Business is booming for us after seven slow years. What a relief. We are getting a lot of new blood finally and it feels good. The newbies seem to have the same problem describing themselves as the people who preceded them.

Many Notaries want to tell the world things that count against them. Here are some:

1. I shadowed with such and such a Notary.
If the only experience you have is shadowing Penelope, then perhaps the person looking at your profile should hire Penelope, and not you. Shadowing is best left unsaid unless that is in addition to certifications from known agencies.

2. I became a Notary two months ago.
This makes you look like a real novice, wastes space, and counts against you. If someone asks, you can tell. But, you need to give people why they should use you vs. reasons why they should avoid you.

3. I am working on the Notary2Pro course
Notary2Pro is an excellent certification course. We recommend them highly as they do well when I quizzed them several years ago. Carol gets back to people fast with answers to their questions. But, let the world know once you have finished it. Nobody likes a half done job. We sell ten certification courses for every person who attempts the test, let alone who passes it. Buying a course doesn’t make you valuable, passing the test does.

4. I have 25K E&O but will soon be upgrading to 100K.
Don’t tell us what you will be doing, tell us what you have now, and then edit your listing once you have the higher Errors and Omissions policy.

5. I am background screened
By whom? Some companies like NNA and Sterling have a good reputation for background screening, others are relatively unknown and the procedures vary from company to company.

6. I am a Certified Notary Public from the State of Maine and I service Waldo County and do Refinances.
Once again, being “certified” means nothing unless we know who certified you. The testing standards and courses vary. 123notary has the hardest certification test. Pass ours and we will really respect you and you will get more clicks. The next problem is that you are mixing information about certification, your state of commission which is not necessary to put, as we assume you are commissioned in your state otherwise you can’t work. You next list your coverage areas in the same long drawn out sentence. I prefer to put certification(s) in one section with background screening and E&O. Then, in another section I put counties.

7. Hi, my name is Mary Smith
We already know your name is Mary Smith, it says that on the top of your listing. Why tell us twice? That takes up space when you could be telling us something else. The top of your notes section shows up in the search results. Tell us something that makes you stand out.

8. I travel
Everyone on our site travels, well almost. Maybe not the UPS stores and we have a few of them. But, the other 99% of Notaries do travel. People will assume you do.

9. I am reliable, responsible and punctual
Save it. Coming from you, that translates to — I am a novice, I have nothing to say about myself, so I will make unsubstantiated claims about how great I am with the hopes that the reader will believe me even though I have not demonstrated one ounce of credibility to anyone in this industry. Stick to the facts and let your clients put how great THEY think you are in your reviews, or pass my test.

10. I do all types of loans
Most people on my site claim that they know how to sign every type of loan. When I go through my list of 30 common types of signings most of which are Mortgages of one type or another, they typically do anywhere from 20-80%. I have yet to meet a 100%. So, basically, you are being vague, and deceiving the reader into thinking you really are experienced with every type of loan. List them one by one.

WHAT YOU SHOULD WRITE

Cold hard facts
Warm fuzzy “about you” descriptions

When you write about your skills, don’t omit the types of loans you know how to sign. It doesn’t hurt to mention you do refinances, Helocs, purchases, etc., But, 99% of Notaries out there can do those. Do mention it, but focus more on what you do that makes you special. If you are familiar (define familiar) with REO, USDA, Annuities, Applications, Reverse, and Debt Consolidations, that makes you more unusual. Most Notaries have either never done a Reverse Mortgage, or a Debt Consolidations, and the ones who have, typically don’t like doing them and half of the ones who have done them say they don’t want to do any more of them.

We think you should write briefly about your certifications (mention by whom you are certified), memberships, background screening, E&O insurance, and professional background. Don’t write a novel on your award winning Real Estate career. If it is so great, why are you a Notary in the first place? Wouldn’t you be busy selling houses unless you got tired of it? Mention that you do Real Estate, but not more than a sentence or two maximum for best results.

Warm and fuzzy descriptions are hard to teach. But, anything unique that has a nice feel to it about you will look really good. The readers are tired of cliche sounding notes sections. Seen one seen them all. If you have a classy line or joke, that sometimes can do well — it depends, but is worth trying.

We have many good articles about notes writing in the “your notes section” category of our blog. It is well worth investing a few hours taking notes on our suggestions about notes!

I make welcome calls to all of our notaries. I often inform people that their notes section is blank. They say, “No problem, I’ll just copy my bio from such and such another site.” Or they say, “The bio should already be on there.” I am looking at a blank notes section on their listing and they are assuring me that it is not blank. I wonder which one of us is correct?

