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About Us
Advantages of 123notary.com - Geography.
(1) 123notary.com goes the extra mile by organizing listings by both county and subcounty
wherever possible. Sub-counties are the smaller areas within a larger county.
Some state counties are overpopulated with notaries, so search results are made
more efficient by dividing each county into its smaller areas. That way, when you're
looking for a notary, you can find a notary closest to where you need them.
(2) 123notary gives you many options: you can find a notary by city, county, state, and
zip code. When searching by city, you can choose only to show notaries within that
city, or you can broaden your search to the entire county.
(3) We modified our zip code search so that the search radius automatically adjusts
itself to the area. Zip code searches in congested areas — like Los Angeles or New
York City — will show notaries within a six mile radius; zip searches in less congested
areas will show notaries within an eighteen mile radius. We made this adjustment so
that searches bring up a reasonable number of choices across the board: not too
many and not too few.
(4) Looking for bilingual notaries? Now you can search for signing agents by language.
About Us Commentary from Autumn 2007
Jeremy Belmont created 123notary.com shortly after the dot-com bust of 2000. Jeremy
originally created 123notary.com to assist him in advertising his own notary services in
the Los Angeles area. The site proved itself to be a powerful tool, and Jeremy decided
that it would be useful to other notaries.
Growth history
The site gradually branched out from being exclusive to Los Angeles notaries, to
including surrounding counties. A few months later, the site grew to include all of
California. It was then that Jeremy said to himself, "think big — go nationwide." After a
few more months — and many negotiations with programmers — 123notary.com began to
serve the entire nation. The problem how to populate all states with signing agents. Jeremy
and co-workers started a campaign, calling signing agents all around the country and
convincing them to join 123notary.com. Together, they brought many great signing agents on
board (the hard way). Since then, 123notary.com has had over 10,200 members sign up
and is currently home to 4500 notaries and signing agents.
Innovations
Over the years, 123Notary has changed a great deal. With each change, 123Notary
become more refined and more useful.
Cities - In 2001, Jeremy catalogued every city and county by hand for 123Notary's
directory. Each city is associated with the county it is in, and these associations were
recorded by hand — a long, and arduous process. In the end, 123Notary is the most
robust notary location tool on the internet.
Neighboring counties - On each listing page, there is a list of neighboring counties —
this feature is well-liked amongst our users. Identifying and recording each neighboring
county was a difficult task.
Placement options - Eventually, it became apparent that many notaries wanted "fixed"
placement for their listings — they wanted to know exactly where their listing would show
up in a search. Jeremy devised a formula so that pricing would be based on the supply
and demand of each area. Top positions in lower demand area are inexpensive, and
top-placed listing in competitive areas cost more — this pricing scheme is more fair for
competition-sake.
Additional counties - Many notaries list themselves in additional counties outside of
their home area. However, these additional listings would interfere with the locals in
those other areas. So, as March of 2007, if a notary lists themselves in an additional
area, they are given low placement by default. This way, notaries do not have an unfair
advantage over notaries outside their home area.
Zip radius - 123notary.com used implement an eight-mile radius for all zip-code
searches nationwide — notaries within eight miles would show up in the first tier of
results. Searches in higher populated areas, however, yielded far too many results and
many users prefer a more focused search result. In rural areas, on the other hand, there
were too few search results. To solve this problem, we assigned a different search
radius to each area. It was a difficult task to sort through each of the one thousand zip
code prefixes and assign them each a radius by hand.
The forum - The 123notary.com discussion forum was created in 2004. Jeremy predicted
that the forum would not gain popularity quickly, and he was proven correct. In order to
remedy the situation, Jeremy discovered new and innovative ways to promote the
forum. The forum is now becoming more popular as a result of his efforts.
The future - 123notary.com will continue to innovate as time passes on. Expect to see
new features, designs, and offerings on 123notary.com in the near future.
Archives from 2001 - 2002
Growing Pains: 123Notary is going National!
Our California Locate-a-Notary service has been a phenomenal success. What else
could we do but go national?
We are adding more states to the service as more notaries register. We have decided to
concentrate on the Western states for now.
As of March, 2002, 123Notary.com is available to notaries in Arizona, California, Idaho,
Montana, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. Soon we will be active in Florida, New
Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. If you are a Notary Public in any of the states
mentioned, our site is an excellent way of marketing your services.
What's Special About 123Notary?
As a traveling notary in the Los Angeles region, I have long felt that other notary-search
websites were inadequate for the needs of both notaries and customers alike. Since the
beginning, I have been determined to create a more effective site.
To see how 123Notary works, click on "Find A Notary" on the left-hand side of the page
and then click "New Jersey". Users can find a notary by CITY, COUNTY, or area. Users can
also find bilingual notaries on our convenient bilingual notary pages.
Note: If you click on the name of a city, you will be forwarded to the county that city is in.
123Notary expects that the notaries listed for that county will be able to serve all the
entire county.
Advantages of 123Notary: Geography
Sites that allow the user to search by city generally find too few notaries, while sites that
allow the user to search by county generally find too many listings. 123Notary
compromises between these two options. 123Notary begins by dividing each state into
counties (or other large regions). When there are enough notaries registered, 123Notary
subdivides each county into smaller areas.
To help users find notaries in counties with lower populations, 123Notary provides a list
of neighboring counties on each county page. Similarly, for counties which are divided
into smaller areas, 123Notary lists neighboring areas on each page.
Advantages of 123Notary: Bilingual notaries
123Notary keeps track of all notaries who speak languages in addition to English.
123Notary generates a page of all of the bilingual notaries for each county. The bilingual
page for a county is accessible from each county's (or area's) main page.
Interesting Pages to Visit on 123notary.com
Get notarized
Certified signing agent
Acknowledgements
Maintenance of 123Notary's current design is provided by its webmaster, Mitch Wooley
of E-Marketing Associates, (626) 444-9111. The internals of 123Notary were originally
created by Peter Belmont, (718) 596-2648.
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