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November 8, 2020

Elite Certification will benefit you for the rest of your life

It sounds ominous, but could be good too. Like if it were a goose that laid golden eggs. How can one possibly get such a goose? Easy — from 123notary!

Many Notaries say, “I studied already, why do I have to study again?” The answer is that in any profession, to keep you up to the highest standards you have to keep studying. And we have raised our standards and want to raise you with our standards. In the old days, we only asked a few questions to elite certify people because we were not organized about that particular test simply because so few people would take it. Now, we are giving it for free to many, and asking several dozen well organized questions falling into several categories. But, let’s do a cost and benefit analysis.

Cost – Free, but you need to invest 5 hours
It might take a few hours to study for the elite quiz. However, it does not cost money now. We used to charge $179, but now it is free, and lazy Notaries are not jumping at the opportunity because they want to get paid for services when they don’t understand what they are doing (despite their claims of being an expert.) I quiz people all day long and only 3% of you guys know what you are doing regardless of how many decades you have been doing Notary work incorrectly or illegally.

Just review basic notary acts and procedures. Review which documents cover what topics. Review the advanced elite topics in our study guide. It is not that hard and you can learn it.

Benefits:

1. Elite Certification is something you can keep for life.
We might want to do brush up quizzes from time to time, and you might have to review, but it is given with the intention of being a life designation. Whatever studying you do will benefit you with this icon for the rest of your career — day after day, month after month, year after year. You will get more money and jobs for the rest of your career.

2. Make $14 more per signing.
A poll of three hundred Notaries revealed that those who passed our elite certification made $14 more per signing than those who were not 123notary certified. Most Notaries complain that they don’t get paid enough and that they want to find a way to get paid more. Meriting the pay by proving your knowledge is the key. Our elite certification is highly prized and will get you more pay

3. Get more work
Those who are elite certified get a lot more clicks to their listing and a lot more work. I would estimate that they get close to double the work and more money per job. That translates into perhaps triple the income after expenses are paid such as car, printing, phone, etc.

4. Get favors from 123notary
We don’t always do people favors, and sometimes we do unfavors if you don’t login for 120 days (I’m sure you heard about that.) But, Elite Certified Notaries are a special breed, and if we can find a way to raise them up the list, we will. I am not promising anything, but we regularly reward Elite Certified members.

5. Get more respect from title companies
Title companies prefer our Elite members. If you are tired of signing services, get elite!

6. Legal safety
Most Notaries are not aware that being a Notary has legal liabilities. Some of the liability comes because of fraud or misunderstandings that can happen to you that is beyond your control. However, a lot of the danger that happens to Notaries happens because they do not take safety precautions in their paperwork, nor do they follow the law in many instances. Our elite program helps you be cautious and law abiding which could save you from being a witness or defendant in court. Being subpoenaed to court happens to 15% of full time Notaries eventually and is more common that you think. Reduce the chances of this happening to you by being safe and taking all the possible precautions.

7. Knowledge and pride
Most Notaries are proud of themselves thinking that they know it all when they know close to nothing. Having our Elite Certification proves that you are in the top 2% of our Notaries and really know your stuff up to a very high standard. You can feel pride based on real knowledge and not on an arrogant misconception of knowledge.

Elite Certification can change your life. It only takes a few hours of study. I assure you that it is more than worth it.

You might also like:

Why you should consider getting 123notary Elite Certified
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=20094

Studying to be elite certified is worth $533 per minute
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=20774

The elite certification study guide
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=20118

Attention Title Companies – what you need to know about our new certification standards.
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=21065

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August 6, 2018

Why you should consider getting 123notary Elite Certified.

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Notary Certification

“Elite style” from 123notary!
At the time of this article being written there are only about 100 Elite Certified 123notary members. Elite Certified members get a lot more quantity of work, and get paid roughly $14 more per signing than someone who is not 123notary Certified. So, why would someone pass up more work at higher prices, isn’t that what we all want? Actually not. What people really want is to not have to study — and that is where the problem lies.

Standards for passing our Elite Certification have been raised and that is why it is so highly prized by title companies. You have to be good as a notary, signer and have some obscure knowledge about documents and the industry to get Elite Certified. In any case, here is some data about our Elite Certification.

1. Elite Certification is FREE for now.
We used to charge $179 for Elite Certification. Since we have recently changed our educational and testing requirements, we are allowing people to pass our test at no cost. However, you do have to study and very few can pass because the standards are high.

