This is the home of Pitch Clips by Shelley Tomich. Creative Clip Art and Graphic Designs!

Tips from Pitch Clips: Rotating GIF TpT Quote Banners – Link up your store!

This is a tutorial on how to make a custom slide-show banner for your TpT Quote box area.

Pin for later!

Are you looking to upgrade the look of your TpT store? I wrote a GREAT tutorial on how to do the rotating GIF banner for your quote area on TpT. You CAN do this! Check it out! #pitchclips #tpt #teacherspayteachers

Update 7/26/15 – This has been a popular request!  If you have trouble with any of the steps below, please email me! I am happy to walk you through it!   If you just don’t want to mess with it, I now offer banner creation services!  Check it out!

Update #2 6/3/16 – I have discovered a few helpful tricks to cut out some steps!!! YAY!  Updated below!

Update #3 8/1/16 – I have found an even BETTER way to do it!  Check out the second tutorial here!

Updated #4 7/1/2017 – Photobucket is NOT an option for hosting anymore! See bottom of post for new options!

Updated #5 6/15/2018 – Bitly is not an option for link shortening! It is marking image links as spam!

TpT Quote Banner

TpT Quote Banner

This is a tutorial on how to put an image in the space between your logo and your free download.

Note: This is not for the faint of heart.  It is time-consuming and if you miss a step, extremely frustrating.  I had a horrible, gigantic banner in my store for a bit before I worked it out.  I still feel bad for the two followers who started following me during that period! 🙂

When you are done with this tutorial, link up your store at the bottom! I want to see your hard work!

What You Need

  • PowerPoint or Keynote (I use Keynote)
  • Graphics Editing Program (I use Photoshop, but Sumo Paint will work too).
  • Free GIF maker (http://gifmaker.me/ or http://gifcreator.me/)  **** I now highly recommend gifcreator ****
  • Free Photo hosting – Pinterest, your blogger website, or wordpress website work fine. (Note do NOT use photobucket – this used to be an option but they now charge $400/year for this).
  • Link Shortener – I use tinyurl.com or Pretty Links (wordpress plugin).

Step 1: Set up PowerPoint or Keynote

You really need to make a photo with the dimensions of 150 pixels by 450 pixels; PowerPoint and Keynote will not go this small so I doubled the ratio and will resize later.

  • Keynote: Document size: 300 pixels by 900 pixels.
  • PowerPoint: In inches, you need a 3:1 ratio.  For example, 3 inches by 1 inch.  Also, 6 inches by 2 inches.  You get the idea!  (This can be changed in File -> Page Setup).  Hint: Keep a large ratio to start off for better image quality (helps it not look so grainy!).
  • Alternatively, you could use a service like PicMonkey to get the dimensions right from the get-go!
This is a great post from Pitch Clips showing how to make an animated gif banner for your teachers pay teachers store!
Keynote
This is a great post from Pitch Clips showing how to make an animated gif banner for your teachers pay teachers store!
PowerPoint

Step 2: Create Your Slides

There is not a limit to what you can put on here, though remember your buyers aren’t in your store to watch a slide show.  🙂  I have about 6 or so running in each store.  As I have time, I hope to replace them seasonally.

If you want the images to “blend” with the grey header space on TpT, then you need to set the background color to #F1F1F1.  You can format the background of your slide (directions below) or insert a rectangle shape and recolor the shape (put it behind all your other content).

Powerpoint:
1.  Format -> Slide Background.
2.  Click Color.
3.  Click more colors.
3.  Click on the slider Picture and then select “RGB Sliders”
4.  Type in 241, 241, 241 in the settings or F1F1F1 in the Hex code.
5.  Hit Apply.

(Same process in Keynote, just use the format, slide background).

This is a great post from Pitch Clips showing how to make an animated gif banner for your teachers pay teachers store!
Are you looking to upgrade the look of your TpT store? I wrote a GREAT tutorial on how to do the rotating GIF banner for your quote area on TpT. You CAN do this! Check it out! #pitchclips #tpt #teacherspayteachers
This is an example of one of my slides.

Step 3: Export Your Images

Export your images in your desired format.  Both Keynote and PowerPoint will export images.  In PowerPoint, it is File -> Save as Pictures.  In Keynote it is  File -> Export to -> Images.  If you want your images to be clearer, you can increase the size of the slides.

