You’re popular, your photos have been viewed 50000 times sends Google maps to me in an email. I couldn’t understand how it happened. Because I haven’t been a very active local guide. But after checking my own reviews, it was clear. The most valuable thing every local guide does is shares his own experience.
So for example here I gave a bunch of details when leaving a review to one of the restaurants I visited. Not one business owner tells that there’s a stool for children in a bathroom to help kids wash their hands 
. But this is so important for me. My kids and I stayed dry. So I shared it in a review and people viewed it the most.
Next review was so popular because of the photos I took in that hotel. This place is so unique. In every corner, every detail I saw how much this place is loved by its owner. I simply tried to capture it. These photos got almost about 40000 views in total.
Being level 5 local guide I understood a simple thing that people look for- a real experience. Opinion is subjective. “This place is good or bad” is not helpful. But instead sharing my experience as in the examples with the children stool and “live” photos of the hotel might be a lot helpful to people. So I am sharing the most valuable thing - my experience. And with Google maps it is easy to do so.
To recap I told it in a video and want to tell it again. For me happiness is a product of usefulness. I can see now that Local Guide program lets me to be useful to people. And it makes me happy. And yes, I can’t stop wondering if there is more I can learn to do with Local Guides program to be useful and share the most valuable thing- my experience.