Is my profile good?...

[JoseChantre]

Hi there!

I hope you’re all ok.

I’m new in Connect, and until now, I’ve been doing some reviews only for my own, but sometimes, I wonder if I am doing a good job…, or not.

Someone with much more experience then me, my new friend @MortenCopenhagen , suggested me that I should do this post (I hope I’m doing in the right place… “How to do”), and immediatly I thought that was a great ideia!

So, if you 'll be so kind to see my profile, and my reviews, I would love to ear from you, if I am doing thing’s right, and how can I improuve, in order to give GMaps a better contribuiton.

I have also posted an article in Connect, in “travel” category, so, if you can see it for me, I would love to ear from you, if it´s well done, what’s wrong, etc…

https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/General-Discussion/Uma-viagem-a-uma-das-Aldeias-Hist%C3%B3ricas-da-Europa-Marv%C3%A3o/td-p/3161663

I’m looking forward for your opinion’s.

Thank you so much, for your precious help!

José

PS: I’m sorry about my english; it’s not my primary language; I’m Portuguese!.., yes…, like Cristiano Ronaldo!!

[ErmesT]

Thank you for asking, @JoseChantre , and welcome in Connect.

You can improve (and I think this is why you are writing here) but you are basically doing well.

Let me analyse the numbers, first of all, then we will talk about contents.

Reviews: Most of your reviews are long reviews, and you only have a single rating, and this is generally good, because through our reviews we help others to choose.

Photos: your average is a bit more than 10 photos per place. No bad, but the low number of the average of views (185,64) is telling us something about redundancy.

And you are indeed a visualist: more than 71% of your points are coming from photos, and around 25% from reviews. This is OK, we are all different, and we like to contribute in different ways

Quality: You write great reviews! Well done, but your photos are a bit redundant, and some of them are duplicates and near duplicates. Here below a few examples of what should be avoided (Duplicates and redundancy)

Redundancy and duplicates are not only forbidden by the program, but are also the reason of the low average of views. You take good photos, choose the best ones, the most meaningful, and avoid to post a whole album. One of the top photographer of the community have an average of 40,000 views for each photo, and his average of photos per place is 1.26 (in most of the places he only post one photo). Impressive, isn’t it?

Hope my feedback can help you.

Good luck

Ermes

P. s.: Regarding your post. Your post is beautiful, but you add too many photos. We can only post 1000 photos in Connect, and in addition a post with a lot of photos takes longer time to upload. Also, we are a worldwide community, so not everyone knows anything about the place you are mentioning in the post. Adding the links of the places in Google Maps will help a lot.

As an example, I am sharing with you my three latest post about travel:

• Aquileia, Roman Empire in the North East of Italy - Part 1
• Palmanova, The Fortress City
• The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - Aquileia and the Milite Ignoto

As you can see, I am using a lot of collages. For my collages I am using Google Slides. It is free, and if you are on desktop, you can do amazing thing. Also remember that a good cover can invite the people to read your post

[JoseChantre]

@ErmesT , hi!

Uauuu!.., what a great and precious help!!.. Thank you so much.

I’ll follow your advice’s, that’s for sure!!

Take care, and once again, thank you very much!

José

[ErmesT]

You are welcome, @JoseChantre

You have a great future as a Local Guide, you just have to be more careful when you post photos.

I enjoyed the Quinta da Regaleira when I visited your country. I think it is one of the first places I reviewed in Maps.

Oh, don’t worry about language, feel free to use your own. We have a good translator in every page of Connect.

Good Night

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @JoseChantre

I see you got brilliant feedback from @ErmesT already. There is no more to say But let me try anyway since I promised you to do so.

Regarding all the photos you uploaded to Casas de Campo do Castro da Cola:

Sharing photos where animals are in the focus of your photos are not very helpful to Maps users. They want to see the place. The cat may not be there or the cat might be blocking Maps users from seeing details of interest in the background. If you zoom out more people are more likely to see the details they are interested in.

