Action photos are inherently more appealing. A story, blog post or oped with an action shot that's relevant will attract more readers than a photo of people or objects posing at rest.
The problem is, most people don't take action shots with their subject doing the action they're meant to do.
They shoot the runner stretching, or posing on the track. They shoot the robots standing still when the assembly line isn't moving. They pose the professor in front of the blackboard, smiling and wearing a bow tie.
They make it boring.
So play with your camera settings. Most have a Sports mode, which is good for catching people and things in motion.
Anything in motion is usually better than the standard static image, or the dreaded group photo where everybody lines up in a row and smiles while they try not to blink their eyes.
A good rule of thumb is while you may only shoot five or ten frames to get a decent group photo or mug short -- though I would suggest shooting 20 or 30 frames -- you'll need to shoot more frames than normal for action shots.
Since everybody's using digital cameras these days, there's no price to pay for clicking fast.
Digital cameras often have a function that will shoot as many frames as it can handle as you hold the button down. Use it. You'll capture moments and images that would have been impossible if you'd waited to see something, then clicked. And that image will get more people to read the words that go with it.