Damn someone tries to give some advice and they get slammed!! His advice isn't all that bad, neither is damageX what anyone should do first and utmost is READ READ READ... Learn the In's and outs Personally I would learn the designers... most designers now a days make pretty flashy designs which impress the webmaster and his fellow friends. Some will say flashy pretty converts great, IMO the simple basic gallery does far better.. *shrugs* that is just my

on designers.
Again just my

on this but now a days its hard to make a buck submitting to tgp's without partner accounts etc... it's easy to get 4k to galleries using a auto submit but the real job is getting 100k to your galleries, only way to do that is get partner accounts, buy paid listings etc... but if ya just starting out you will want to research your niche you are going to be using research the partner tgp's before you start shelling out any money. *shrugs*
I do agree if you use a niche that you are into you will do better, but there are tons of niches out there, don't get stuck just in one.. Grab a few. What I like doing is visiting the sponsors site look at their promo if my little buddy down stairs starts to twitch then I know its a good niche to use, this is just me though lol have fun at what ya do take it day by day and just learn...
Tom