Posted by PJM/MI on 11/3/06 8:43am
Msg #157012

Marketing Tip

I did a search at Yahoo entering my county, state & then the word notary (Ex.. Anywhere Michigan Notary) and I was amazed at how many websites I was NOT listed on. YIKES! There's alot out there to advertise on.
So now I'm busy signing up for more. Several are sites you have to pay for, so out comes MY credit card.

Reply by Jersey_Boy on 11/3/06 8:59am
Msg #157013

It may not be worth it.....

Think of it this way....

YOU are a borrower, SS, or TC looking for a notary. You do a search for a notary in that area.
10 Directories come up on the search. Which one are you going to click on? I bet it's gonna be one of the first three-four listed.

Also, Look to see on those low-ranking sites how many of your competitors are listed in your area? If there is 10, you may want to join in. If there are none, why bother? The person seeking a notary is just going to have to look at one of the other directories that you've already paid for.

Being listed with ALL the directories is not alway a good business decision, you may just be throwing money out the window for nothing.

Just my opinion.

Reply by Poppy on 11/3/06 9:31am
Msg #157020

Very Good advice Jersey Boy... n/m

Reply by Dorothy_MI on 11/3/06 10:20am
Msg #157035

I partially agree

with Jersey Boy, particularly if it is a paid site, then I agree we should probably do some more research before pulling out the credit card. However, I always sign up if it is a free site.

Reply by Charles_Ca on 11/3/06 10:34am
Msg #157040

I agree Dorothy, if its free, I'm on it, if its for pay then

I do some research. When I first started in this business I joined every site I could, pay, free, pay and jump through hoops, whatever. I found through the first year that I only got referals from 3 sites and none of the others. I am still a member of those three sites and they are pay sites. One I don't particularly like the way they operate (no its not NNA, I got nothing there except the lowball companies without exception) but I still get about 20% of my work from them. I get about 70% of my causal work from this site. I know who my competition is locally and I query allmy callers as to how they found me and how they parse the sites they look on. I am told by the schedulers universally that they don't waste time looking for notaries on other sites. The schedulers go to the sites that provide the greatest quantity of notaries to pick from. If you know you have 15 notaries in you area and no one shows up on a site you know that is because no one is checking the site. There are an awful lot of people who see notaries as easy pickin's and that is why there is such a proliferation of directory sites.

Reply by MichiganAl on 11/3/06 1:51pm
Msg #157101

Google PageRank

I have Google PageRank installed on my Google toolbar. It gives me an idea of how high Google ranks the site as far as usefulness and how much volume they get. I also used to use Alexa to get traffic information on a site (some consider Alexa to be spyware, but I never had a problem with it).

I wouldn't plop down money on a site without an idea of how much traffic they get and how much they're actually used. But it's been a couple of years since I've updated my info on some free sites and checked for other free listings. I've been planning on getting around to that (eventually). It can't hurt.