side bar for sharing. If you need help creating one, feel free to reach out to me. This is one of my many digital hobbies.

Let me know what you think!

When I first started with Teachers pay Teachers in Nov. 2013, I downloaded many freebies just to view the Terms of Use. I wanted to see what other people were doing and what should be included. Feel free to pull ideas from my TOU if you like. If you have created your very own Terms of Use feel free to leave a link in the comments.

~Mrs. Bearfield~

Check out this lovely TOU from reader Glitter, Glue & Giggles.