how to monetize notary website?

Hello,

I have a notary website that gets some traffic. The problem is, I am not a notary. I originally made this site for a family member who wanted to practice as a notary, but he is too lazy, too busy, or whatever...
Anyway, I am trying to figure out a way to monetize the site.
I am thinking:
1. partner up with a notary, split profits
2. place google ads on the site
3. become a notary myself?
4. contact a bunch of notaries and offer to sell the site at a flat, one time rate, or rent the site at a monthly rate.

site is getting about 2-3 daily visitors. I know it's not much, but profits are in late night calls, if someone has something urgent at 11:30 pm, you can charge them $100 to go to their location.

Do anyone really need a notary for "something urgent" in the middle of the night ?
I mean, a notary is not a plumber...

Anyway if your site is targeted for a specific area, your best bet is to find one (or several) notaries in this area, and either :

- Sell the site to one of them and upsell him with a hosting/maintenance/seo fee on a regular basis.
- Partner up and split profits : but this might be tough, if someone lends on the site and phone him, how will you know this client came from your site ? And even if you use phone tracking, how will you know this prospect converted for the notary ?
- Make your site a directory of "notaries in [town]", and offer a listing to all of them for a monthly fee.

theseodude said:

3. become a notary myself?

Click to expand...

This made my day

Well, actually I don't know which country you are coming from.. but becoming notary is no weekend course stuff... Do you actually know what the job of a notary is ? I have two notarys from germany in my family so I actually do (studied law myself).
btw: if you are able to become notary you don't need the website, u will earn enough anyways.

You're better of creating a business directory of sorts for the local notaries. They are a tough bunch to sell the concept to, but you could try and sell ad space or featured listing. Most notaries make good enough money with just a small billboard stuck outside their office, so you'll have to do some smart selling here.

become a notary myself? ... loved it.

if your sight gets high positions, I would concider 2 options:

Option 1:
check out the notary niche in google & find notarys with poor positions.
try to make them an offer which combines buying the site & getting maintenance SEO services from you.

Option 2:
close PPL deals with notarys, or get percentage of every deal you deliver.
(and actually you can become to sort of NOTARY AFFILIATE PROGRAM )

whatever you decide, hope you do well :top:

If you can find notaries willing to pay for SEO, that's probably your best bet. My only concern is that the margin on notary services is so small, I don't know of anyone who could make even a consistent supplemental income. There is a notary every 5 miles where I live: in grocery stores, shipping stores, office buildings, copy shops, banks, etc.

It seems that the definition of "notary" might be different from a country to another.

Where I live (western europe) a Notary as studied law at a level similar to layers and is licensed by the state. Their services are quite expensive but mandatory in many legal affairs, such as official documents signatures, real estate transactions or trusts and estates.

A few weeks ago I had to pay 110€ ($135) for being witnessed while signing an official document ("under penalty of perjury" kind of stuff), and the notary simply checked my ID and added his own signature.
The whole thing took about 5 minutes for $135, isn't that a good profit margin ?

Zak_A said:

It seems that the definition of "notary" might be different from a country to another.

Where I live (western europe) a Notary as studied law at a level similar to layers and is licensed by the state. Their services are quite expensive but mandatory in many legal affairs, such as official documents signatures, real estate transactions or trusts and estates.

A few weeks ago I had to pay 110€ ($135) for being witnessed while signing an official document ("under penalty of perjury" kind of stuff), and the notary simply checked my ID and added his own signature.
The whole thing took about 5 minutes for $135, isn't that a good profit margin ?

Click to expand...

in the US, it is much different. by law, a notary cannot charge more than $10 per signature. And it is very easy to become a notary. Notaries do NOT know the law, they are not lawyers, they just take a one week course, and I think there is an exam that they have to take, but it's very easy. there is a notary on every corner so that's why i am having a hard time monetizing the site. I mean even if you get 10 clients, that's only $100. but if you are listed on my site, chances are you wont even get that many, because there is a notary on every corner.
Now here is where profits lie: in being a mobile notary. if you are a mobile notary, then you can charge $50 traveling fee. And if it is a real estate document, then the notary can charge like $200, but these profitable jobs are rare.

One quick follow-up thought: Your niche might actually need more of an offline sales strategy. You could try to sell mobile notary services to title/escrow companies and attorneys. Title Agents and Attorneys aren't crazy about driving to someone's house to notarize documents, and at least you get to notarize a few things at once. Once you build a relationship with them (and if you are dependable), they'll probably let you do most or all of their off-site notarization.