Written by: Scott
We are looking at doing a deal involving mortgage brokers, and I just wanted to ask for a little feedback from NotaryBay members:
How often do you get contacted or scheduled directly by a loan officer or mortgage broker?
Written by: Scott
We’ve created some amazing content to help you grow, build, and market your notary business. We have 6 videos, 15+ text tips, and a great .pdf report (”4 Perfect Side Jobs For Mobile Notaries”) that premium members get access to. Each week we’ll be adding a new video and tips to the premium member section of the application.
Premium members will also rank above free members in search results.
5 Reasons to Upgrade Now
1. Access to exclusive multimedia content you won’t find anywhere else. Developed just for mobile notaries. Video’s like: “Fee Negotiations - The one question you need to ask to get higher fees” and “The simple secret to getting testimonials and referrals from your clients” + many more! Access our pdf report: “4 Perfect Side Jobs For Notaries”
2. Beautiful profile page (www.notarybay.com/yourusername) to use in your advertising. Customers can call you directly or use the “click to call” feature to send you a text message and e-mail.
3. We will be announcing a partnership with a major player in the mortgage market by the end of the month, upgrade now and make sure you’re ranking high!
4. The first 300 notaries to upgrade this week will receive a 50 point bonus for the next 3 months on NotaryBay.com
5. Because it’s only $15/month!
Login to your account here and upgrade now!
Written by: Scott
I want to thank everyone who joined NotaryBay last month during our beta testing! Your feedback and suggestions and testing helped a ton! So Thanks!
During our beta period we allowed all members to have a access to some of the premium member features such as the beautiful profile page we designed. With our beta period over, all members that signed up before Oct 28th have been downgraded to our free membership.
Written by: Scott
Want to let your clients know about NotaryBay? (and earn loads of points?). Use these 7 fliers that we designed! Put your own name and referral link in the document and go to town! (I like flier #3 the best)
Download 7 NotaryBay Promo Fliers
Written by: Scott
Change isn’t easy.
In fact, it’s darn right difficult for most companies and industries. This year has been a tough one for many notaries as well as the companies we work with.
I’ve spent most of this year building NotaryBay, designing it as an alternative to using a signing service when you need a mobile closing. The technology is of the application is smart, the design is top notch, it’s ready to go.
And now we need your help. Yes, you!
The truth is that for big change to happen in this industry its going to take more than just one person, or even one company. It’s going to take a community. Thousands of title, escrow and mortgage companies use signing services. Using a signing service means just one call or order online to get a notary scheduled. Many don’t even realize that there are alternatives to signing services.
NotaryBay offers an alternative to signing services that is good for notaries and good for the industry. Our interface encourages searchers to input their maximum budget ensuring that they get the most comprehensive results. You as a notary have the ability to set your minimum price so that you get contacted for jobs you’ll actually take.
Do you know a title or escrow company that could benefit in time savings and increased efficiency from NotaryBay? When you refer a customer to NotaryBay not only do you get rewarded with 100 points, but you also are helping the notary community.
To refer searchers to NotaryBay put your NotaryBay username into this link:
http://www.notarybay.com/yourusernamehere/customer
for example: my username is “mobilenotary” so my link is: http://www.notarybay.com/mobilenotary/customer
Let’s say you refer 10 of your current clients to NotaryBay (that would be 1000 points!). You’d also get points for every positive review they leave for you when they contact you through NotaryBay. Those clients may often have signing outside your area and now they can use NotaryBay to find other quality notaries to work directly with.
In fact, if you really want to look good to your clients you should suggest they look at NotaryBay.com. It’s a 100% free tool for them that could greatly increase their productivity, and they will be very happy that you made them aware of the site!
Our little NotaryBay team can only reach so many offices, and we only have so many connections in the industry. An e-mail from you can do so much more than a cold call from our sales team.
We have many more great features planned for NotaryBay, but we need to tell the world about our little site. So please write personal e-mails to contacts you have to let them know about NotaryBay.com. Make sure and use your referral link so that you get credit when they register. Don’t write people you have never done business with.
