I spent six hours analyzing clicks this week. Perhaps I should have spent more time. What I noticed is that the high placed listings seem to be affected differently by the same analytics.

People who argue with me do not show a drop in clicks. But, people who interrupt me do.

People who score well on tests do a lot better in the mid range of our search results while the high placed people with high test results show a more moderate gain.

People who refuse to talk to me show a drop of clicks in the mid range, but no drop in clicks for the high placed listings.

People who have someone else answer the phone for them show the largest drop in clicks.

People who have poor language skills also show a huge drop in clicks.

People who don’t answer their phone get fewer clicks, but not that many fewer clicks. I’m not sure why.

It seems that the Notaries were correct when they said that if they are rude to me, that they won’t be rude to title, because being rude to me does not show up on clicks. But, general signs of incompetence and poor communication show up heavily. So, I learned a lot in my six hours. Perhaps I should put in a little more time.

HIGH PLACED LISTINGS
There were four huge factors that determine how a high placed listing will perform on 123notary.com. So, if you are considering spending big bucks with us, please consider that we want you to renew. If you dress up your listing properly, you will most likely get a great result and want to renew. But, if you don’t, then your money will get poor mileage and you will have nobody to blame but yourself.

Reviews
The listings with the highest clicks in a p#20 position had a median of 10 reviews. I decided not to do an average because Ken Edelstein in NYC has over 400 reviews and that would ruin the average. But, median numbers are a good way to show statistics in a useful way. The P20 listings with the poorest clicks had only one or two reviews if any. It seems clear that the most definitive analytic that can cause your listing to perform well or poorly is reviews, the quantity, quality, and having a few recent reviews as well.

Experience
People lie when they document their number of loans. Other people do not keep their experience up to date, so they are showing artificially low numbers of loans signed. Another issue that has come up in the last few years is that Purchases and Structured Settlements have become common. But, are these to be considered “loans?” In my book yes, because they are a financial package and represent the same quality experience as a loan even though technically they are not a refinance.

People with the highest clicks had a median of 6000 loans signed while those with low clicks had only 3500. So, even if you have a lot of experience, it seems not to be enough.

Test Scores
For those of you who think my phone quizzes are inappropriate, unnecessary, rude or inconsequential — you are wrong. Test scores correspond to click popularity, and test scores are my second most critical analytic next only to reviews.

Notaries with p#20’s with the highest clicks were typically elite certified or at a minimum had a good quiz score of 80% or higher. Less than one in ten do poorly on my quiz by phone. Notaries with the lowest clicks in the p#20 category typically did not have any certifications and roughly half did well on my quiz. So, half of the listings with low clicks were competent Notaries compared to almost all competent in the high click range. This indicates that proving your skill to me does not guarantee performance, but is a big piece in the puzzle.

Notes
It is hard to put a score on someone’s notes. You could grade on thoroughness, detail, organization, writing style, uniqueness, etc. It might take a few minutes per notes section to give some type of a useful grade. But, based on brushing through many listings quickly, I learned that high placed listings had a 75% rate of having a high quality notes section while the p20’s with low clicks only had a 45% rate of having a high quality notes section. So, the same thing I have been telling you guys for over a decade has not changed. If you want to be popular on 123notary — get reviews, certified, and write a unique and factual notes section. Ask for help if you need any. I can’t write it for you but I can give commentary and help organize it.