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January 29, 2011

He stopped advertising with us because he got too much business?

Filed under: Advertising — admin @ 9:47 am

I rarely have situations like this. But, once in a while I call one of the more seasoned Notaries and they don’t want to advertise for various reasons. It takes a long time in this business to get so much business that you don’t need to advertise. Normally those people have been doing this at least fifteen years before they are in that type of situation. Yes folks, it does take a long time to get established as a Notary Public. I only was a signing agent for six years, so I never got fully established.

In any case, when I called this person, he said that he used to be a corporate executive vice president of a corporation. He quit his job to become a Notary Public. He got so much business from our site that he couldn’t advertise any more because he couldn’t handle all of the calls.

However, business dropped so much in the last year, that he wanted to continue advertising and I was able to sell him an upgrade. He still gets lots of work, but from people who don’t pay him enough and he wants to attract some higher paying clients. Don’t we all? In any case, it was nice to get such a serous and fun client back. But, I am amazed that in 2018 he is getting six or more jobs per day, almost every day?

If you want to know a good background for being a successful mobile notary, try being a vice president of a business. That will make you sharp on being business-like. He also gave me the oddest compliment. He liked that I spoke in complete sentences which made me start to wonder…. Do other people use partial sentences? Don’t know. Doesn’t matter. Never thought about that.

In any case, if you want to get too much business, advertise on 123notary. But… make sure you have reviews. Reviews are a magnet on any site to get more positive attention.

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January 20, 2011

High placed listings – which ones get more clicks and why?

Filed under: Advertising — admin @ 9:54 am

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.

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January 2, 2011

Additions to policies regarding listings, certification and elite

Filed under: Advertising,Popular on Linked In — admin @ 12:37 am

Here are some new official policies for being listed and having various certifications. Please note that in addition to testing Notaries on general competency in the areas we test them in, we also keep score for general communication skills. Notaries who exhibit various forms of incompetency, bad attitudes, or listening comprehension issues will be written up in our notes which are private and not accessable to the public in any way shape or form.

(1) Requirements for being listed on 123notary.com.
In addition to being a current Notary Public, you must exhibit a certain level of competency to us at 123notary by means of a phone quiz. We require a minimum of 70% passing to ensure being willing to list you on the basis of competency. For those that score less than 70%, we might make exceptions if they are in an area with not so many other Notaries, or not so many other Notaries who passed our test. Issues that we expect Notaries to be competent in include:

Identification, Journals, Notary Acts, Oaths, Certificates, and Seals.

(2) Requirements for getting or keeping certification from 123notary.com.
Our previous rule was that if you were certified by 123notary, that the certification fee was a one time fee only. As of October 2017, we will require Notaries to recertify every (2) years. This will be at a small cost to those who purchased certification after Oct, 2017 and at no cost for those who initially got certified before that date.

All certified Notaries will be quizzed by phone no more than once per calendar year. The quiz for certified Notaries will include questions about:

(a) General Notary Knowledge: Identification, Journals, Notary Acts, Oaths, Certificates, and Seals.
(b) Handling situations before, at, or after loan signings.
(c) General knowledge of basic loan documents which normally include questions about FAQ’s borrowers have and what information is in which document.

(3) Requirements for keeping our Elite certification on 123notary.com.

All elite certified notaries on 123notary will be quizzed by phone no more than once per calendar year for quality standards. The quiz will include.

(a) General Notary Knowledge: Identification, Journals, Notary Acts, Oaths, Certificates, and Seals.
(b) Handling situations before, at, or after loan signings.
(c) General knowledge of basic loan documents which normally include questions about FAQ’s borrowers have and what information is in which document.
(d) Advanced Notary knowledge such as advanced vocabulary, Apostilles, less common documents, and generally harder questions.

Grading for elite certification will be at a higher standard than for the regular certified Notaries although we do not have a set standard for a passing percentage due to the fact that the difficulty of questions can vary from test to test.

(4) It is possible we might have a Platinum certification with an even higher standard in the future. However, during 2017 we will focus on maintaining set standards for the regular certification and elite. Please keep reading the blog to see if Platinum or Platinum Gray is mentioned.

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You might also like:

All about 123notary
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=18897

Does 123notary have the authority to quiz people?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=19469

The history of 123notary
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=17458

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July 24, 2010

Everything you need to know about advertising

Advertising for mobile notaries.

As a mobile notary, its hard to know what the best way to market your business is. There are so many ways to advertise, many of which are very expensive. So, how do you make sense of this mess? To make it simple, lets divide advertising into several types. Notary directories, yellow pages, and direct marketing.

Notary directories are the best way to market a mobile notary business in 2010. There is not as much work as there was a few years ago, but the work that does exist, is generally assigned from mobile notary directories. 123notary.com, notaryrotary, notarycafe, and signingagent.com are the four most popular notary directories in 2010. It makes sense to get listed on these first, and then consider getting a free listing on a few of the many other notary directories that are out there.

Just being on a notary directory is not enough. You have to have an attractive profile, and good placement. A notary profile with several contact methods, a great notes section, and lots of information on it is ideal. Additionally, notary listings that are certified by the website that is providing the advertising will get significantly more business from their listing than those who are not. Certification requires a certain amount of studying. NNA’s certification is good for two years, while 123notary’s is good for the life of your listing with us. Being listed in multiple county pages is another way to get your listing good exposure. Placement is a big issue at 123notary.com. There is a waiting list for notaries who want to be higher on their local county’s search results. The higher the notary is listed, the more visits to their listing (clicks) and jobs they get. So, it pays to be high on the totem pole, certified, and have a thorough and nicely written notes section.

Yellow pages are another way to market your business. Yellow pages are hit and miss, particularly miss, however, many notaries who have figured out which yellow pages are good, get good business from that source. Start off with free listings, or small ads in several yellow pages, and then see what happens. Online yellow pages will try to sell you expensive banner ads and profiles. Just get a free listing to start out with and track your calls. Many notaries will pay bundles for an ad and not even get one call for it. Yellow page ads will get you more hospital, jail, immigration oriented, last minute travel documents, and office signings, while directories are mostly for loan signings at someone’s home.

Direct marketing is popular among the more agressive notaries. Knocking on doors of attorneys, bailbondsmen, realtors, convelescent homes, neighbors, and local businesses can sometimes turn into some good business. Cold calling nationwide signing companies and local title companies can also turn into some business. Some notaries hang around at jails and airports making themselves available for last minute emergencies and handing out cards to passers by. The most effective direct marketing technique is to give everyone you work for a business card. Make sure you have a nice business card stating you are a mobile notary. Give cards to the others in the office wherever you go. Friends and co-workers of clients will quickly become your loyal client, since they have seen your face and know you are reliable based on the work you did for their co-worker — even if its only based on one visit. This is called warm-market marketing and its powerful. If people know you from even one exposure, they are ten times as likely to use you since they will feel comfortable with you, especially if you introduced yourself to them and gave them a card. Passing out cards at convelescent homes is a proven winner. The patients are immobile and their families will need them to sign powers of attorneys and grant deeds. They can’t make it to a notary office, and will desperately need a mobile notary.

Need more help with marketing?
Try our marketing combo by visiting http://www.123notary.com/loansign.html
Or ask the experts at info@123notary.com

You might also like:

Choosing a business name
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=2302

Notary Marketing 102 – The Top of your Notes Section on your Profile
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=19750

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