About & Contact
My name is Duncan Wherrett, the writer of this site.
I am a professional photographer, specialising in concept and stock photography. In my early photography days, most of my work was in large format, using 8 x 10 cameras.
At one time, I specialised in a lot of special effects; both in-camera and in the darkroom.
These days digital capture dominates all.
I have been using Photoshop for over 10 years, starting with version 3.5.
Digital imaging work can become very involved and retouching and photographic composites have to be done to the highest reproduction standards.
Being a professional photographer for 30 years has been a great help in producing an effective result – knowing how things should look and what can work as a more powerful image.
While most work is now done on digital, the plate camera still gets used for personal work.Using a plate camera has its own qualities; the craftsmanship, the time taken and the care and consideration needed in setting up the image.
There is also something special about looking at 8x10 transparencies on a light box.
On the film front, I still cross-process some transparency film for the special effect that achieves. The way I process it does involve a certain unpredictability, which means I don't know quite how it will turn out until I see the scanned image on the screen.
I can be contacted via the e-mail form below.
About This Site
Most people seem to have had bad experiences with computer manuals. They are written by experts but never seem to have been road-tested on complete beginners. Photoshop is no exception, with some books spending the first 50 pages describing tools and features in some detail. A confusing amount of information is pumped out, and much of which will not be used for a long while. All I wanted to do was just get started. In due course I mastered all its functions but I thought there has to be a better way of presenting the instructions. This stimulated me to write articles on different Photoshop tasks.In due course, these articles expanded and developed into a book about learning Photoshop. The idea came to turn this into an e-book; put some of the articles on the net and sell the new e-book at the same time. By chance, I came across Site Build It. A fellow photographer had recently developed his passion for yoga into a web site using the SBI system. What impressed me most was how many visitors this yoga site was getting and how much the owner was earning from product sales and ads from other suppliers. And all this without knowing the mechanics and secret tricks to generate traffic, which meant there was no time spent on learning the things I was not too interested in. There is no point in having a website unless it at least has the potential of getting loads of visitors. Firstly I wanted to see what a few other people said about SBI, so I looked at some testimonials.
"I exercised due caution and did some more research first. I asked a few people, I dug around on the internet, and no matter where I looked, I didn't hear a bad word. Everybody said the same thing, "If you build your site with SBI, you will definitely get traffic." ~ B. Bradtke outback-australia-travel-secrets.com "My puny little hand-built, local-dentist Web site broke the Alexa 100,000 barrier today and none of this would have been possible if it weren't for the power and effectiveness of the SBI process. (OK - I did put in a little elbow grease)." ~ Dr. John Burch DDS DrBurch.com "I now have a business that I can grow over the years. A business that is fun. I'll never do a 9 to 5. I'll always own my own life. That, more than money, more than learning about the Web, more than anguilla-beaches, more than learning how to write well, that is the most important thing I've learned from SBI!. Own your own life. If you don't, what's the point?" ~ Nori Evoy Anguilla-Beaches.com
So people were turning their hobbies and local businesses into successful websites which brought in good incomes. Students were developing incomes to cover course fees and more. People were giving up the day jobs, working for themselves, gaining income and freedom. This looked promising. The next move was to find a bit more about the system itself so I had a look at their
Video Tour
summary, which gives a brief outline of how the system works and what can be achieved.
No previous knowledge required
Although I can produce web sites to some extent, I was impressed by how simple and professional SBI made the whole process and it meant that no technical knowledge was required. The system comes with a large range of templates, a simple system of construction and complete action guides.I found there was no need to know anything about web sites, how to make a web page or how to submit to search engines. All the tools are provided along with precise step-by-step instructions. You just need to know your subject and have the right enthusiasm. The 'trick' with any project is to do something you enjoy, love and have a passion for; then it won't feel like work and is likely to be more successful.
Getting to the top 1%
SBI gives help on just how to build a page to gain maximum attention from search engines and how to move your pages up the rankings. Many users of the system have seen their sites move up into the top 1% of all the sites on the net . After seeing that, I decided to give it a go, especially as there was plenty of time to try it out and claim a full refund if I felt it was not for me.Developing this site over a period, traffic has increased progressively, until this site is well into the top 1%. Being on the first page of Google is the target for any web developer. Enter 'Photoshop manuals' or 'manuals for Photoshop' into Google and the manual page from this site comes out number one. I never could have done that on my own. You even get help how to refine your topic and how to make money from the site, by such means as placing Google ads, collecting commission fees by recommending products and selling e-books. There are been many striking successes with the system and here are some
sample videos
made by lovers of Site Build It specializing in different topics, and how it changed their lives. Anyone completely new to web site building can produce a site with the SBI system. As a result, a hobby or passion can be turned into a money-creating enterprise. It seems any subject can have such success - cats, flat tummies, needlework, allergies, cars, reiki, hair styles, just anything if there is enough demand for the topic. The system will calculate the demand for your topic before you begin. Sure it takes time to build up a site, but no technical knowledge and little in the way of writing skills. SBI even has guides on how to write the most effective text for your pages, such as this free book,
Make Your Content Pre-Sell
. The big thing is that you are working on a subject that you are very keen on.
Making a profit
Can any site make a profit? Well, just about. It's a matter of having the right niche. During the planning stage, the SBI system will check the viability of any subject and narrow it down to the most useful and profitable topic. There are many ways of making money with a website, such as: - create your own e-goods to sell, such as e-books and DVDs;
- selling other people's products for a commission;
- promoting services;
- getting paid for leads and referrals to other sites;
- displaying Google Ads on your site.
SBI shows you how to do all this.
Expert help available
In spite of all the help given by the SBI system, there is still a fair bit of work involved. Not everybody can undertake this; perhaps they are just too busy running the business or are just not inclined to spend the necessary time. No problem. There are experts in the SBI system who can do the task. The site can be started with a few pages and added to over time, and you can be safe in the knowledge that it WILL be right. It's surprising how many people have developed their sites using their hobbies and a subject they are mad about. After turning them into real money-making machines, they have been able to give up their regular jobs, changing a boring lifestyle to one of more interest and independence. Some people have no choice but to be at home. Well there's the opportunity to turn a special interest into a new business. I won't give up my job; photography has always been a hobby as well as job to me, but all the extra income is useful.
Take a closer look at SBI and
follow your passion
.
Best regards,
Duncan Wherrett
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