Perks for Local Guide program.

[K9hudson]

Are there any substantial perks to this level guide program, or am I just wasting my time?

[PaulPavlinovich · Accepted solution]

Hi @K9hudson welcome to Local Guides.

The main reward is helping other people with your reviews, edits and photos in the same way that you are helped by the same from other people. Being a Local Guide is an altruistic undertaking. Of course it strengthens the data held by Google and makes Maps a better product but that is still an advantage for the people who use the product.

There are localised Perks offered from time to time and sometimes wider scoped perks.  The biggest is the annual event known as Connect Live in San Francisco where 150 people who represent the Core Values, contributed positively on Maps and here on Connect and generate local events and activities such as Meetups get recognised.

Regards Paul

[K9hudson]

Good response, Paul.

However, the program would be a lot more compelling to join if members would receive just a small fraction of the revenue Google is generating from the provided media/feedback. My point is that Alphabet generated over $31 billion in revenue during Q1 of 2018, a lot of which is derived from advertising sales. Therefore, an ethical approach to showcase their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) would be to implement a royalty-based system to compensate active members for their useful contributions - that boosts the company's success. Surely a tech giant like Google has such capabilities, and wouldn't be negatively impacted by allocating a small portion from their net income of $9.4 billion.

Regards, 

Chris P. Hudson

[Badruddeen]

Hi @K9hudson

Read this to know Repository of lists of Perks for Local Guides so far compiled by @StephenAbraham

You also get invited to Local Guides events and get the opportunity to become a beta tester sometimes. 

Cheers

[BandungReview]

Nice answer, i am in the basic level and still learning how its work.. Thankyou

[JosephDewey]

@K9hudson Even though I know that lots of people want to get lots of perks and money, personally I don't want to get any income from this program. One reason is that I don't want to do any taxes and keep track of earnings, on my favorite hobby. And another reason is that if I'm earning money on it, then it's no longer a "fun" thing for me. So personally, I'm really glad that Google doesn't do a revenue sharing program with Local Guides.

If you're looking for money, associated with Google Maps, then there are lots of ways that you could help local businesses to better manage their online presence...there are many companies and individuals that do this that make a lot of money. But, as a side note...you can't combine income generating work with your Local Guides contributions...they have to be separate.

[JosephDewey]

@K9hudson , and another thing is, that as soon as Google does a LG revenue sharing program, then tons of people will set up bots to try to make revenue, based on whatever the revenue sharing rules are. And right now, Google doesn't have to invest too much in analyzing local guides to tell if they're just bots or not, but as soon as they did revenue sharing, they'd probably need a whole "LG Bot Detection" division.

I'm guessing that's why they had to get rid of the 100GB/1TB perk, is too many people were making automated contributions to get them to the level of getting a lot of free storage that weren't actually real local guides. The price of 100GB storage for Google really isn't that much compared to their benefit of having a fully engaged Local Guide for life...but if every real person comes along with a few bots, then suddenly the ROI plummets.

[K9hudson]

Thanks for response, Joesph. I'm getting the impression that these replies are not genuine... as if you guys either work for Google, or are afraid of getting blacklisted. 

There would undoubtedly be challenges in place, albeit the virtuous endeavor would be an enormous humanitarian act, globally. 

Take care,

Chris P Hudson 

[Cadillac-Hawk]

#1 that was very well worded and really made a bunch of sense. 

#2 I believe that could even make Google bigger in the business standpoint and more revenue. Sure they may pay a small fee to us as contributors but the possibility from there would be the business could pay for more discriptions when people look them up!!! 

When you think about it, more people will have all the answers that they seek by a simple search and then Google could, whenever someone posts (advertises)  about a business google could get more kickbacks.  Now even though Google would be paying their contributors, more people would contribute. Lets go Google this would be a really cool thing to do because i love to help people period, I always try... But if I could get paid to do it pshhh that would be a blessing 

[Cadillac-Hawk]

I don't think I understand what you were saying as far as with the businesses and making money from them.