In any case, your notes section is one of the most critical parts of your listing. If you describe yourself well, you get more clicks and more jobs. If you leave it blank, write a one liner, or create a poorly organized notes section, you will get few clicks.

Copying your notes section is a problem simply because of the programming on 123notary.com. The top of your notes section shows up on the search results. If your copied notes say, “Hi, my name is Julia.” then that is what will show up on the search results when people see your listing along with the other local listings. Since they already know your name is Julia, you are wasting precious space telling them something redundant.

It is more effective to put your experience and selling features at the top. Mention what makes you stand out. Do you do jail signings, last minute signings, and what types of loans have you signed before?

Additionally, I have found that notes sections on 123notary.com perform better if they are in a particular format. Your copied notes will not be in that order or format. We have written countless blog articles in the category called, “Your notes section.”

So, try to read lots of our articles on notes sections and don’t copy and paste your notes. But, copying your notes is a lot better than leaving your notes blank. It is also good to touch up your notes a few times per year to keep them fresh.

When I look over notes sections of our higher level members, I like to make suggestions that can help them appear in a more positive light to the users. There are a bunch of common mistakes people make. I want to go over those mistakes.

1. Real Estate Experience
It is common for those with Real Estate experience to claim that they have real estate experience the therefor they understand the documents. In real life, people who I quiz with Real Estate experience do not know their documents that well. If you want to prove knowledge, then please pass our certification test which is really hard. Another mistake people make is to put lots of information about their Real Estate career in the top of their notes section. This is a Notary directory, so please put notary achievements at the top of your listing and mention your Real Estate experience in the middle or bottom of your notes section as an additional point.

2. Mortgage Experience
Many of our members have some type of Mortgage experience. If you are a current Mortgage Broker, you might be seen as competition and people might not want to hire you. However, the mistake many Notaries name is to claim that they have “x” amount of years in the “Mortgage Industry.” They often do not disclose what job titles they had in the industry or what their tasks were. People who use our site reward those who give specifics and give you a clear idea of who you are, what you have done, and what you know how to do. Additionally, using the “x” number of years is a bad idea, because you might have a listing with us for ten or twenty years and you have to keep updating your # of years every year. It is easier to say, “Notary since 1986.” or “Mortgage Appraiser since 2009.” You could say, “I was a Mortgage Broker from 2004 to 2015.” which clears up when you did it, how long, and that you no longer do it which might com as a relief.

3. Business Experience
Many Notaries have run a business before. They put, “Former business owner.” In their notes. This is horrible. It doesn’t say what type of business you ran, what position you had, what your responsibilities were, or what time period you did it. Be specific and understand that the reader doesn’t know if you had a business collecting hub caps or if you ran a fortune 500 company. You need to specify!

4. Types of Loans
It is common for Notaries to say, “I know how to sign every type of loan.” This is bad, because there are so many types of financial packages that few notaries have signed them all. Just make a detailed list of the loans you have signed, i.e.: I have signed purchases, sales, refinances, FHA, VA, conventional, unconventional, conforming, modification, reverse mortgages, and debt consolidations. I suggest having another list of common documents that you have signed. If the user has one of the types of loans on your list, he is more likely to hire you than some other character who makes vague claims or no claims about their loan experience.

5. Number of Loans
Some Notaries who are smart keep their number of loans signed statistics up to date regularly. Others say that they have signed two hundred plus loans. Two hundred plus is not a number by the way. Two hundred is a number. Since the information is not date stamped, (hmm, perhaps I should add that as a feature to my directory) there is no way to know how accurate the information still is. Number of loans signed is a good indication of how much experience you have, and is much more helpful than how many years of experience you have. You might have one month of experience and have signed 200 loans, or you might have twenty years of experience only having signed one loan per year which would be 20 loans. Think about it.

6. Omitting to read through our thorough guides
123notary has published many point by point tutorials on how to write a good notes section, what buzzwords to add, which to omit, what to say and how to say it. By not spending at least two hours reading our comprehensive guides, taking notes, and writing a well organized and thorough notes section – you are losing business. We will even clean up your notes for free upon request, but we get very few requests.

7. Unique catchy phrases
It is hard to teach someone how to write a catchy phrase. I created some articles with the best phrases I could find. It takes time and thought to create a one liner. However, readers are so bored reading through notes sections that if you can write something spicy, they might like it, and they might call you first. So, put some time into thinking up something catchy to say, and see how people react. You might need to modify what you put at a later date.