NotaryBay.com Blog

Beginning tomorrow, Tuesday October 9th, through the end of the month, October 31st, we are running a referral contest here at NotaryBay.com

We’ll be giving away over $2400 worth of prizes, including a few of the new Video iPod Nano’s. (they are really cool! I looked at a few at Best Buy this weekend).

We’ve also made it allot easier to refer other mobile notaries to NotaryBay and make sure that you get the points for the referral!

You can now use a special referral link that’s found when you login to your account. Just send that link to your notary friends, and when they sign up, you’ll get the referral points as well as credit for our contest this month! No more having to have your referrals manually put in your username! Now just give them your link!

You link can be found in when you login to your account, and will look like this:

http://www.notarybay.com/yourusername/signup

Everyone’s link is different, but using that format (just put your own username in the “yourusername” spot!) you’ll get credit automatically.

Why so much emphasis on referring my notary pals Scott?

It’s simple really, for NotaryBay to be successful we need a large base of notaries in the application. To attract users to the site, they must find a notary when they search! We are beginning to demo the application for some larger national title companies and we want to make sure that they find notaries wherever they search in the US

The Prizes - Woot!

The prizes will be based on the number of notary referrals from Oct 9th-Oct 31st.

Top Referrer - 1,000 Song 4GB New Ipod Nano (your choice of color) + 12 Premium Membership at NotaryBay.com ($320 aprox dollar value)

#2 - 1,000 Song 4GB New Ipod Nano (your choice of color) + 9 Month Premium Membership at NotaryBay.com ($285 aprox dollar value)

#3 - New Notary Journal + 12 month Premium Membership at NotaryBay.com ($180 aprox dollar value)

#4 - 12 Month Premium Membership ($170 aprox dollar value)

#5, 6, 7 - 6 Month Premium Membership ($90 aprox dollar value)

#8, 9, 10 - 3 Month Premium Membership ($45 aprox dollar value)

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We’re still doing some finishing touches (but the feature is live now for customers!) on the reviews feature here at NotaryBay.com, but let’s take a peak at what it’s looking like.

First though, why a review feature?

For clients using the NotaryBay application, we want to make sure they are getting the best notary at their price that’s available through the site. Being able to leave reviews for each job helps improve the quality of the results and rewards notaries that do a great job.

We felt it was important to reward quality notaries (thus, you receive more points for very positive, perfect 5-star review, than a 3 star review). We also felt that having an online profile where you can show customers your track record (this is coming soon) would be very valuable to a professional notary.

How it works

When a customer chooses you for a signing through NotaryBay, a transaction is created in the system. That customer is then able to leave a 1 star to 5 star review of your performance for that transaction (signing). When you finish the signing, be sure to remind the client to leave you a review at NotaryBay.com

Once the review is given, you will then be awarded points for that transaction. The more positive reviews you receive, the more points you’ll get, and the higher up in the search results you will rank.

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One of the most annoying things as a mobile notary is getting calls for a job that is outside your price range. The first time you get a call for a $40 job (which you turn down) its kinda funny. By the time you get 10 calls in a day for a price you won’t work for, it just gets plain annoying.

Enter….NotaryBay.com

With your profile at NotaryBay.com you can choose to receive only notifications of jobs that fit your free schedule.

The good thing about this feature is that you won’t get notified of jobs that don’t fit your fee schedule. Go here to login and update your profile. You should set your price to be the lowest you would take for a edoc signing within 30 miles (you’ll likely never receive notifications outside 30 miles from NotaryBay). We may set a low limit for this number ($75?).

This is feature is also great for the searcher. Let’s look at this example:

Sue at Big Huge Title Company has $150 allocated for the Notary Fee on the HUD. As a NotaryBay.com user, she puts in the closing zip code, and then puts her max fee at $150. When she hits the blue button to begin her automated notary search, she knows she’ll only receive a call from a notary that charges $150 or less. Good for her (she has a budget!) and good for the notaries (no notifications that don’t met their fee schedule).

Let’s say I won’t leave my office for less than $200. No problem, nothing wrong with that. In my profile, I put $200 threshold price for sending notification. Now I won’t get notifications for any searches where the user puts in a dollar amount below $200. Again, good for the searcher, good for me.

The Truth About Low Prices

The truth is that there are many notaries who will work for lower amounts than another notary would for the exact same job. You may not like it, it may not be right, but that’s the truth of the matter in the industry right now. The good thing about your NotaryBay profile is that two notaries can both rank high in the results…just at different price points. So, if you’re ok with accepting jobs at the lower end of the fee spectrum you put a lower price in your profile. If you don’t want to hear about the lower end price jobs…then put a higher price in your profile. You have full control.

Searchers will always be encouraged to input their maximum price for each job. That way they get the highest quality and most results at their price point. This feature is not intended to encourage low fees, but to return relevant results to the searcher as well as a relevant job notifications to the notaries.

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I was talking on the phone with my mother yesterday (she is retired but works part-time at a small florist shop) and she mentioned that her boss has been stressed because of a huge slowdown in business.