2. Get more $$$
Elite Certified members on 123notary get paid $14 more per signing than uncertified members. If you are complaining about not getting paid enough, your complaint will change to being paid too much. And that is a nice thing to complain about. You won’t know what to do with the additional income you have. But, I can help you with that. You can invest that in more advertising with 123notary!

3. Get a lot more attention from Title & Escrow
Title companies love 123notary because we have better quality control for our Notaries than other sites. They especially like our certified and elite members as well as people who are top on the list in their area as they are the cream of the crop in the Notary industry.

4. Impress others with your knowledge
Knowing more about the industry will impress people, especially when your knowledge is more solid than anyone else which will basically be true if you can pass our test. People pay more for knowledgeable, experienced and dependable people. But, they don’t pay more for people who fallaciously claim to be knowledgeable, experienced and dependable. Self claims of greatness are inexpensively bought credibility, but our Elite Certification is a highly prized mark of credibility that comes from an unbiased judge of ability — me!

5. Be safer as a Notary
Notaries who don’t know anything (97% of Notaries to be exact) are a danger to their clients, society and themselves. Not knowing how to handle notary situations prudently, not keeping your journal correctly and not knowing how to fill out forms correctly in all cases is not only negligent — it is dangerous and can get you sued, or forced to be a witness in a long drawn out court case, fired, investigated, or in some cases fed to the lions. Ignorance doesn’t pay, but knowledge can keep you and everyone else a whole lot safer. It is worth the ten or more hours you will need to study to get this icon.

6. Get more clicks on 123notary
Clicks and more clicks translate into more jobs. You still have to answer your phone, print documents and go to jobs, but there will be more jobs and better jobs if you can get this icon.

7. Feel more confident and less afraid
Many Notaries have a sense of dread, because they don’t know if they will run into a situation they cannot handle. Earning our Elite certification will have taught you how to handle a wide variety of problems common to Notary work. You might not know everything, but you will know pretty close to everything.

8. Get favorable treatment from Jeremy and Carmen
We both have the highest respect for our Elite members. They are smarter and we are very aware of that. We also respect their motivation as motivation is a scarce commodity these days. We are more likely to promote Elite members with discounted upgrades and special deals on additional counties (no guarantees, but this is our practice.)

Summary
Get treated like a king or queen, make more money and get recognition by virtue of your rightfully acquired knowledge. Nothing should be holding you back from being Elite Certified by 123notary for FREE. All we ask is that you take the studying very seriously, and study with the intent of mastery rather than just skimming the materials. Study and review and quiz yourself on every aspect of the information at hand. If you get less than 100% on a self-quiz, you will not do well on our quiz. But, try it and perhaps you will pass, and if not, you still will have learned something of value.

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You might also like:

Elite Certification will benefit you for the rest of your life
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=20770

The elite certification study guide
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=20118

Unique phrases from the Ninja course
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=14690

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December 25, 2017

123notary’s certifications will get you more business than before

Filed under: Marketing Articles,Popular on Linked In — Tags: — admin @ 11:01 am

A certification is only as valuable as the knowledge it represents. In the past, I thought our certified members were great and did not need to be tested. Then, things changed and I found I was wrong. I had to remove certifications from many people’s listings. So, now there are fewer 123notary certified members. However, the ones that have the icon have a higher level of knowledge than before. Therefore, having our certification icon will get you a bigger advantage now than ever before.

All you have to do is actually know how to be a Notary, know your loan documents, and know how to handle situations. Being 123notary certified is pathetically easy. I am shocked how many people cannot pass our test. It is easy. Most people would rather fail in their career than study a few hours. Studying is not that hard, and this is much easier than studying for a real license. So, what is the problem.

In the old days, 123notary certificaiton would get you roughly 2.5x more business. Now, that I am cleaned up my cert icon and where I put it, it will logically get more than that. I would estimate it would get people 4x more business. However, I need to wait a few months before I get formal readings. In any case this is huge. You would be a fool not to have our icon. The studying involved is only a few hours. It won’t kill you.

Additionally, the Elite icon is being scrutinized. It is not so easy to get, but you can do it if you put your mind to it. Ask us how to get the elite icon. And if you don’t believe me then ask Santa (if he’s real.)

