I did some analysis about who does well on our site and who gets positive reviews vs. negative reviews. Basically, many factors could be considered predictors for who will get good or bad reviews. How often you login to your listing, how well you score on tests, and even how professionally you answer the phone by stating your name rather than saying, “hello” with your kids screaming in the background.

But, the most critical factor is one I never would have imagined to be true. We only started keeping track of who answers emails punctually a few years ago. And I never studied the results to see how it correlated with other information. A few months ago I did exactly that. I studied people who answered my emails vs. those that did not.

If you fail my quiz, but answered the email, you will do better in real life than those who did well on my quiz or test, but did not answer my emails. We send emails with quiz questions, and emails asking for information omitted from your listing such as information about certifications, insurance, types of loans signed, etc.

Those with positive reviews almost always answer my emails. Those with negative reviews almost always ignore my emails.

So, the question now is — how highly should I weigh the email answering data? How many points should that deserve in the database? I decided that the first offense will result in a tiny deduction of points, but if you keep it up, then you will lose a lot of points. Free listings who ignore us generally get permanently removed on the second offense although it varies.

Sending emails and tracking the results is time consuming. I have to create a record in the system which takes a minute. Then I have to send an email and then modify the record to indicate the date of the email, and the nature of the email. Doing this for 300 people a month takes 700 grueling minutes which is about 12 hours. You can imagine how tired I get. And then I learn that 80% of the emails were unanswered. I often remove free listings who ignore my emails because that means I have to call them to extract information from them which is very time consuming.

So, now you get some insight about life at 123notary. Additionally, people who want to hire you cannot hire you if you don’t respond promptly to emails. It is unprofessional and leaves people high and dry.

How dangerous is it to be a mobile notary? We have written other blog articles on the topic. The answer is — not very dangerous. But, there are some dangers and the trick is to know how to safeguard yourself.

1. Neighborhoods
If you go to a bad area at night, that is mildly dangerous. You are more likely to get hit by a truck than have a problem in a bad neighborhood, but you know how people feel. Speaking of which, I actually got bumped by an 18 wheeler. No damage was done because the angels were protecting me — thanks angels! It was on a highway in stop and go traffic. I was stopped, but he took his foot off the brakes as he was daydreaming and bumped me at half a mile per hour.

2. Crazy people
The only serious issue we had with a notary was the one who was pushed down a short flight of stairs because the borrower didn’t like his APR. That was one Notary out of 65,000 we have listed in our history. So, the risk level is low, unless… someone doesn’t like their APR. Go over the stats by phone before you get to the signing. Also, if at a signing, make sure you either know your escape route, or make sure you are bigger than the other people there — or both.

3. Animals
You are more in danger from animals. Humans who can’t behave are already generally in prison. But, someone could have a crazy pet who bites you or chews on your clothing, or pees on your leg. It it happened to you, it would not be the first time. There was another story about a pit bull running wild in a neighborhood and a borrower came out of his house with his gun drawn when the notary came. He had to explain what happened to the notary who was going to protect himself by brandishing his embossing seal.

4. Accidents
Accidents are a fact of life, flat tires, breakdowns. People can die in accidents. We haven’t had any notaries die of accidents or anything other than cancer or old age, but it could happen.

5. Court Cases
Notaries don’t discuss this much on forums, but 1 in 7 long term notaries who is active has had to appear before a judge because of a notarization they did. There were two notaries in Oklahoma who lost their commission because they failed to administer an obligatory Oath to their clients for an Affidavit they notarized. They are lucky they didn’t get locked up. One notary in Sacramento committed identity fraud and got locked up. In total we have had two criminal Notaries who engaged in purposeful fraud and got locked up. Two out of 65,000 is not that bad, not to mention another who allegedly stole OxyCodene from a signer and was not arrested.

6. Covid19
No Notary has died of Covid19, or even gotten sick on the job as far as we know. They went overboard taking ridiculously over-kill type precautions that ruin the fun of notarizing. Many notarized outside or wearing suffocation inducing N-95 masks to be “safe.” How safe are you being if you can’t breathe? Others sat 10 feet away from the others or did notarizations on their trunk or in their car. Such insanity is just plain insane, but nobody got sick to our knowledge. In fact, only a handful of Notaries reported having been sick with Covid19 to us and they got better after a few weeks and didn’t have any serious symptoms other than losing their sense of taste. In those interior states, the food is so bland that losing your sense of taste won’t affect you that much.

7. Notaritus
I just made up this disease, it is not as bad as “Stamp Elbow” but is the next worst thing. It is an infectious disease that only Notaries get. I’m not sure what the symptoms are as this is an imaginary disease. I’ll think about it.

8. Getting sued for using someone’s business name
This almost happened to a client. But, the person who trademarked the name came after my server company which created a huge headache. I have no problem removing a business name from our site, but do you have to call in the national guard over such a small issue?

SUMMARY
So, what is the most dangerous of all the things that can happen to a Notary? I would say that the legal risks are a huge risk. Although if you are very cautious about how you do your work and avoid hospital signings you will lower your risk. Crazy people would be next as we have a serious injury recorded. I would then say that animals are the next most dangerous although they normally don’t kill you. Many Notaries feel “safe” because they are wearing an N-95 mask, but that only protects you 50% from a disease that hasn’t killed any Notaries known to us so far. But, it will not make you safe from court cases, animals, or crazy humans. So, let’s focus on real dangers and not ones that you have been brainwashed into believing are the only threats to your existence.