You have uploaded 4 photos to Laser System Nova Forma:

These photos look to me like they were taken at a tradeshow and not at the actual clinic. The photo of the two ladies looks a lot like a commercial photo and does not show the place. I checked that none of the 4 photos are visible at the place, so it seems the system also “disliked” them. Copyrights might also be an issue here since one of the photos seems to be a photo of another photo with recognizable faces (privacy). Businesses can upload photos of the staff/owner. Local guides should never upload pics with recognizable faces.

You have uploaded a lot of photos to Lison Zoo:

These are technically good photos, but also very much what any visitor would take. If I may, I would call them typical tourist or family photos. Take a look at what has been shared already on Google Maps to the Zoo.

I like to get a lot of views on all of my photos. Your photos from the Zoo are very unlikely to attract a lot of views. Sharing traditional tourist photos on Google Maps will not get you a lot of views. My strategy is to add photos of storefronts and entrances that have a high chance of becoming the cover photo (the 1. photo of the place) which get tons and tons of views. I just know it is very difficult to take a photo that will become the cover photo of a huge tourist attraction with thousands of photos already on Google Maps. So I don’t even try.

I’m saying this only to inspire you to take more storefront and entrance photos. Poplular places with no or very few photos are more likely to give large numbers of views.

You have uploaded 14 photos to Marina de Oeiras:

The majority of them are beautiful sunsets showing clouds, water, and the sun only. They are not representing the Marina. They could have been taken at any beach. And most likely the light will be very different when a Maps user comes to visit! Always keep in mind to only share photos that are helpful to Maps users.

One great trick is to make a note of which photos Google selects as cover photos. This can inspire you to take photos that are more likely to get loads of views.

The issues mentioned above are tips to advance your Maps photography and I’m certainly not saying that your photo contributions are bad. You are doing great, but there is still room to improve if you so desire.

All the best and thanks for inviting us to comment on your contributions.

Morten

[JoseChantre]

Dear @ErmesT and @MortenCopenhagen

Thank you so, so much for your precious help!!!

I really liked your comments, and now, I know that I’ll be a much better LG.

With that in mind, I’ll delete the photos that aren’t right, from my already done reviews, because now I understand better the spirit, what we should post, and, most important, what we shouldn’t post, and how we must act to get GMaps even better.

Please, can you clarufy this doubt of mine, when it’s possible for you?

You, Ermest, wrote that we only can have 1000 photo on Connect; let me know if I got it right; in all of our post’s on Connect, we can only have 1000 photos, is that right? And, when that limit is achieved, do we get a warning about that?

And the way that we have to solve that, is to delete the post’s that we have in Connect?.. Am I understanding right?..

A big hug for you two, and, once again, thank you very much for your help!!

José Chantre

[MortenCopenhagen]

@JoseChantre

Always happy to help.

If you hit the 1000 limit there is a workaround where you upload photos elsewhere (could be to Google Photos) and then insert them here. It is not super easy, but there us a way.

I have posted a lot here on Connect without hitting the limit.

I do not know if we get a warning. But you will know when you try to upload pic #1001

Cheers

Morten

[ErmesT]

I’ve reached 1000 photos long time ago (I was one of the first, because I like to post photos and to write detailed posts, as you may see in my profile) @JoseChantre . No, there is no warning about that, but when it will happen you will have a red banner on the top of the page to inform you that you have reached the limit.

You have of course the possibility to check the amount of photos posted by checking your profile.

And there are way to fix the issue, by using different ways to post photos, by embedding photos, by using collages.

Being Impacted by this issue, long time ago I decided to write a post for others not be in my situation, as I had no idea about how to solve it and I had to discover it by myself: Tips and tricks to manage the photos in Connect

Six month Later Google acknowledge the issue, and wrote a post about embedding photos: Tips for Uploading Images to Connect to Stay Within Limit

In August 2018 Google wrote another post (now in the Help desk), addressed to all the users who are posting photos: Uploading a photo on Connect? Read these guidelines first . A link to the two previously mentioned posts was added in there, for everyone to be able to easily find tips.

