Stock agency question

I have heard/read that marketing nature/travel images through stock agencies is not much attractive anymore (compared 10-20 yrs back) to many photographers. Is that true for you guys here too?
If not, what are the top agencies that you guys recommend for nature/travel type images?

I am seeing a lot of photographers setting up their individual stock image business/website - how successful are these? For someone who does not have built a big library yet, I feel stock agencies may be still useful. I am not member of any stock agency, but thinking to take that route as I have little time to market my work and really can use some help. Are there any other option?

Thanks for your answers

Ok I'll take a shot at this one. I had been in the stock agency and self agency in the very early eighties to the very late nineites. Nature images don't have a lifespan like travel,lifestyles,ect. do, An animal or sunset won't go out of style this is why nature stock is a difficult business but it is and can be a profitable business still today. you must adapt to the changing markets and sometimes just guess right. Fine art sale are a whole different world you have to decide which area you want to invest your time, money and future in. Don't make the mistake of letting fine art images go as inexpensive or non licensed clip art.Be very careful of letting any image go as clip art or non licensed it will diminish the price you can get for it in the future. As for the stock I guess you can still supplement your income with it but you very likley will need more. this may not be true in every case but I think it is in most today. Now not to make it all sound bad stock is great it put you in contact with buyers and gets your name out there. Just be very carefull about the ageency ask around and contact photographers listed with the agency. I was taken in the early days of the internet agencies myself. Today I don't do stock but only shoot for income for a few clients which most of them I met from stock sales. How this helps and give stock a try just take a litle time to check into it before jumping at the first offer. I would recommend using an agency at first to see how it works and get a feel for pricing not to mention they do the marketing.

Hi, Arnab
There are a lot of places out there for you to sell your photos through. Stay away from the "micropayment" sites, though. The microsites will give you only 25 or 30 cents per sale and they are hard to get into anyway with nature shots because there are just so many people out there who shoot nature. I have photos on Photo Shelter: http://mp.photoshelter.com/index but have yet to make a sale through them. There are others as well. Try this one too: http://www.featurepics.com/. On this one your choose your license type and set your own prices. There are others, too, so you might google for "stock photography agencies" and you'll see why so many have set up their own websites to sell their pictures.

Hope this helps, some.

Lou