I analyzed click averages of many listings and found that if you have a lot of Errors and Omissions insurance, that will raise your click average. I only analyzed a few dozen listings, but found that those with 100K get about 5% more clicks than those with 25K E&O, and those with 1 Million get more, but there were too few to analyze and give a clear assessment of what the improvement was.

Some of the big title companies want a lot of insurance, but what they want is different from company to company and changes over time. It is kind of like me trying to explain to you what a cumulous cloud looks like in my area. By the time I describe it to you, it will have morphed again.

E&O is not really important, and is more of a fashion statement. I have never heard of anyone actually filing a claim on it. But, people hiring Notaries think you are more serious when you have more of it. So, if you are serious, or want to look serious, or at least act serious, or play someone serious on TV, then consider calling the NNA and upping your insurance.

When you confirm a signing, assuming that you actually take the time to do so, you can ask all types of questions. My suggestion is to have a standardized list of things you need to ask about. However, you might want to arrange your list in order of what is the most critical to ask about.

I asked one lady if she thought it was more important to ask about the signer’s ID or Covid. She though Covid-19 as she had had four clients in the last 300 signings who previously had Covid a few weeks ago although they tested negative. So, 1.25% of her clients were an ambiguous risk of Covid19 yet she did not consider how many people were a risk of having unacceptable ID.

In my experience, roughly 5% of people have an ID that doesn’t prove their name on the document. And if you go to a signing where you can’t identify the signer, you either get a credible witness if your state allows this, or the signing might be over. It represents a potential deal breaking situation.

So, which is more serious, the Covid-19 issue or the ID issue? Covid-19 affects people more emotionally. People get all paranoid because of the media brainwashing. I sat with someone who had had Covid a month early. I was a bit apprehensive to share a meal with him and my other friends, but I did it, and everything was fine, and I lived to tell about it several months later. Someone who used to have Covid might strike some emotional buttons, but if they are testing negative NOW, they don’t pose much of a risk.

So, which is more important to ask about? Covid Covid, Oh my God Covid, or ID, ID, oh my God, ID? In my opinion objectively ID is more important, but if you are a vulnerable person, you probably should not be around other people whether they think they have Covid19, had it but got rid of it, or are asymptomatic and untested. If you are healthy enough to go to a signing, the way the name reads on the ID is the most important thing to ask about from my point of view which is based on science…. Okay, it’s not based on the science, but based on “the logic.”

On the other hand, it is impossible to judge the risk of someone who had Covid but is over it. If that is a deal breaker for you, then perhaps it is more important than an ID in your case. My question is so subjective. Perhaps the question is more about whether you can maintain objectivity in the event of a pandemic of emotional imbalance.

Every year I come back to this topic. Sometimes I address it in a humorous way, and other times in a serious way. Notaries often procrastinate some of their responsibilities. Your business will do better if you are a little more proactive in certain ways. Here are my tips for 2021.

Supplies
Stock up on supplies like paper, toner, ink, get that new GPS system if it will help you, pens, stamps, Fedex envelopes, and whatever else you need.

Snacks
Notaries have to eat on the road and that is not always healthy unless you live near a Whole Foods or a Jamba Juice. But, you can have packages of nuts and dried fruits in the car, and then bring fresh fruit on a daily basis. Dried fruits have a lot of nutrition. Apricots, dates, plums, dried mangos, raisins, and other dried fruits are packed with many micronutrients, minerals, vitamins, iron, and more!

Education
The newer Notaries seem to take education a lot more seriously. I noticed a change in collective attitude about six months ago. It seems that Mark Wills at LSS is a force of motivation and enthusiasm to be reckoned with. His students seem to be popular on our site too. His course seems to be oriented towards practical issues like dealing with some of the types of signings that became popular in the last few years (that were not popular during my day sonny.)

123notary has a paid certification course with a hard test. Our testing standards are the hardest in the industry and those who use our site are aware of that. We also have a very interesting FREE course on the blog which people love called Notary Public 101 and we test people who completed that test and sometimes certify them. Most people don’t study enough, but you can make that your New Year’s resolution and it will benefit you for the rest of your career.

Notes
Your Notary profile has a notes section. I just reviewed several hundred of our most prominent notes sections on the site. I am sorry to say that few did a bang up job writing about themselves. I think that putting in a lot of effort to try and figure out what to say about yourself will really pay off. Those who use our site want to read what you have to say about yourself, so if you say very little, they are less likely to call you first. It might take a few hours to read our section on the blog called, “Your notes section” while taking notes. It might take a few more hours to write a great notes section. But, that is what successful notaries so, so if you want to be successful, invest some time in it, especially during the holidays.

Reviews
It is the same suggestion every year. Our notaries seem to have less reviews than a few years ago. The very experienced Notaries got old or died off. Most of our Notaries are new which is refreshing, but they need to have reviews too. Anyone who compliments you on your work – ask them for a review and send them a link to your review page. The link is above your name on your profile.

Company Names
It pays off to have a good company name and register it with your county. We have written many articles on the topic. Please read those articles. It takes hours of brainstorming and conversations with others to pick a great name for your company. It is worth the effort in the long run.

Review your state notary laws
Some people look to Notary agencies for advice, but to know your local laws, please refer to your notary division’s website. Most states have a notary division under their Secretary of State, but some have it under another state office. Review those laws, because you might have a quandry one day if you are not rock solid on Notary laws and procedures.

Summary
I think I better think up my resolutions for this year. I want to be better at time management, lose lots of weight and learn Chinese better. Never mind becoming a millionaire — I’ll save that for 2022.