Also read – Compilation of certification posts

The ADD culture and notary marketing
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=22309

He took Jeremy’s advice and got new title companies
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=22277

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May 2, 2016

Not being 123notary certified = only getting 47% of the work you would have gotten.

Most Notaries claim they don’t “need” to be 123notary certified. They are already NNA certified or already know it all. Our certification is not to teach you anything. Our purpose is to verify that you are up to a particular level of knowledge. The people who use our site take our certification very seriously and they skip over people who don’t have it. In fact, those who are not 123notary.com certified only get 47% of the jobs they would have gotten if they were certified according to my number crunching.

If you are paying $100 for a listing, but only getting $47 of the value, that’s terrible, right? But, most Notaries on our site are in exactly this position. They pay every year, but some other Notary who pays the same that they do is getting more than double the jobs they pay. So, you’d think that the uncertified Notaries would wake up and just study and take a test. But, they rarely do. Most of them took it before and failed and just gave up. If you give up on our test, you’re giving up on getting work from good companies.

So, what is the solution? Study! If you study hard, you can do better the next time you take the test. A little studying won’t kill you. Plus, this is your career and you should take it seriously. Not knowing what you are doing not only doesn’t make sense, but is dangerous!

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You might also like:

Compilation of certification posts
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=16264

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April 4, 2016

Compilation of Certification Posts

Over the years, we wrote many articles about 123notary certification. The ones that did the best were ones that did not mention certification in the title, but mentioned some benefits associated with our certification. Here are our best articles about certification and elite certification.

Here is an easy way to make $4000 more per year
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=14162

NNA certified signers who failed our test!
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=892

What is the difference between a listing getting 16 clicks / month & 100+?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=13185

From 3 jobs per week to 3 jobs per day!
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=3940

Do you have to be a CSS to get work these days?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=8914

A detailed look at the Ninja Course
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=4621

How much more does a 123notary certified signer make?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=15392

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ELITE CERTIFICATION

123notary Elite certification, what is it all about?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=8531

Why you should consider getting 123notary Elite Certified
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=20094

Studying to be Elite Certified is worth $533 per minute
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=20774

Elite Certification will benefit you for the rest of your life
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=20770

The elite certification study guide
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=20118

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May 12, 2014

Do you have to be a CSS to get work these days?

CSS = Certified Signing Specialist

Notaries are complaining that there isn’t enough work. Early 2014 has been brutal and late 2013 was horrible. Things just died around September 2013. But, the new laws are making it worse. I don’t know if the laws about this topic are being enforced, but I heard that signing companies would be required b law to use a CSS unless they couldn’t find one.

A CSS is someone who passed a yearly background check, and passed a new much harder signing agent exam that is up to government standards. The NNA administers this type of education and 123notary does not. 123notary has its own certification exam for signers which is very basic and proves basic competency to think under time pressure. 123notary’s certification exam gets signers a lot more work on 123notary and is good for the life of your listing, but is not recognized on other sites.

Notaries are asking me if they absolutely have to spend the several hundred dollars each year to get this new designation. My thoughts are that only a few hundred notaries will spend the money and take the time to get this advanced, but necessary designation. The others simply don’t make enough income from notary work, or don’t have the skills or motivation to do it. The result of this across-the-board stubbornness is that non-CSS Notaries will still be necessary simply because there will be so few CSS Notaries around. Signing companies will not have a choice when things get busy and will have to hire those who didn’t go through the CSS program.

BUT,

Those who do go through the program and spend the $300+ will get a larger market share. Whenever you have a designation that others don’t have — whether necessary or not, you get more work. 123notary’s certification has never been officially recognized by anyone, yet those who have it get more than double the work than those who don’t on our site in comparable positions on the search results. Those who have the CSS which in contrast to our informal certification IS necessary will get a much bigger market share. In a dead market, a bigger market share might not look that great. But, things change. Notaries tend to base their decisions on today and tomorrow. If you get an important designation and renew it regularly, you will have it three years later when the market picks up and you will be the one raking in the bucks while others are trying out new recipes for Ramen noodles (the one with the slow-cooked pork belly is actually not that bad.)

Are you in good hands?

