Without any partner accounts, the amount of traffic you will get will be very small.
You are much better of creating your own galleries. Hosting them yourself is best, as this is a requirement for so many good partner accounts. Or you coulde use a sponsor that will give you some free hosting for your galleries.
As far as content, I think choosing a sponsor that might not be so saturated is probably a good option, but then again it depends on what works for you. Try a few different things and see what happens
