No. You cannot earn money from being a local guide at Google maps.
My post was mainly about my photography and I never mentioned about any form of reward. My post was more about recognition. What I was trying to say was that other platforms have users doing exactly the same - posting photos of food etc, but that they are recognised as social media influencers because they use other platforms. Often people will put a lot less effort into posts on the likes of Insta and YouTube but get huge followings and recognition. I was just trying to say itās a shame that Google really just isnāt recognised like these other platforms. Iāll get hundreds of thousands of views of my photos and reviews, but hardly anyone takes the time to ālikeā anything or follow me.
Donāt get me wrong, Iām not crying myself to sleep at night over it - just wanted to get other peoples thoughts and opinions. It would be great if us Google Guides were more recognised for our contributions.
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Feel free to check out the photos on my Google Guide profile. That has nothing to do with my post. Iām happy do discuss photography and skills - but thatās not what my post was about.
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The follow concept is quite new @Col so the uptake isnāt very high yet.
I generally follow people I either know personally or are sharing great content in the area I live or an area I intend to visit.
This is the way the feature is intended to be used and the people you follow drive the local updates feed you see in the app. If you followed thousands blindly like people do on social media then the local updates feed would not be useful - it would be more like instagram - see what I had for breakfast type of thing.
I hope this helps explain why Maps is a bit different in this respect.
As for liking - this is something some people do and others not, when I see a review that helps me or photos I find useful then I drop them a like, otherwise I move on.
Paul
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Yes, I always click pictures of the places I visit so that I can post it on google
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Really itās always a pleasure sharing knowledge of your environment to the world or to potential visitors of the environment.
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Google is just being polite by asking us to contribute, if you took the photo and wrote the review using an Android device they own the operating system you generated that content on, and probably already have access to more content than we realise on Google cloud, photos, gmail. We use these features for free without realising it.
I actually pay google hundreds of dollars per year for storage (google drive) , advertising (adwords) , and company email, it doesnāt bother me contributing for free to maps. There are no benefits to me personally to contribute, just possibly to a fellow human you might provide some information to that might help them have a better day one day in future.
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Iām not sure Iād call it polite but for me and I believe for most of us, helping others is the reason we do it. We (or at least I do) write a review when something is worth mentioning. That something mightāve been negative or positive but the experience is something we wanted to share.
So thatās why I still believe that payment isnāt necessary. The need to share our personal experience cannot be compromised with money. And yesā¦ helping others in the future is the best gift we can give. Be safeā¦keep sharing.
Peace out.
puedes local guides monetizar por contribuciones?
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Hi @netico69 ,
The short answer to your question is no. As per our program rules, the Local Guides program is for volunteers contributing to Google Maps in order to help others. Thatās why Local Guides canāt monetize their contributions.
To keep the community more organized, I just moved your comment within the existing relevant thread, where you can follow the conversation.
You can also read more here: Why be a Local Guide?
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I think where this program falls short is the lack of standardized rewards and transparency for what those rewards could be. Most people understand that this is volunteer service but it would be nice to have something to strive for. EG. When you reach x level you get socks. It seems like the rewards are completely random. Someone gets socks at a certain level and someone else who is higher level and contributed much more gets nothing. I myself have never received anything and im okay with that but there is a lot of room for improvement. As of now there is literally no incentive besides maybe youāll get something. Make it clear, transparent and standardized
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Agreed, or make the rewards something that costs google nothing, I am about to spend $$$ with google because my drive space has run out, partly because of the photos and videos I have taken, ironically, i use a lot of these photos in my reviews, so it would be nice for google to reward us with a bit of free storage space every so often, thatās how partnerships work.
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Dear ones
*'m happy being an LG. It provides me learning and enjoyment. But one thing lacks in it , and that is money.
*Every LG is not so wealthy to devote his time to fulfill his interests/hobbies for no money. He lives in his family and does have monetary needs.
*I suggest Google to pay some amt.for every point. Itās a need of the time.
*Google is a big company. It can manage it(trustfulness of reviews, payments etc.) well.
*It will not only be a great support for unemployed People (at least in India) but also will gain great trust for Google.
*I hope for positive responses.
Cheers
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Google local guide contribution is much more pro active if he or she will get small cash rewards for their contribution.
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Hi @Prasharaj ,
Thanks for contacting us!
Please have in mind that the Local Guides program is a voluntary program and is all about helping each other with our contributions. There are some rewards, given from time to time as a āāthank youāā from Google for your quality contributions, however, there isnāt a promised reward for participating or reaching a certain level or views. You can read more about it in this article. I also recommend that you check this discussion where you will find some of the reasons for being a Local Guide.
To maximize your chances of being eligible for a future reward opportunity, continue to add high quality contributions to Google Maps and make sure to update your email preferences.
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Hi @mjordangray ,
As you can read in our program rules, Local Guides are individuals voluntarily contributing to Google Maps in order to help others to discover and explore the world. Thatās why Local Guides canāt earn for their contributions on Google Maps.
To keep the community more organized, I just merged your posts within this existing thread, so you can follow the discussion there.
Since you joined recently, I suggest you read more information about the forum in Your guide to Connect.
We all know this is a Voluntary service from us to you guys. We are just sharing an idea that we have. We all think that if you guys give us something in reward we would put more interest and better quality. I started doing this because I thought Google was gonna change their mind in the future, when I started to see all the views my post were getting I started to upload more pictures and recommendations but after a while I was kinda disappointed of not getting anything back. However this is NOT a complaint from us to you guys, is just an idea.
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Thereās already a lot of people offering location reviews for free because we enjoy doing it. The moment it becomes monetized, thereās going to be tons of people doing it solely for financial benefits and I imagine itāll be difficult to get honest reviews if that happens. Just try having fun with being a local guide
Am happy to work for Google I work hard and honest.
Wellā¦ I wouldnāt call it āworking for Googleā per se, Vishnu