Free Premium Memberships Expiring
Next Monday on Nov. 5th, all NotaryBay members signed up during our beta testing period will be downgraded to our free membership level. This gives you a week to check out some of the latest features. Free members will always rank below premium members in the results. Free members will not get the awesome profile page that we have designed and search engine optimized for best results in Google and yahoo.
Final Note
We want to give escrow, title and mortgage companies an amazing alternative to using a signing service, and give those currently hiring notaries directly a great tool to improve their efficiency in finding quality notaries. For Notaries we want NotaryBay to be the simple, low cost, easy way to manage and promote your mobile notary business! Your profile page makes that all possible!
Written by: Scott
Blake, one of our sales guys wrote this post a week or so ago. I figured it gave some good insight into life here at NotaryBay HQ! - Scott
So today it is pouring rain in
Scott, Mark and I are hard at work on some new features for NotaryBay. We are half exhausted and half excited about the new features and news! One thing we’ve been working on is trying to get companies and users to “use” the site. In fact Scott is on the phone with one of them right now. The door is closed to his office, which is a pretty good sign it got serious! We have made some great connections in the last month.
It’s important for all of you to put in a minimum price. If you don’t you may get calls for jobs less than you are willing to do. We will also lose customers because the automated feature suddenly doesn’t become so automated when notaries are turning down jobs. Probably the Most important point
I am not sure if Scott mentioned this before, but it is worth a few words. If you want to get another notary signed up use your public profile link with /signup after it. Then you will get points for referring your friend or notary. Remember you’re ranked by points. So go to the points page and see what else you can do.
Mark is working on some cool ideas we have had in the last few weeks and getting them loaded on the site. You will soon be able to load a picture on your profile which is cool and always fun. Some other cool new stuff is in the works so keep checking back here for updates and your profiles for new things.
There is tons of stuff to look for and be excited about if you are a notary. Scott still has the door closed and is making calls. All in all we have had fun this week calling prospective users and researching/creating new feature ideas. Our ultimate goal for the month of October is to get a few test customers registered on the site and for you to refer notaries in. We are really excited that you are all apart of this adventure. I shall regress back to my hot chocolate and lonely morning. If only Scott would open the door. Happy Signings!
Blake
Written by: Scott
I had a notary contact me recently and say that she had received a job alert (sweet! we are still in beta) from NotaryBay. But, she said it was from a signing service. In looking at the account, it was national title company, not a signing service (In my opinion. and these are my thoughts of course).
So what is a signing service?
Here’s my definition (and this is what we use to define who can use the automated features of NotaryBay):
A signing service is a company who’s sole purpose is profiting from the difference between its charges and what it pays its notary vendors.
For example (not to pick on anyone): NationsDirect.
From what I know of them, they are the exact definition of a signing service. They charge X amount on the HUD and pay X-whatever (very little) to the notary. Signing Service.
John Smith’s Signing Service (fictional company). They cover mostly a regional area, but advertise “national coverage”. They charge their client’s $250 for a single edoc closing. They pay their notaries an avg. of $100. Signing Service.
Examples I wouldn’t consider a SS:
MIS (mortgage information services). These guys are a national escrow/closing/title company. We’d love for them to use NotaryBay to speed up their notary search. (feel free to send them an encouraging e-mail!) Would definitely not consider them a signing service.
Netco Title. A national escrow/title company (you can e-mail them as well!). Not a Signing Service. LandAm…not a signing service.
Many large national escrow and closing companies have in house divisions and schedulers that handle mobile closings. We WANT those companies using NotaryBay.com. They pay fast and decent. We want the local title and escrow companies as well.
Am I wrong here in my definition? We don’t want bad companies using NotaryBay. But we totally want some of the national title companies on board. What do you think?
Written by: Scott
This weekend we finished a significant upgrade to our zip code database as well as the search logic that powers NotaryBay.com
You’ll see that in urban markets our results are much more local and much more user friendly.
