We should get paid by Google maps for our contributions
pay business contributions something least setup options for business to offer payment to contributors for their photos
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Hey @Lookituplive - one of our very active fellow LGs and Connect Moderator @ErmesT wrote a very thought-provoking piece on this topic called “G€t Paid for Our Contribution$? What could happen if that were the case?”
Give it a read and share your opinion.
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Thanks for sharing your idea regarding payment for uploading photos to Google.
I think I understand your intentions but such a change will most certainly lead to many more low quality photos being uploaded to Google Maps. This will motivate some users to upload as many photos as possible just to earn the cash.
In my opinion the current systems with points awarded for photos is already motivating a lot of people to upload not only good but also a lot of bad photos. As I care a lot about the quality and helpfulness of Google Maps I think is is best not to pay for photos uploaded to Maps.
I find the existing photo views statistics to be very rewarding and motivating. Don’t you agree?
Cheers
Morten
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Even more so Google maps and business want and need good quality photos. there should be a system set up to pay the photographer not by how many photos but by the quality and if a business chooses to have as a main photo there should be an option given to a business owner to purchase that photo or any photos I choose to like photos help Google maps in advertising their platform why should it not help advertise our own. Photographs can be very costly for any company or person to purchase they can at least come up with some payment system Even if it’s not much, how many times have you or I seem a terrible photo of a company only made by Google maps somebody that got paid a horrible wage to produce a terrible photo of a business that by not even being the right location that is a waste of money in my opinion what they need are people that contribute and have a passion for sharing and they should be paid considerably.
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Payments are not good option. I prefer some kind of recognition for Level 10 onwards.
Even a meetup expenses will boost the moral.
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@Lookituplive ,
I understand the interest in being compensated for your high-quality contributions to Google Maps. However, directly monetizing photos uploaded to the platform could undermine its core purpose as explained by others before.
There’s no issue with becoming a commercial photographer - it’s a legitimate business if done properly.
You could certainly offer photography services and sell high-quality photos to local businesses looking to promote their brand. This would require investing in photography skills and quality equipment over time.
While not really allow, I definitely seen in the past a few individuals that have used Google Maps as a platform to indirectly promote their photography work. I assume if this is done without being too direct or in an aggressive manner, it will not be blocked, but that is not really the intended purpose of the map service.
As local guides, we voluntarily contribute to inform others and share knowledge, not directly monetize our contributions.
Other existing models like YouTube, stock photo sites, or social media influencing may be better avenues to monetize photography content if that is the goal. Google Maps aims to be an open, community-driven information resource first and foremost.
Direct payment per photo could skew incentives and compromise the integrity of the data over time.
Perhaps alternative recognition for top contributors would be a better way to reward effort without disruption.
But pursuing photography as a business in its own right is certainly a viable option with platforms designed for that.
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Yes !!
I fully agree 
@Lookituplive In my opinion, user contributions (photos, videos) weren’t intended to be a long term feature in Google Maps (with the exception of reviews). To scale and push mass adoption of the Google Maps platform, they created Local Guides as a way of filling content on Google Maps. Ugly, unaesthetic photos are actually useful for Google. It nudges businesses to claim their Google Business accounts to better control their brand identity and public image. This in turn makes them more active on the Google Maps platform thereby creating greater demand for advertising on the platform. This ultimately brings in revenue for Google.
Look at any reputable Hotel POI in the United States. Almost all of the featured user photos have been replaced by corporate or business curated photos and videos of that POI. This is also becoming more common with fast food chain restaurants e.g. Popeyes, Raising Canes.
If you really want to be compensated for your photos/videos, you need to petition and appeal to businesses directly. There are already a lot of individuals that make money taking 360 photos for businesses. Otherwise, Google Maps monetizing contributions is not in their best interest because it is a giant headache to implement/manage and has the effect of potentially decreasing their advertising revenue.
@ErmesT @MortenCopenhagen Don’t know if my opinions have been raised before on here but curious what your thoughts are on the future of user contributions and Google Maps.
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Thanks for the tag @JustJake and @photoslinger
@Lookituplive The post is interesting, and with an original proposal: the business that wants to have our photo as a “cover” compensates the author of the photo (it may not even be a Local Guide) with a certain amount of money. Therefore it would not be an “indiscriminate” compensation but instead a compensation that could motivate Local Guides to post better quality photos. Did I interpret your proposal correctly, John?
Exposed in this way it might seem interesting and motivating, but it would create some situations that we should take into account:
- The competition would be very high, and the business might find that each week it has a better photo to show. So in order not to penalize the business we should define a compensation rule in advance, based on the number of days the photo is used as a cover image and what, the number of views? One cent per day plus one cent for every thousand views?
- The business may not like some of our photos. If we expect to be paid for our best content we should also give the business the right to remove images that are inappropriate, or not related to the business in question, or simply redundant.
- The business could ask us to pay to host our images, when we use them inappropriately, to advertise and carry out promotions, especially if not linked in any way to the business where we post them.
Furthermore, images and videos should comply with Google Maps rules:
- Be of good quality
- Be relevant to the POI
- Show the POI clearly
- Do not be posted multiple times
- Don’t be redundant
- Do not contain promotional messages
- Don’t have political content
Unfortunately, many of your photos seem to have the characteristics of non-compliance with the rules that I have listed above, and I am only talking about the visible ones. In fact, about 10% of your photos, and 50 of your reviews, are not publicly visible.
Personally I find it disconcerting to use Google Maps as per the screenshot you see below, (I have covered the website so as not to give you further publicity) or to campaign, it doesn’t matter for whom.
These are images that should be reported and could lead to your removal from the Local Guides program, so I kindly ask you to remove them from Maps.
Thank you
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