After the Town Hall:
what to do before December 31.

TPT's October 8 Town Hall covered two big changes: the Exclusive Seller membership that replaces Premium, and a new policy against generative AI in resources and listings. It was a lot to take in, and some of the detail is still to come.

What matters most is that there is one hard deadline. If you are a Premium seller and do nothing by December 31, 11:59pm ET, your store becomes a Basic store on January 1. It is not a one-way door: a Basic store can still upgrade to Exclusive later from My Account. But anyone who joins after January 1 has to follow the exclusivity terms from the day they sign up, so the run-up to December 31 is the easy time to decide. Everything else on this page is about getting to that date with a decision you made on purpose.

TPT's own answers are in two FAQs: one for existing Premium sellers and one for Basic and new sellers. Both are short and worth reading once.

The dates that matter

Before you decide

• Save your exports now. Search Analytics and Keyword Finder stay with Exclusive. Download your Keyword Stats, Product Insights and Traffic Data while you still have Premium access, so you keep a baseline whichever way you go.
• Run the numbers. The Exclusive or Basic calculator shows what each option leaves you with, and how much outside income it would take for Basic to come out ahead.
• Look at what carries your store. The free Take Stock worksheet walks you through how much of your income rests on a few products and on marketplace search.
• Back up your own files. Download local copies of your product files, descriptions and thumbnails. That is good practice on any platform. My guide to backing up your whole TPT store shows how to let an AI do the clicking.

If you are leaning towards Exclusive

• List everywhere you sell digital resources. Your own website, other marketplaces, memberships, subscriptions and licenses all count. So do payment plans. If you are a Premium seller, those digital educational resources need to be sold on TPT only by January 1. If you are on Basic now and join early, the rules apply from the day you sign up.
• Check what is exempt. Physical products, courses and professional development, Boom Cards on the Boom platform, Kindle books, printed workbooks on Amazon, and non-educational products like clip art and fonts can stay where they are. A worksheet that comes with a video course is fine only if it belongs to the video; a standalone worksheet goes to TPT. TPT keeps a list of what you can sell outside TPT, and asks you to contact them if you are unsure. I go through what Exclusive sellers can still sell elsewhere case by case, including the gray areas.
• Point your own site at TPT. You can keep your website. Its "Buy Now" buttons just need to send buyers to the matching product in your TPT store.
• Check your freebies. Free resources on and off TPT are fine, including email lead magnets. But you cannot charge on TPT for something you give away free somewhere else.
• Remember the one-year rule. If you leave Exclusive after January 1, you wait a year before you can rejoin.

If you are leaning towards Basic

• You do not need to do anything. Your store converts on January 1.
• Do not worry about a renewal. If your Premium year renews before December 31, it renews as Premium and you keep 80% until January. The unused months come back in the refund below.
• Check your refund. TPT will refund $5 for each month left on your Premium year, paid with your January payout, and waive the usual $29 Basic sign-up fee. TPT's example: a Premium year that renews on August 15 gets $40 back for the eight months left.
• Plan for the fees. On Basic you keep 55% of each sale and pay $0.30 per resource. Low-priced products feel that most: on a $2 resource you keep $0.80.
• Lose nothing you rely on. If you use Search Analytics or Keyword Finder, make sure those exports are saved before January.

Either way: the AI policy

The AI policy applies to every seller, whichever membership you choose. TPT asked sellers to replace AI-generated covers, thumbnails, previews, descriptions and resource content with their own work, starting with covers and thumbnails. I have written up what TPT said, what is still unclear, and a calm order for checking your store.

Worth remembering

There is plenty of strong opinion about these changes, in both directions, and a lot of it is reasonable. None of it knows your numbers. Spend an hour with your exports before the end of the year and the decision gets much smaller than the noise around it.