This is a great post from Pitch Clips showing how to make an animated gif banner for your teachers pay teachers store!
Keynote
This is a great post from Pitch Clips showing how to make an animated gif banner for your teachers pay teachers store!
PowerPoint

Step 4: Resize and turn it into a gif!

This is a great post from Pitch Clips showing how to make an animated gif banner for your teachers pay teachers store!
1. Once you have all your slides, then upload them to http://gifcreator.me/.
This is a great post from Pitch Clips showing how to make an animated gif banner for your teachers pay teachers store!
2. In the preview pane, drag them in the order you want.  On the right side, double check your dimensions and set the animation time. I  use 3800 ms which is 3.8 seconds.  Play around with whatever looks good to you.
This is a great post from Pitch Clips showing how to make an animated gif banner for your teachers pay teachers store!
3. Then scroll down and click “Create Gif animation” and then download your .gif file.

Step 5: Upload the .gif file to hosting site of your choice (OR skip to step 8 to upload directly to TpT!)

The next step is to upload your gif to the third-party hosting of your choice.  Third-party hosting just means that you will use a link on TpT to point to an image somewhere else on the internet.

Alternatively, if your gif is below 5MB in size, you can upload it directly to TpT!

Do NOT use Photobucket.com anymore (this used to be the #1 option).  Photobucket now charges $400 a year for this service.

I will cover five options: Pinterest, WordPress, Blogger, Dropbox, and Weebly. I am hosting many of my smaller ones on Weebly now and larger on Dropbox.

Pinterest

You can use a secret board or a public board for this.  Though I have not done it for my store, others have very successfully. Note: Your gif file cannot be over 10mb.  I do not use Pinterest because many of my banners are pretty big.

1.  Upload a pin as you normally would.  If you are on a secret board, do not worry about where it points to or what the description is.  No one is pinning it!  But if you want to display it on TpT, then why not actually pin it too?

2.  Go to that pin.  Right-click and click Copy Image Address.  This is the link you will paste into a link shortener in the next step.  Note: Some people are reporting that Pinterest is not working right.  But if you want to try to use Pinterest, go for it!

Pinterest

WordPress Blog

f your blog is hosted on WordPress, you can upload your gif to your media section.  You do not have to put it in a blog post.

Are you looking to upgrade the look of your TpT store? I wrote a GREAT tutorial on how to do the rotating GIF banner for your quote area on TpT. You CAN do this! Check it out! #pitchclips #tpt #teacherspayteachers
1. Go to your media library (on the lefthand side of your dashboard).  Drag and drop your image to the screen or click upload and upload your gif.
Are you looking to upgrade the look of your TpT store? I wrote a GREAT tutorial on how to do the rotating GIF banner for your quote area on TpT. You CAN do this! Check it out! #pitchclips #tpt #teacherspayteachers
2) Click on your gif to make it pop up and then copy the image url.  You will paste this into the link shortener in the next step.

Blogger Blog

I used an old blogger blog I use for testing when I am coding for clients.  I created a draft post (you don’t ever have to post it!). Note: I am getting some reports of blogger having issues! Use with caution!

Are you looking to upgrade the look of your TpT store? I wrote a GREAT tutorial on how to do the rotating GIF banner for your quote area on TpT. You CAN do this! Check it out! #pitchclips #tpt #teacherspayteachers
1. Open the blogger blog and create a draft post.  Go to html view and click upload image.
Are you looking to upgrade the look of your TpT store? I wrote a GREAT tutorial on how to do the rotating GIF banner for your quote area on TpT. You CAN do this! Check it out! #pitchclips #tpt #teacherspayteachers
2.  When it asks, click original size, doesn’t matter on alignment.
Are you looking to upgrade the look of your TpT store? I wrote a GREAT tutorial on how to do the rotating GIF banner for your quote area on TpT. You CAN do this! Check it out! #pitchclips #tpt #teacherspayteachers
3.  Find the full link for the image and copy between the quotes as pictured. You will use this to create the shortened link in the next step.