Real World Tests
This week we have a number of companies who are testing the NotaryBay application, so if you get a job alert make sure to respond quickly!
At NotaryBay.com HQ
I talked to a notary today who received a notification (from one of the companies testing right now) last week. It was great to hear how the system works in real life! We’ve been testing and building features for months now, but to hear that the notary really loved how it worked was very re-assuring. Just because you build something you think is cool, doesn’t always mean everyone else will! (although, nearly every client we have showed notarybay so far has been very receptive).
One problem that we struggle with is that we have to think about both the notaries and searchers when it comes to deciding features and work-flow issues. For example, making notaries call in for a job makes more work for the notaries, but less for the searcher. Without searchers using the application, no notaries get work! Our job is just connect the two and attract both parties to use the application.
Beta Almost Over. Version 1.0 Coming Soon
By the end of the month we should be done with our beta testing as well as finishing a few more features we want to have ready for our customer accounts and notary accounts. Once finish Version 1.0 of the application we will have a premium membership option for notaries who want to rank above free members in their area. All accounts are currently set at the premium level. We will have a few more exciting features for premium members when we launch. All notaries who’ve already signed up will be downgraded to the free level, with the option to become a premium member anytime. Free members will still receive notifications (via text message and/or e-mail) of jobs in their area, but they will rank below the premium members. Within each level of membership, members with more points will rank higher in the results.
Written by: Scott
When I first starting working as a mobile notary I was totally down with the NNA. I was listed in their directory, I was a member, I even got NNA business cards (which I misspelled my domain name in so thankfully never used).
Like many signing agents, I soon noticed the plethora of seminars, overpriced training material, and other products the organization continually puts out. As I was running my business, I would look at those postcards and say, “what in the world?” and “why are they doing this?”
The NNA has over 300,000 members.
300,000. Wow.
The NNA Makes Money Hand Over Fist
Let’s look at those numbers real quick. A one-year membership costs $52, a two-year membership costs $89. For our purposes lets say the average fee the NNA collect is $45 a year. That’s 13.5 million in revenue just from membership dues alone. Not too shabby for a very niche organization.
What is the NNA?
You might think thus far in my NNA analysis that I think the NNA is the devil. Far from it. I think part of many NSA’s hatred of the NNA stems from perceiving the NNA in the wrong light.
The NNA is a business. It’s a business that has a huge payroll expense to meet each month (nearly 300 staffers…see description at bottom of this page). If you think of the NNA as a non-profit, doing all kinds of goodness for the notary community…you’re going to be disappointed.
Not All Bad
The NNA is doing everything in it’s power to defend the legion of NSA’s in has created in the last decade. As much as many mobile notaries despise the NNA, they do attack legislation aimed at limited the powers or opportunities of notaries. This is easily evidenced by their opposition to attorney-only legislation in any state.
Bottom Line
The NNA is not going away. Love it or hate it, hopefully you’re a little more informed about the NNA’s role in our business.
Scott
Written by: Scott
Our main goal is simple: Become the most used website/application in the US to find a mobile notary.
Oh, and we are going to do that within the next 6 months.
Goals:
#1 Empower mobile notary business to connect directly with lenders, settlement companies, and local escrow officers through their NotaryBay profile
#2 Dramatically reduce the number of signing services in the US by giving signing service’s clients a FREE alternative…a customer account at NotaryBay.
#3 Allow mobile notaries to easily manage and grow their mobile notary business through their NotaryBay profile for a reasonable and small monthly fee
#4 Increase consumer awareness of high signing service fees that should be going directly to the mobile notary that visits their home
The thing is….we can’t do it alone. We’ve built the NotaryBay application to reward all notaries…not just a select few that buy the top rankings (you can’t buy top rankings at NotaryBay.com…you must earn them).
If you really want to transform this industry and put more signings back into the hands of individual notary signing agents (and not signing services!) than
we’re on the same page and I hope you’ll participate here at NotaryBay.com