Any Google 360 Photographers here?

I had one stay at my hotel.

I'm not sure if they are Google employees or sub-contractors.

Google provides the camera. It's massive and fits in a trailer that needs to
be pulled by a full-size truck. SO you need a clean drivers license.

That's all the help I can be.

Dan

By the way,

Google alternative: EveryScape - Ambassadors

Google will want you to sign a non-disclosure agreement with them before you begin the certification process. They don't want their certification process be known to the general public.

I think that their equipment is included in that agreement but I can say that any SLR body will do but they only have two lenses that you can choose from. The equipment will cost you 3-5k.

I suggest you google "google business photo" and you'll get more information there.

If some Seo or offline marketer is interested partnering with me, a Google trusted photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area give a PM.

Mike

We were signed up as "Google Business Photographers" about a year ago and went through the certification process. We figured offering the service would be a good tie-in to our offline marketing services.

As for equipment, it will cost a lot less than $3-5K if you bargain shop. Figure about $2K to $2.5K for everything you'll need. The most expensive piece is the fisheye lens, which I believe was about $800 new at the time. Google has a few of them that they loan out, but only once and only for a one-month period. You'll have to buy all your own equipment if you want to participate. They only had a few "approved" camera bodies when we started but I think they've added more. You don't need anything super sophisticated.

When you're at a location, you have to take several standard shots both outside and inside the business plus the panoramic shots.

Now if you're thinking that Google is going to provide you with a list of businesses just itching to have their place photographed, think again. They do next to nothing to help you sign up businesses, and they suggest that you walk from door to door offering your services. You can charge whatever you like, but you're probably going to be in the $100-500 range.

They are going to expect you to get out there and sell, sell, sell! They set a collective monthly goal for all photographers in the program. It may be 300 this month, but if the goal is reached it may be 350 the next month. If you're not contributing toward reaching the goal, they'll probably kick you out of the program.

Though we didn't get kicked out, we did choose to leave the program because Google wanted it to be the main focus of our business and not just an additional service we offer. It just wasn't worth the time and effort it required, especially when Google wasn't providing leads.

Most of the people in the program were professional photographers. We were the only Internet marketing company that I knew of. We figured it was easier to just outsource the jobs to a pro and take a cut than it would be to stay in the program.

I just recently certified as a Google Trusted Photographer, you do sign an NDA and Google doesn't provide any of the equipment other than the tools to process and upload the virtual tours. Since I am already a professional photographer I did have most of the equipment except the circular fish eye lens that I use, so far the reception I had had from business owners has been positive. There is a large amount of cold call sales involved but if you have already built a large network within a business community it does take the sting out of it since you can tap existing contacts as you build new ones. I'm spending about 20 hours a week to supplement my existing business and although I am fairly new I have an extensive network of B2B clients in my area.