“But Mom…you work at a florist? Why has it slowed so much”

“Oh, most of our clients are mortgage brokers and title companies. They usually send a flower basket or gift basket to their customers when they close”

Wow. I didn’t realize how far the pain had spread from the slowdown. It’s not just notaries. It’s not just mortgage brokers and real estate agents…It’s florists too!

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* Note: While we are not huge fans of signing services ourselves, that doesn’t mean you can’t work for them if you’d like! If you know a signing service that is not listed here, or you have more contact information or updated information (company went out of business, etc), please e-mail updates to Blake. (babel @ notarybay.com) Nice work on this Blake. This list will always be free, so please help fellow notaries out and contribute to the list!

The NotaryBay, Updated Massively Massive Master List of Signing Services

See the updated list here

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When a customer/searcher uses the automated “click to call” feature of NotaryBay the application begins notifying the top notaries in that area that a notary is needed.

You will receive a text message and e-mail (if that’s how you’ve set your preferences) that a user is looking for a signing to be done in your area. The text message will contain a phone number to call the searcher.

Call the searcher (likely a escrow officer or scheduler at a national title company) and make sure to tell them to pick you (give them your name and username) on the application.

Once the user chooses you (they are presented a screen with the notaries that are being notified), you’ll receive points for the transaction.

The key here is speed of response. To give our users the best possible chance of connecting with a notary quickly the system sends out multiple notifications at a time. Once the connection has been made, a second message is sent out notifying the other notaries that received the first notification that the job has been filled. That way you don’t call the number and get a “sorry! we already filled that job”. That would not be 100% awesome.

If you end up doing the signing, the searcher will be able to leave a review (coming soon) that will influence your points level. Now that’s 100% awesome.

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Interest rates are up. Sub-prime loans have pretty much gone the way of the buffalo. The NNA keeps pumping in new notaries…

How does all that make it a good time to be a mobile notary Scott?

Let’s take a look:

1. This profession isn’t going anywhere

Sure, things have slowed down. But we live in a country that puts a premium on time, and mobile notaries are time savers. The mortgage trend may be down, but premium services that save time or are convenient (like a mobile notaries) will continue to trend up.

2. Mobile notaries can cut costs for Settlement Companies

As title and escrow companies get squeezed, they will be looking to cut their costs as well. Why have the overhead on an office when processing can be done in a central location and a mobile notary used? Plus one for the mobile notary.

3. Time to weed out the bad

Slow times will weed out many of the notaries who’ve come into the profession in the last few years looking for an easy buck. Being a mobile notary is about running a quality business, and any business takes hard work. It’s just something you can’t get around. Great notaries will continue to market themselves and differentiate themselves from their competition.

4. NotaryBay.com is here

OK, so we can’t change the industry overnite, but we sure as heck are going to try. Our application makes it so simple (and automated) to find great notaries, we think it has industry changing potential. If you haven’t registered yet, do it now (you can get a premium membership free trail during our beta test)!

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Signing Services. Signing Companies. Sign-Up Services.

Whatever you call them, their place in the industry has always been a hot button issue for notaries. Some notaries love ‘em, some hate ‘em, some could care less.

We’ve decided NOT to allow any signing services to register as customers and use NotaryBay.com.

Here was our reasoning:

1. We want to provide a “100% awesome” experience for notaries on NotaryBay

The truth is that very few, if any signing companies are “100% Awesome” for the notary. When a signing company is used, their cut of the fee directly takes money out of the notaries pocket…not awesome.

2. SS provide little to no value to the borrower

It is our position that the borrower (who 99% of the time is paying for the mobile service) receives little to no added value to their transaction when a signing service coordinates the signing vs. when a quality mobile notary is contracted directly.

3. Signing Companies are so 2001

With the current saturation of experienced mobile notaries in the US, the need for a middle-man company becomes even more diminished. Let information be free man! (note: NotaryBay is 100% free for title and escrow users)

4. Too many bad-apples

In keeping with reason #1, the last thing we want is notaries on NotaryBay to be stiffed or shafted by a Signing Service. Sadly, this is an experience that almost all notaries have had to deal with (myself included!). While this still occasionally happens even when working directly with a settlement provider, it is rare.

5. We want to change this industry

There are many very large lenders and settlement companies that still currently use Signing Services. They really should be using NotaryBay! We hope over the next few months, many of these companies will “see the light”. By using the NotaryBay.com application companies can reduce their costs (both time and labor) and still get amazing notaries.

You Can Help

Know an escrow officer or settlement company who is currently using a Signing Service, or hiring notaries themselves? Refer them to NotaryBay.com (use the customer link in your account dashboard when logged in). You’ll get rewarded in points, as well as some feel good vibes that you’re helping other notaries around the country work direct as well.

Massive Signing Company List

Just because we don’t work with signing companies, doesn’t mean you don’t have too! We’ve compiled a massive list of signing companies that you can work with. We’ll be keeping this list updated and current so if you have a company to add to the list or an update on a company please let us know!

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We made a short humorous video showing what life is like sometimes for a notary scheduler. We hope you enjoy it (feel free to share it with any escrow officers who might get a hearty chuckle from it!)

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