How to get your stuff out there?

I am hoping some more experienced here can give me some advice. I have only been serious about photography since Dec. 07. I have learned a lot and have lots to learn. How does one go about selling their work? How are some of you selling your work and what tips/advice do you have? After just losing my job of 12 years and being forced to sell my house, I would like to be able to make some money off my photography.

What kind of pictures do you take? If you want to become a pro, there are stickys to start with.

Thank you. I shoot lots of landscape stuff.

it prob hard to sell land scape isnt it?

I think that is by far the hardest. Everyone thinks they can do that. I do know some successful photographers, met one at the Mall in DC one time. She takes mainly for a magazine that does landscapes. She gets paid for it, travels everywhere. It's really who you know and a large investment in traveling on your own to start.

Of course, you could try stock sites, or other personal collection sites. To name a few...
www.alamy.com, www.photoshelter.com, www.shutterstock.com, etc. I wanted to do the same, by selling landscapes, but, they are definately hard to sell...though, through microstock sites, they seem to do OK, but you don't make much money. Maybe start looking into other ways to get yourself out there, and do other things with photography...weddings​, sports, people, etc. Those seem to be the money makers. Good luck.

The two most common approaches to landscape are:

1. Showing, marketing, printing, & selling yourself.
2. Find an agency or stock house to represent your work.

I've done both and found that #1 was too time consuming for my taste. The business/marketing side is very time-consuming and you have much less time to shoot.

#2 has been the most profitable and rewarding. I shoot and upload the images to the agency and they do all the sales, promotion, and financial work. If you go this route, find an agency that fits your style of photography--they are not all created equal. For example, I do a lot of rural/agricultural work and my agency specializes in and has outlets for those types of images.

The biggest challenge you may face is determining if your work is really good enough to sell. For that, you may want to consider local competitions and portfolio reviews. Don't rely on the word of friends and family! Your photos may be good, but they have no idea how stiff the competition is in the real market place.

Just another opinion...

It strikes me that truly successful photographers reach that status by being world class in one specialty. They might be very, very good at other genres but it's their specialty that really "feeds the Bulldog."

A sidebar issue relates to how publishing has mirrored broadcasting over the last couple of decades. Cable and Dish have now allowed video production to achieve an almost laser-like focus on specific groups of viewers and I think publishing is following the same track.

You now find magazines, e-zines and other outlets who now cater only to (as an example) left-handed, Bolivian, Catholic, Single people who like to fish for only one species instead just people who like to fish.

Short story made long: Get really, really good at one subject and market the hell out of yourself.