Creating a Virtual Tour
Introduction
- Discussion on creating a virtual tour.
- Previous section covered hardware and capturing 360 photos using cameras like REO Theta Z1, Insta360, or Trizo.
Capturing and Transferring Photos
- Capture 360 photos using your camera.
- Save photos to your phone or camera roll.
- Transfer photos from your phone to your computer for better editing and uploading.
Building the Virtual Tour
- Use Cloud Pano's app to create virtual tours.
- Tours can be created entirely on mobile but are better built on a computer.
- Aim to get the virtual tour on Google Street View for better visibility.
Uploading to Google Street View
- Transfer photos to Cloud Pano.
- Use the Google Street View upload feature to connect business listings.
- Ensure accurate business listing name is used for uploading.
Enhancing Photo Quality
- Importance of high-quality photos to represent the business well.
- Options for editing:
- Third-party Editors:
- Many based in Vietnam, Philippines.
- Cost: $1-3 per photo.
- Can edit JPEG or raw files (DNG).
- Software Editing:
- Use Photoshop, Lightroom, or Affinity Photo.
- Cloud Pano working on an automatic enhancement tool.
- AI tools like Topaz Labs for image enhancement.
Publishing the Virtual Tour
- Create an account on Cloud Pano (free for account creation).
- Subscribe to upload to Google Street View.
- Connect photos to the business listing and publish.
Outsourcing and Assistance
- Option to hire teams to assemble the virtual tour.
- Cloud Pano offers a service to handle uploads and create tours.
Conclusion
- Simple process: upload decent photos, make customers happy.
- Initially focus on getting a tour published; refinement can happen over time.
- Example: author's first tour was done for free for a friend to gain experience.
Future Content
- More detailed videos available on uploading to Google Street View.
- Encouragement to grow the business using virtual tours.
Note: Always ensure high-quality photos to leave a good impression on Google Maps.