Hi, I just wanted to let everybody know that I came up with an idea of how to promote my own tours. I recently stayed in a hotel which was only about 100 meters from the spot where one of my tour starts. So I wrote in the booking.com review of the hotel: “loved the hotel, clean and comfortable. Great location too, only 100 meters from where a VoiceMap autio tour of Old Town starts, which gives you a great introduction.” And then I wrote a review of theater square where I said the same thing.
So maybe this is something that others could do too, write reviews about places and then just, on a side, mention that a VoiceMap tour is close by. Just a suggestion …
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I like the idea about staying in a hotel an leaving a review mentioning the guide. I also use Google maps which shows some of the monuments on my route. Sometimes Google will let you add a website link if the landmark or place isn’t owned by anyone… Many places though are already claimed by the tourist departments of towns or the town halls.
So, I was thinking more about Google maps. Has anyone here any experience of using Google maps to promote tours? Recently I have created business “places” at the start point of my tours.
Then, following the route around using G maps I am editing any monuments or places to add a link to relevant articles on my websites along the tour. (I am only editing places that aren’t claimed and don’t have a website link.)
The business places seem to be gathering pace at 50 views over the last 48 hours so I guess that’s people who would not normally see the tour through a normal web search. I also notice that the tour sometimes comes up in the “nearby places” tab on G map search.
Interested in any feedback.
Interesting! I tried placing a comment on Google Map to attractions with a direct link to my tour, but Google rejected that. Instead I just wrote a comment “great place, also the start of a VoiceMap audio-tour”, and that was accepted. I’m not sure it gets any views though. I can’t find any attractions that aren’t “claimed”. I’ll look into it more, thanks!!
Hello Clive, is it simple to add ‘business places’ to google maps? I’m not very technical, could you give me any pointers? Many thanks
Thats true, you can’t add links to Google reviews or it will be rejected. You could create a business place though at the start and also the end of your tours. I notice my Cádiz tour has had a review in G maps so it can’t be doing any harm… 
Hi there… Its fairly straight forward… Start by setting up an account here: https://business.google.com/
Thanks Clive, I’ll give it a try today.
Hi all
So Google just emailed to congratulate me and say that the business listing I created for the Cadiz audio guide has had 1000 views. Looking at the stats from that its had 15 website clicks and 24 direction searches. Thats not bad considering its just a week or so since being created.
Some copies have sold but I can’t track where the sales have come from.
Also, I can add a product for sale on the listing and was going to add the purchase URL to the audio guide at the voicemap website. I am hoping that this will offer the product to the people looking at the directions to the start point as I don’t want them navigating there and finding no physical place. Its a digital listing after all.
However, before I do that @iain or @brent or @alicia is there a way I can add a marker to the URL so it can be tracked at the voicemap end… Maybe by adding something like https://voicemap.me/tour/cadiz/the-ancient-city-by-the-sea-a-guide-to-charming-cadiz?Glisting
Don’t worry if not.
Have a great day everyone!