Camera = Web Cash Machine?

Look at billboards, magazine ads, brochures, and that sort of thing. Pay attention to the photos that are used in such communication materials. Can you take photos like that? (Give it a try!) If you can, then you should seriously consider signing up with microstock sites, to give you an easy way to generate a steady income from your photos. (The fact that you can take many of those photos in the comfort of your own home, whenever it's convenient for you, makes this type of photography even more attractive!)

No matter what kind of photography you enjoy, you can post your photos on the Web and earn money through advertisements that are shown with your photos. There are several ways to do this. First, of course, you can create a Lens on Squidoo to display a set of photos that fit a theme that you select. You can create different Lenses for different themes, and Squidoo will handle the details of inserting ads (plus you can increase your earnings by adding certain modules to your Lenses, like the Amazon.com module).

If you have a Web site, you can create pages that display your photos along with ads from an ad network like Google AdSense or AdBrite. (Be sure to check out AdBrite's "BritePic" tool!)

The pages you put on your Web site can often be created semi-automatically from digital photo software on your computer. Or, you could use a Web script like Gallery.

Speaking of eBay, you can also sell prints of your photos on eBay. This would not normally be for "stock"-type photos, but artistic photos might sell very well. You certainly don't have to do any printing or even shipping yourself, you can "outsource" that to an online photo printing service. There are quite a few available, and you'll want to get a test print or two from the service you're considering to make sure the quality will be good enough for what your buyers will expect.

And, really, "prints" doesn't have to mean printing on photo paper, or something to hang on a wall. If you look at the variety of items offered by a site like CafePress or Mpix, you'll see that the items you could be auctioning cover a pretty wide range. When an auction is completed and you receive the buyer's payment, you simply order the item and have it shipped directly to your buyer.

Just make sure that your auction price starts at a high enough level to ensure that your item price and shipping costs are covered. In other words, make sure you're making a profit each time! Don't be afraid to add a decent markup (the amount you add to your own cost), since the buyer is paying to enjoy your photo. They're not just paying for a photo-printing service.