Please read these posts, I am sure you will find them useful

[JoseChantre]

Dear @MortenCopenhagen

Espero que estejas bem.

Bem sei que já te respondi, e também ao ermest, a agradecer-vos os vossos comentários, mas sinto que o devo fazer pessoalmente à tua pessoa, pois foste tu que me sugeriste fazer o post a pedir opiniões acerca do meu perfil e das minhas contribuições, e, acredita, que o output que daí saiu, com os teus comentários e os do ermest, fizeram com que eu adoptasse uma nova maneira de estar no GMaps.

Tal como a maioria dos iniciantes, também eu estava a ficar “cego” com o facto de querer mais e mais pontos, para subir de nível, mas de facto, o foco não deve ser esse. Como é sabido, a quantidade é inimiga da qualidade, e depois de interiorizar os conselhos que vocês me deram, voltei a muitas das minhas avaliações, e corrigi os erros que vocês me apontaram, nomeadamente, apagando fotos que eram quase duplicados, fotos de animais, fotos de candeeiros em perspectivas diferentes, as fotos da Laser System numa Feira e não nas suas instalações, etc…

Penso que agora, e graças à vossa preciosa ajuda, poderei ser um LG melhor, e é por essa razão que te estou a escrever estas linhas, apenas e só para te agradecer, pois foste tu que me colocaste na direção certa!

Muito obrigado!

Um abraço,

José Chantre

[JoseChantre]

Caro Ermest

Bem sei que já te respondi, e ao Morten também, pelos vossos comentários, mas de facto, foram tão importantes e esclarecedores, que sinto que o devo fazer pessoalmente. Já o fiz ao Morten, e agora, faço-o a ti; muito obrigado!

Esclarece-me, por favor, quando te for possível a seguinte dúvida:

Quando dizes que usas muitas colagens nos teus post’s, queres dizer o quê? Que usas muitos link’s que remetem para os locais que estás a falar nesses post’s, ou estás a referir-te a um programa “Google Images” para inserires as fotos no post? Eu não conheço esse programa Google Images…; serve para quê?

Última dúvida: Vejo que o meu indicador “Review helpfulness”, está quase no vermelho; qual é a razão para que isso esteja a contecer? As minhas avaliações serão longas demais?.., ou é o seu conteúdo que não está a ajudar as pessoas?

Gostava de perceber melhor, para poder melhorar, percebes?

Um abraço, e mais uma vez, mil obrigados pela tua preciosa ajuda!

PS: Já apaguei as fotos das avaliações que eu já tinha feito, e que não acrescentavam nada!..

[MortenCopenhagen]

Thanks for your kind feedback, @JoseChantre .

It means a lot to me.

Best regards

Morten

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @ErmesT

I like your meters. But if I may I would also like to ask about the 4 focus types:

Sage

Visualist

Mapper

Hunter

The terms Sage and Hunter make little sense to me. From the context, I would guess that Sage is related to reviews and Hunter to maybe checking facts.

Have you described and/or shared your spreadsheet anywhere?

Cheers

Morten

[ErmesT]

Thanks for asking, @MortenCopenhagen

I created the spreadsheet for my personal use, to have an easy and “visual” way to interpreter my contributions, based only on numbers.

Maybe in the future I will share it, when I will have the feeling that “is the right moment for doing that”.

I was tempted to do it, but the risk is to increase an insane competition.

In this case, as we had a straight question (Is my profile good?) I just wanted to made a test.

The four categories are coming from a very old article: Seven kinds of Local Guides you might spot on Google Maps . I modified some of them to be able to have a graphic based only on the numbers in the profile.

Visualist - Photos and videos

Sage - Reviews, Q&A, Lists

Hunter - Answers and Fact Checked

Mapper - Place Added, Road Added, Edits

Maybe a day

[MortenCopenhagen]

Thanks @ErmesT

Nice link.

If you want I could help you fine tune the spread sheet if you decide to share it. I think it could be made better with some tweeking in relation to 1) having some protected areas, 2) better rounding, 3) pop-up explanations etc.

All the best

Morten