4.  Save your draft (you do NOT have to publish, but do save it!)

Note: I am having issues where Blogger is showing a triangle with ! for really large gifs. You will need to choose another option if you face this.

Blogger Issue

Dropbox

You can upload your gif to Dropbox. Get the link and then change the end to 1. So if you have

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5y7c4bc467k05nl/Linda%20Gif%20GenEd.gif?dl=0

Change it to

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5y7c4bc467k05nl/Linda%20Gif%20GenEd.gif?dl=1

Weebly

  1. I created a free weebly.com website.
  2. Then I added an image, and published it.
  3. Go to your published site, right click and copy image address.
Weebly1
Weebly2

Step 6: Shorten your image link with a link shortener.

You must shorten the url because of the TpT restrictions on how many characters in your quote area.

NOTE: DO NOT USE Bit.ly!  Bitly has started marking these images as SPAM and will not show it in your TpT store!  Try one of these two things:

1.  Tiny Url.  Just paste your link and then copy the new one!  A new link might look like this now:

https://tinyurl.com/123adfd5

Repeat this process for both the destination link and image link.

2. Pretty Links.  If you are on WordPress, install the plugin Pretty Links and you can shorten your links using your custom domain. 

Step 7: Go to your store profile on TpT and put in your link

  1. Login to TpT.  Go to “My Account.”  Then go to  “Profile.”
  2. You must use this code EXACTLY in your profile or it WILL NOT WORK!!  This goes in the “quote” section and choose “Text” to input.
Choose Text TpT Quote
<a href=”DestinationLink”><img src=”ImageLink” /></a>

*DestinationLink –  Replace the word DestinationLink with whatever web address you want buyers to go to if they click your picture. TpT has now asked that we only link to links on TpT.

Note: You CANNOT put more than one link. I would love to link to each product, but we are limited to one link.

*PICTURE – Replace the word ImageLink with the link to your Gif.

*WIERD BUG – MANY people have had trouble with the correct code and the banner still not working.  Turns out pasted quotes ( ” ) are having trouble rendering.  So paste your code, then manually delete and retype each ” – this fixes the problem 90% of the time!  (It has something to do with formatted code if you care, lol).

My banner code would look like this:

<a href=”http://tinyurl.com/tptquotebanner”><img src=”http://tinyurl.com/2sujZOy” /></a>

Which comes out to:
2sujZOy

Step 8: Upload directly to TpT (alternative to steps 5-7 IF your gif is under 5MB)

TpT Banner My Account
1. Go to Name, My Account.
TpT Banner Profile
2. Go to Store Profile, Edit.
Choose Image TpT Quote
3. Choose Image/Link. Upload your GIf. Save.

Step 9: Check your store and troubleshoot!

Step 10: Submit your store and look at some examples!

[ninja_form id=7]

Here are a few examples of some amazing stores that have used this tutorial!

Find it Fast

Categories

Connect

Services

206 Responses

  1. Hey Shelley this worked great. I initially had a problem getting it to work when hosting my image to Dropbox but when I hosted it on my WordPress server, it was magic.

    BTW I created my animation in Photoshop CC. Lots of control over the individual elements.

  2. Thank you!! I was trying to use Bit.ly and couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working. Your tip about using Tiny URL solved my problem. I am so thankful I found this post!

  3. Thank you so much Shelley! This tutorial was so helpful! I had always wondered how teachers were getting those images on their stores. Now I know. Thanks!

  4. Hi Shelley,

    I’m having the same problem as Anna. My banner is too long. I made mine 1×3 inches like I always do and it looks way bigger than the images in my gif. Any suggestions?

    1. Hey Amanda! Have you tried resizing your gif in one of the gif creation programs? Sometimes 1 by 3 inches exports at the wrong pixellation based on DPI (did that make sense at all?? :/ ). Anyway, if you still have problems, shoot me an email at [email protected] and I can try to help! 🙂

  5. Wow!!! Thank you!!! I was able to get it on the first try!!! I wished I would of found your tutorial two nights ago. Your step by step directions were so easy to follow. Thank you so much!!! 🙂

  6. Thank You!!! I could not make my images the proper size in PP, and this finally helped me figure out how to do it (like on the 10th attempt). By the way, Literacy by Lulu gave me your name.