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You might also like:

Background Screening for Notaries?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=2418

Is having an NNA background check necessary to get work?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=10385

Notary Marketing 102 – discussing certifications & background screening in your advertising profile’s notes section.
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=19746

Elite certification will benefit you for the rest of your life
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=20770

Tweets:
(1) Notaries are complaining that there isn’t enough work. But, w/o your CSS you might not get any!
(2) I heard that signing co’s would be required to use a CSS unless they couldn’t find one!
(3) So many OTHER notaries are too stubborn to get the CSS designation, so you might survive w/o it.
(4) Do you really need that annual background check? You might get a better market share if you do.
(5) For those who don’t think they need the new CSS designation, we have some good Ramen recipes for you.

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May 27, 2011

NNA Certified Signers who failed our test!

NNA Certified Signing Agents who failed our test!

This story goes back many years, perhaps close to a decade.  123notary.com started off very simply without much technology.  We couldn’t afford to do any more than barely build the site back in those days.  I had to decide whether to have a certification or not.  It looked more professional if we had our own certification. But, it has always been like pulling teeth to convince the NNA certified signers to even consider taking our test.
 
Notaries couldn’t answer simple questions without a long pause.
In the old days, we used to give our certification test by phone. It was a dozen or so basic questions about loan signing that any mediocre signing agent with hardly any experience could probably answer.  What I noticed is that those who passed the National Notary Association’s signing agent exam (NNA certified signers) failed our test roughly 70% of the time.  There was a lot of “umm” and “ahm”, and “hmmm” during the phone exam.  Their CSA exam was open book and without any time limit, so they were used to being able to get away with thinking forever to answer simple questions such as, “Where can you find the Rate in a loan”.  I can’t think of a simpler question.  The harder questions threw most people. I got sick of being patient and waiting for people to answer ridiculously easy questions.  The only thought that ran through my head was that if I were a borrower, I would throw these notaries out of my house if they couldn’t answer simple questions.
 
The timed test
So, then we got some fancy programming done and made an online test.  I was tired of waiting two minutes for the answers to simple questions, so a timed test was the only way for the notaries to prove their manhood or ladyhood. There were revolving questions and a timer. We had a few technical problems along the way, and many didn’t like my style of questions.  As time progressed, we got rid of the “ambiguous” questions, and added a few practical marketing questions.  We also tried to have questions specific to the state where the notary claimed to be, but that turned out to be unpopular, so we dropped it eventually.    The bottom line, was that most notaries couldn’t handle the time pressure — even the NNA certified signing agents.
 
The ex-Mortgage broker’s story
I had a few people who worked in Title or Mortgage houses who assured me that it was a joke that they even had to take my exam.  After all, they had been doing this for 20 years.  So, many people (including NNA certified signers) tried to convince me that they didn’t NEED to take my dumb exam.  Almost all of these overly confident know-it-alls FAILED my test, and then wasted my time arguing with me.  They didn’t read the prep book, and they didn’t know their basics about loan signing regardless of their background.  There is a lot of overlap between Title and Mortgage work and loan signing, but there are additional things you need to know to be a good signer. It is a different profession.
 
What does our test prove?
Roughly 25% of our notaries on board have passed our basic certification exam. The others either failed, or never tried in the first place. If people had spent the same amount of time studying for the test as they did arguing with us about why they shouldn’t have to take the test, their business would be a lot different.  123notary certification proves that you know your basics, and that you can function under extreme time pressure without breaking. That says a lot.  Most people can not handle the pressure.  When I created the test, I could pass it in three minutes and Carmen passed it in four and a half minutes.  Test takers were allowed six and a half minutes to ensure that the majority who studied hard would pass the first time.
 
Does it matter what you think about our test?
What I think about my test, or what you or Carmen think about my test doesn’t matter even slightly.  The browsers care tremendously about my test, and (news flash!) they are the ones who are paying you.  123notary certified signers are three times as likely to get work.  Even browsers who didn’t know what the certification meant, and who had a regular document to be signed like an affidavit which had nothing to do with loan signing still chose certified signers if they could.  Ten years ago, I used 123notary as my primary source of marketing my personal mobile notary work.  Time after time I got called at 11pm to notarize a simple form.  I kept hearing, “We chose you because you were certified and the others were not”.

You might also like:

Notaries who failed the California notary exam
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=21433

Roseanne called the NNA when she thought she as calling the NRA
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=20503

Need an NNA Alternative?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=19234

For background checks, NNA & Sterling come highly recommended
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=18835

Notary Etiquette from A to Z
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=300

From 3 jobs per week to 3 jobs per day!

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