Advancements in technology have indelibly changed our lives. TVs are flat (and some have 3d) stuff that used to be small is large, things that use to be huge are now tiny. These changes coupled with a recession have caused businesses to cut cost and people are willing to do more to earn an extra income.
Multiple types of sites that accept submissions of stock photos, however the particular category that we are going to focus on is micro stock. There are higher paying forms of stock photography such as macro stock or rights managed but microstock is usually the easiest to submit to for newbie photographers.
Lots of Quality Photos
Take lots of photos and focus on quality. Always look for different angles, consider lighting and study new techniques. Bear in mind that you may have lots of "bads" at first but that's alright. Bear in mind that stock photo agencies have very high standards so you always want to be improving.
A large amount of photos is what is going to earn an income. One seasoned photography told me that he an average earned $1.00 per year for every photo that he submitted. Bear in mind that most of the photos that he submitted didn't sell (and that was with Royalty Free.) The point is, you can earn an income but you are going to have to work hard for it.
Multiple Agencies
Just about every stock agency is going to give you the offer of being exclusive. This usually means that you don't sell photos to other agencies and can mean that you can't sell them on your own site. They will usually offer you priority listings on their site, banner advertisements and possibly some other benefits. If you are a veteran photographer with years of experience then I'd recommend that you do this. However in your case I would submit the same photos to as many sites as possible. Different sites attract various demographics of clientele who have diverse interest. This means that a photo that doesn't sell well on one site may perform better on another.
Keywords
Keywords are the way you talk with both the stock photography search engines as well as sites like yahoo and Google. Look for successful photos that are similar to yours and use the same keywords that they are using.
Hang in there as you learn this business, no one is an overnight success but with a lot of patience you can be successful.
For more information about stock photography as well as a list of sites check out my hub at: http://photojoe21.hubpages.com/hub/sell-photography-online
If you'd like to improve your photography skills then read my squidoo lens. It's a quick guide that will quickly have you taking amazing photos:
http://www.squidoo.com/portrait-photo-studio
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