  7. Can you tell me where I would find the link to my GIF…..I have everything complete, but I’m not sure where to find that? Is it where i pinned it on Pinerest??

    1. Hey Marissa! If you go to the pin and click on it, let it pop up, and then copy and paste the link. Then shorten it with bit.ly and go from there. if that doesn’t make sense, shoot me an email at [email protected] and I’ll do my best to help you more! 🙂

  8. Thank you for coming to the rescue AGAIN! I discovered this morning that my rotating banner was gone and replaced by a notice from Photobucket that they now require $400 for 3rd party hosting. Not very nice of them! An email could have been sent out which would have been a better way to approach this. At any rate, a few friends and I problem-solved through this with your help. Thanks again!! Tracy (GoldCountrySLP)

    1. You are so welcome!!! 🙂 I was SOOOO annoyed by the Photoshop debacle. GRRRRR!!!

      So glad you guys were able to work it out! Happy creating!

  9. THANK YOU for updating this post! I used your original post to begin with, but since photobucket is charging, I had to update.
    Your directions were extremely easy to use. I had to delete the ” and reinsert them, then it worked like a charm!

    1. Yay! And I know the ” problem is also annoying – took forever to figure that one out!! 🙂 Glad to help!
      Shelley

  10. Thanks so much! Your tutorial was the only one that worked (and was non-tech user friendly) to fixed my quote box after Photobucket stopped hosting it.

  11. Yaaaaay! I did it. Thanks to your blog post! Creating this tutorial was very generous of you and much appreciated by many.

    I did start by creating the 3 x 1 inch slides in powerpoint. When I went to change the size of the slides in sumopaint, they became extremely blurry, like mentioned in some of the comments. So, I went back and changed the size of my original slides to 4.688 x 1.563 inches, like stated in one of the other comments. It worked for me as well so, I was able to skip the resizing step and go straight to creating the gif.

    Thanks again for this amazing tutorial!

    1. Yay!! You are so very welcome! 🙂 I’m glad you were able to troubleshoot the sizes 🙂 It can all be tricky! I just took a peek at your store – LOOKS GREAT!!!!! 🙂 (PS I’m in Georgia too! Hello to my fellow southerner! 🙂 )

  12. Hi there! Thank you for your post! It was very helpful. I was so excited because I followed all steps correctly. It is when I got to the end where I found trouble. I posted this html code into my link: . But then when I click edit, it did not add and the html code then turned into when I went back to edit my profile again. Do you happen to know what I am doing wrong?

  13. Hey there! Awesome post, thank you so much for sharing. I am confused as to why it is not working in my profile however. I followed all the steps correctly and came up with this html:
    but when I hit edit it doesn’t work. Then when I got back in to fix it the section says: . My link is GONE! Do you know what I could have possibly done wrong?

    Thanks for your help!

    1. Hey Megan! I will shoot you an email, the html you posted is not listing here, but it came through in an email. I think I know what happened, but will confirm via email. We will get you straightened out! 🙂

  14. This is SO awesome! Clear, concise, and frustration-free! 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom. This was much easier than I anticipated.

  15. That was awesome! Your directions were spot on and easy to follow. One of my pictures is kinda of blurry, but I’ll go back and play with that later! Thank you so much! ~Paige

    1. Fantastic! I just glanced at it and it looks pretty good to me! It will never be super crystal clear mostly because of the size restrictions.

    1. Hey Dinah! I just ran to your store and it looks darling!!! Great job!!! 🙂

  16. I woke up early and saw this post on the FB Teacherpreneur Tribe page. SO GLAD you posted this as I LOVE my new gif for my store! I used Pic Monkey instead of Photoshop and Google Drive instead of Photobucket, but it all works so similarly that I had no issues. Thank you!

  17. Thanks for this tutorial! I also had trouble with blurry images. What I did was change the custom size in powerpoint from 3:1 to 12:4 then resized in Sumopaint! It worked perfectly! I’m still not thrilled with my rotating GIF but now I know how to do it! Thank you!

  18. I couldn’t get my pictures to upload to the free Giff maker website. I had to use another website that leaves their website attached to my Giff. Do you think I couldn’t upload them on your website that you suggested because I am using Safari?