I'm currently get paid for taking photos and sell online.I really enjoy it! From end of Sept.2006 which is 1 year ago, I surf around on internet, looking for informations regarding micro-stock photography, since then, I sign up 6 best agents to sell my images and get paid. I just upload 30++ of photos at the beginning , and just ignore it for about 2 months.Sales seems like virtually not moving.....after I search again on internet regarding micro stock photography, I realized that I need to put some effort on it to get it run smoothly. I keep myself busy and shoot some photos and upload to stock agents page, and slowly increase my photos quality and quantities, although I only have 100++ photos now ,I see money !

Here, I want to share my experience to people who interested in selling their photos and get paid.
First thing to know, is to find out how to take quality stock photos. Its not as hard as you think. Actually, if you follow some rules and you will be pro- stock photographer! For those who don't know what stock photography is, don't worry. Stock photography is photo or image that licensed for specific uses, and normally people will cal it royalty free photos. In the past , those professional designers, graphic artists magazine firm, web masters , advertising agents etc. they will hire professional photographers to take photos for their needs, and it cost them a lot. Now with stock photography agents, a buyer licenses an image and the photographer is paid a commission. Thats the basic Idea.

Here are some rules to follow:

No snapshots or tourist-like or family party-like photos.
If you are new into photography, you can learn while try to submit your work for sale, but keep in mind, please do not submit your party or vacation snapshots or you will be rejected! since your are starting a professional related job as stock photographer, Your photos must be commercially in demand and highly usable for artist or designers.Once you sign up to stock photo agency, try to search for their top selling or most popular files, and you will get to know whats the hottest photos they want.
Try to avoid direct flash lights on your camera, it will produce hard shadows and you will get rejected and receive a comment " bad lighting" although the image seems ok.try to bounce your light as fill in light or reflected light, or use studio lighting if you can afford one. You can search online for topics related to photography lighting techniques and you will get a lots of information.

No digital noise or over post process.
Before you submit your photos, make sure the photos are clear , sharp, nicely composed and lowest noise, especially you use higher iso setting on your camera, try to avoid high iso setting, and also try to use tripod if in low light condition. You can try to use noise removal software to remove noises, and keep your exposure as accurate as possible , to reduce noise. Do not over- processing your photos, such as sharpening, or saturation , your customers will do that to suit their needs.

No copyrighted material
Make sure all your photos don't have any brands,company logos or name, trademarks, or third party images. have a close look at maybe your model's sport shoe, shirts, watches,etc. You can remove it using Photoshop before you submit it.

No photos without model release if you have human face in your work
Ask your model to sign a model release, and the model release form can be downloaded from the stock image agencies.editorial images can be submitted without any model release but it won't sells good.. You can download a model release form from 1 stock photo agency, remove their logo and company name, and you can use the same model release to send it to all agencies. They will accept it as long as the release is filled up nicely and signed.

Which site ?
I' mentioned 6 most popular agencies site, here's the list:

Shutterstock

Dreamstime

istockphoto

fotolia

bigstockphoto

123RF

Here's the ranking according to my sales :

1) Shutterstock (To date: USD 361.00, 150 photos online)

Shutterstock provide different concept in royalty free stock photography. Buyers need to subscribe monly for 750 images that can be downloaded within 30 days. Each image downloaded will earn USD0.25 and this side is the most sales side.
To upload images, you have 3 options , that is, via ftp, I used filezilla , and you can download it for free. HTML upload, I seldom use this, and another one is activeX uploader. I used ftp most of the time for batch upload. There's a forum to discuss with others photographers as well.

2) Dreamstime (to date: USD186.90 151 photos online)

Dreamstime has been in its business for around 8 years and its sale growing rapidly in this couple of years. The commission for smallest size of photo starts from USD 0.50 and larger one will be USD1.50 or even more, the more popular photos will get more commission.. I sell less photos but earn more from this site. Again, a helpful forum can be login for discussing with others members.

3) istockphoto ( To date: USD 131.15 110 photos online)

Istockphoto is more professional and well known in micro stock industries. They have a lots of skillful photographers under their list. To be one of them, you will need to be put some effort to get your photos stand out from others. The only bad things about this site are , they didn't support ftp upload, and limit to 20 photos upload per week.

4) fotolia ( to date: USD 66.00 191 photos online)

fotolia, another new stock photo agency with potential. they update their web page recently, but still sorting a lots of bugs in this couple of months.The fotolia have different pages in several languages to increase their sales.upload also easy , by using ftp tools.Their commissions are base on several different size of image downloaded.

5) bigstockphoto ( To date: USD 63.00 ,182 photos online)

Another new site that actually operate for just 3 yers ++ .This site really grown fast. they have good search engine, forums, ftp uploader, good articles about stock photos ,and tutorial.....Bigstockphoto pay USD 0.50 for each download, and the minimum payout rate is only USD30, compare to others site USD100.

6) 123RF ( To date USD 29.50 175 photos online)

123RF starts their business for around 8 years too, They sells 3 different type of size for an image at $1 to $3. Commission is half of their sales.their sales report seems like not a real time report. I like their upload function, for all others agencies, we have to catagorized all our photos, but 123RF automatically do that for us. I can save quite a lot of time.

Stay tuned !! More to come !!