Google Maps Business Photos

Anyone doing Google Maps Business Photos yet?
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/businessphotos/#utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=van&utm_source=en-van-na-us-gns-svn

Massive scope for earning.

How long before there's a WSO?

So many restaurants to visit for this type of service.
Wonder what sort of camera would you need to do the 360 view. Any ideas?

michaelr1988 said:

So many restaurants to visit for this type of service.
Wonder what sort of camera would you need to do the 360 view. Any ideas?

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COYI
I'm going to look into it. I would think any high resolution with panoramic.
Good to see another Iron on the forum.
I watched todays match on BT, gave it away.
Carlton Coal was on fire.
Diame needs to score or pass.

I thought the same but it seems like it does more than your average panoramic camera. For example it also photographs the ceiling and the floor, i'm not a photographer by any means so could be wrong. Definitely something worth monitoring. If you get in early enough there will be minimal competition anywhere you go and could secure tons of new clients.

I stopped watching it when they went two one up. They got my hopes up.

Edit: Found it.

There you go: http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...ntract-signed-today-ill-answer-questions.html

I was in the program about a year or so ago. You don't need a special camera, but you do need a digital SLR that is on their approved list. You also need a special tripod head, a specific wide-angle lens, and some other stuff. Google loans out some of the equipment for a month at a time (if it is available), but eventually you have to buy everything yourself. Figure around $1,000-2,000 for the equipment.

You have to pass an online test to be accepted (pretty easy if you study), and they will only consider you if there aren't already a certain number of Google photographers in your city. Most of the people in the program are professional photographers, but you don't have to have any special skills to do it.

You also have to sell the service to businesses yourself, and they recommend just walking in. Google may give you leads, but they are few and far between. They expect you to make this the focal point of your business, and if you're not actively getting businesses signed up they will likely drop you from the program. It's a pretty hard sell, and most price the service at $100-500 range per job. Google lets you charge whatever you want, as long as you can make the sale. They do not take any commissions or anything like that.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Things may have changed since I was in the program, though.

I'd say expect to spend at least $2000 for the equipment. saveferris mentioned it being a hard sell at $100-500. The key is to target more upscale businesses where image and presentation is important. It doesn't matter what industry. There are businesses in every industry like this, and they will pay more than $500. Fine-dining restaurants (think $40-50 entrees), resorts, golf clubs, businesses in popular tourist areas, recreational facilities, etc.

Actually, the way it works is that Google has an app that you have to use before approaching a business. It basically indicates whether or not that business has already been approached; if it has, you're not supposed to try to sell them again. Also, some of the other photographers in the area may lay claim to entire industries. For example, one guy in my city pretty much had all of the new car dealerships stitched up.

The big problem is that businesses are not very receptive to the idea because they don't see how it will really benefit them in terms of making more money. It would be nice if you could go in with a bunch of Google swag that might impress them, but Google gave us absolutely nothing in terms of credentials -- not even a lousy t-shirt. Now things may have changed, I don't know. But when I was in it, the whole program was still in a kind of test phase to see whether or not Google would continue to support it.

If anyone is thinking that joining the program will be easy money, I think you'll be disappointed. Most of your time will be spent cold-visiting businesses.

saveferris said:

Actually, the way it works is that Google has an app that you have to use before approaching a business. It basically indicates whether or not that business has already been approached; if it has, you're not supposed to try to sell them again. Also, some of the other photographers in the area may lay claim to entire industries. For example, one guy in my city pretty much had all of the new car dealerships stitched up.

The big problem is that businesses are not very receptive to the idea because they don't see how it will really benefit them in terms of making more money. It would be nice if you could go in with a bunch of Google swag that might impress them, but Google gave us absolutely nothing in terms of credentials -- not even a lousy t-shirt. Now things may have changed, I don't know. But when I was in it, the whole program was still in a kind of test phase to see whether or not Google would continue to support it.

If anyone is thinking that joining the program will be easy money, I think you'll be disappointed. Most of your time will be spent cold-visiting businesses.

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Wow, I had no idea about that. I guess it makes sense. My friend said the program was a headache.

Are there are certain things you're not allowed to disclose to people? What was the main issue you stopped?

Edit: Yeah, my friend didn't try to sell on monetary benefits. That's why I mentioned the image & presentation thing. It was more of a thing to show off.

Well I live in central London $2000 ain't a problem and if I cant get 5 business a day calling me
for it then I shouldn't be in marketing.

I don't think there is anything I'm not allowed to disclose, but I'll leave out the details of how they do things and just concentrate on the broad strokes. The info I've posted here is actually beneficial to them because it might deter the people who think it will be easy money and who are not willing to put a major effort into it.

I originally got into the program because I thought it would make a great add-on service that I could offer to my offline clients. But as I said, Google really expects you to make it the main focal point of your business and I couldn't commit to that. So I decided to leave the program so someone else could fill my spot. If you look at the Google page linked to earlier, they even tell you straight out that you need to be willing to commit to 30+ hours a week and should have door-to-door sales skills. They failed to mention that when I started out.

The whole thing works on a quota system. As a whole, the program participants are expected to do X shoots per month. If I remember right, the first month I was in it the quota was something like 400 total shoots. The next month it would go up to 500, then 650, and so on as they brought on more people. They would have weekly online meetings where they encouraged you to go out there and help make the quotas. Like anything else, I'm sure that 20% of the participants did 80% of the monthly shoots because they were aggressive about selling the service.

If you live in a city like London, all of the spots may already be taken. They only allow so many photographers in one area. The only way to find out is to contact Google. But if you can indeed get 5 shoots a day, you would probably be their #1 participant. I spoke to the 3 other guys in my city at the time and they were only doing a few shoots a month (if that), and they were all professional photographers.

saveferris said:

they were only doing a few shoots a month (if that), and they were all professional photographers.

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Well there you go, they are photographers not inbound marketers.
The same solutions I use to get business for my company I implement for others. That is the whole business foundation.
Why are there so many people trying to sell marketing solutions when they can't even market themselves?
Selling any marketing solution is the same. Sell benefits and not features and if you can't bring benefit get out of the business.
This shouldn't be sold as a stand alone solution it should be sold along with places optimisation and googles maps featured business
with a call to action to lure in the curious. I'd also throw in some augmented reality to really set it off.
How anyone can fail to sell a benefit that can be offset by a businesses tax liability dumbfounds me.

There maybe a WSO on this topic already.

There was an interesting thread on the WF about this very subject earlier this year. The thread had some great information about photographers who are and were in the program.

http://hidemyass.com/?http://www.wa...000-week-google-virtual-360-tours-photos.html

Is there any possibility to get contact details of these photographers based on locations?

saveferris said:

You don't need a special camera, but you do need a digital SLR that is on their approved list. You also need a special tripod head, a specific wide-angle lens, and some other stuff.

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Which DSLR's and lens are on their approved list? Im looking to buy a camera for other purposes, so it may be good if I can use for this as well

I was in this programme for a few months but did not manage to meet the sales per month which they are pretty strict on. I'm a photographer so I was not able to put all my hours into this, even when I did there was a lot of problems there side when uploading which was a long effort to resolve.
I have now just stuck with my own virtual tours as there much better quality as well. If you got the time and the sales side sorted it's well worth a look.

throughthelens said:

I was in this programme

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So what approved camera bodies/lenses did they allow?

Really a good idea, it will helpful for many business persons..