If you’re looking for a sustainable side hustle or work-from-home business, you may have come across the company Google Maps Gold. Google Maps Gold (also known as Google Maps Elite) is a course that claims to teach you how to create a passive income stream from Google Maps. 

However, many wonder if it’s a legit opportunity or another get-rich-quick-scheme. In this article, we’ll give a brief overview of what Google Maps Gold is and how it works. Plus, we’ll provide our Google Maps Gold review, so you can decide whether this opportunity is actually golden or just fool’s gold. 

What is Google Maps Gold? 

Here’s the short and sweet answer: Google Maps Gold is a program started by digital entrepreneur Chad Kimball. It’s essentially a course promising to teach you how to turn Google Maps into a passive income stream. 

Sold as a course, Chad shows his students how to find industries and markets where they can create and rank for Google My Business listings. Then, he teaches them how to use the traffic they get to generate leads and sell them (more on the business model in a minute). 

His students also get access to his software which helps provide search volume for specific industries and markets. Now, let’s get into the meat of it. 

How Does Google Maps Gold Work? 

Like most online courses, Google Maps Gold gives you access to several things, including: 

• A step-by-step process for setting up 
• A Google search tool (that illustrates search volume) 
• An email template to turn your listings into profit 
• Access to a members-only Facebook group 
• And more

The introductory Google Maps Gold course sells for just under $10 (at $9.97), but like most online “gurus,” the course is just the appetizer, as he keeps the most valuable information behind a $997 ticket price. And according to some reviewers, you should expect to pay as high as $6,800 to get the support you need to be successful. So, if you want to get the most out of the program, you should definitely expect to get (and need) add-ons along the way.

What is the Google Maps Gold Business Model? 

Generally, when people are looking up Google Maps Gold online, they want to know one of two things: 

• Is Google Maps Gold legit?
• What’s in the program (and can I learn it myself)?

We’ll talk about question one in the next section, but if you’re a person who doesn’t like to pay for courses and would rather learn how to do things yourself, here’s the meat and potatoes of what Chad is teaching in Google Maps Elite. 

Essentially, Google Maps gets a lot of organic traffic. It’s the first thing you see when you search certain terms. However, many local businesses aren’t very good at local business marketing and don’t have their businesses listed there. As a result, tons of keywords and industries have space for Google Maps listings, but no one is taking advantage of it. 

So, if you can find these keywords and industries and set up listings for them, you can create traffic and leads for those industries and sell them to businesses in the area. 

For example, let’s say the term “Plumbers in Timbuktu” brings up no Google My Business Listings. In this case, you could create a lead generation website, create a listing for that website, and get tons of people looking for plumbers in Timbuktu to your website and requesting more information. Then, you could sell those leads (or people) to plumbers in Timbuktu to make a profit. To make it passive, you could reach out to plumbers in the area and ask them to pay you X amount per month or X per lead to send people their way. Then, using automation tools, you can get those sent straight to those plumbers and bill them once a month.

You could do this with as many industries as you wanted, running ads to your website and listing to ensure traffic. The key lies in finding the right industries and keywords and getting the local businesses onboard and interested in what you have to offer. Google Maps Elite claims to walk you through this process and give you the tools you need to succeed, but is it worth the cost? 

So, Is Google Maps Gold Legit? 

By this point, you’re probably wondering if Google Maps Gold is a scam, as so many of these online course creators offer get-rich-quick schemes that do nothing but drain your pockets and leave you more confused than you were before you started. 

Honestly, there aren’t tons of Google Map Gold reviews online (other than those presented by Chad’s sites), which is always a bit of a red flag. What we could find was mixed (to say the least). Here are two reviews with two different experiences. 

There are some positives, like this review from an anonymous account on Reddit: 

“I’ve been using Chad’s business model also, for a couple years now, solid and worth the money. You’ll make your money back many times over. Sure, you could find the info for free on the internet eventually, and add to that the trial and error trying to setup the business on your own, but you’ll get results much faster if you just pay for the coaching.”

However, it seems that specific user only comments about Chad’s programs, so they may not be a real customer.

Then, there are reviews like these: 

“I tried it and the “coaching” sucks. They are all nice to you until you agree to pay the $7000. And then, you are on your own!!!

That’s what I was told by their customer service team. They say they sent you links that you never receive.They don’t schedule a call with you and get upset if you are not at their beck and call.

I got ZERO SUPPORT AND THREATENED TO DISPUTE MY CREDIT CARD CHARGE TO GET MY MONEY BACK!!! I think their endorsements are paid for their testimonials. No one can state $1Million dollars per month…

No support. BE WARNED!!! THEY TAKE YOUR MONEY AND RUN!!!”

So, it’s hard to tell whether the courses and coaching will be worth the money in the long run. It’s why we recommend only taking courses from coaches with real reviews from real people or sticking with free resources – like what we offer here at Marketing.biz. 

What’s the Alternative?  

Everyone wants a fast way to make money online, and the business behind Google Maps Gold isn’t necessarily bad. The lead generation business model has been around for decades. So, if you feel confident you can create lead gen forms on a website and sell local businesses those leads, this particular model might be right for you. And frankly, you don’t need to purchase this course to do it. 

You can learn all you need to know online for free. You can also use tools like Surfer’s free keyword volume tool or Google keyword planner to find those keywords and industries with enough search volume to warrant creating a GMB listing and lead generation funnel.  

You’ll likely want to learn a bit about marketing basics, and if so, you’ve come to the right place. We have tons of free how-to articles and guides for SEO, small business marketing, lead generation, and more! Dive into our blog to get started on your entrepreneurial journey (or improve your existing business). 

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