The Billy Lee SEO Policy

It is the policy of the Billy Lee Pontificator to not pay SEO fees (bribes?) for the “privilege” to appear in the search results of a web-service like Google.

For anyone unfamiliar with the term, SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is deployed, it seems to me, like hacker ransom-ware to try to force blog-site administrators to pay fees. Unless they pay fees, administrators can sometimes experience a drop in viewer hits on their sites.

The Billy Lee Pontificator does not pay SEO fees.

For sites like the Pontificator, these fee demands are a good thing. By ignoring them, the Billy Lee Pontificator takes advantage of the machinations of search-engine companies like Traffic Power — now banned by Google — to make it unnecessary to password-protect our content.

Anyone who knows us and our site location still has the unencumbered access demanded by our readers. But pervasive SEO subscriptions by other blog-sites overwhelm malicious web-surfers who might visit our site by chance. We don’t have to password-protect our articles in order to remain public. (See the Billy Lee Privacy Policy.)

NOTE: 2019, May 5 Due to a dramatic surge in attacks on websites following the 2018 elections, the Pontificator has decided to aggressively defend its site-integrity by partnering with SiteLock and Bluehost, which together deploy the best-in-class techniques to ensure that our site is safe, secure, and protected from miscreants.

Common-sense and a desire for simple fairness compel us to remind Google (and a few others) not to acquiesce to the temptations of SEO hawkers nor adopt SEO policies and fees as their own.

Internet surfers who use a billionaire’s search engine to screen their searches and censor their access to content are not the kind of readers the Pontificator wants to attract to their site, anyway.

Billy Lee values democracy and hopes our readers do, too. Alas, Google and two or three other search-engine companies dominate and control internet search results. Web surfers don’t have much of a choice.

We hope companies like Google continue to work to keep the internet neutral and fair. One way might be to ban SEO marketers and their products altogether.

The Billy Lee Editorial Board

Random Reads:

The Billy Lee Process

Over two million people write and publish blogs on a regular basis in the United States. Each writer has their method and process. Some make a living from their blogs. They operate wide-open sites and try to boost readership to sell ads or products. Others restrict access by requiring membership and a pass-code to get in. They operate like fraternities or secret clubs. My blog is wide open, but I don't sell ads or products. My focus is about sharing ideas and absurdities for fun. As long as I have a readership of two people I'm going to continue. I should mention that not long after I launched my blog a swarm of Asian bots from the women's apparel industry attacked my site, so I've had to add two minor restrictions. First, each comment is reviewed before posting---to make sure it's from a real person; and, second, we make sure comments are written in English or French, the two languages I can read. Otherwise, everyone comments freely. If your c...

Speedos

Sometimes a fully dressed article is too much, but a naked tweet isn't enough. I've come up with an alternative the Editorial Board calls, SPEEDOS. Speedos are short pontifications. Like their namesake, the scanty swimsuit, they should be brief and colorful. And, like the Speedos worn on beaches, they can sometimes seem out of place and inappropriate. If anyone has a "speedo" they feel like sharing, transcribe it in the Comment Box and, if it meets the high standards of the Pontificator, we will publish it. Newest speedos will be displayed first, so they are easy to find. Check back from time to time for the latest shorts and briefs---posted here---on Speedos. Billy Lee Why Does Hi-IQ Intelligence Exist Only in the Species Human? May 6, 2019 EDITORS NOTE: A follower posed the question on Quora.com. Billy Lee -- enamored by love for his illegitimate son -- asked Billy Lee Junior to take a stab at the answer and place it on the SPEEDOS page -- over strenuous objections by...

FINAL THOUGHTS

TIME TO DIE I sinned against the man I loved who died. I thought I'd have more time to sigh; Delay the time when silence became the lie. Time passed us by---an ally to our crime That lives inside when all loves die to make us cry and cry and cry. Who knows why? Love makes time for us to die. I've failed at everything in life. What I learned is that it is possible to fail at everything and still find some happiness from time to time. I blame many failures on my own incompetence and bad choices. But also, people hate me. It doesn't matter how much a person knows or how capable they are; unpopular people don't do well. People have pulled the rug out from under me many times; I never seem to be alert enough to anticipate what bad thing is coming next and how to avoid it. I've never been able to tell who my friends are, or who those folks are whose kindness is a mask they wear to disarm and humiliate me. At age twelve, I found myself one weekend-day carefully sweeping out the...

How to Use this Site

EDITORS' NOTE: JUNE 1, 2023 We told Billy Lee to rewrite site instructions. It's irritating to review crap that no longer makes sense. He seems to think people figured out his blog "a long time ago". Sites change; readers evolve, he said. It's not that difficult. Do EDITORS think his readers are total idiots? Really? Get over it, he screamed. We caution readers: "How to Use This Site" is shit. Don't waste your time. Readers who arrive at Billy Lee's website by clicking on a link provided by a search-engine site like Google Search might on rare occasions find themselves on a part of the site they didn't expect; they might see the words "NOT FOUND". Not to worry; nothing is wrong that can't be fixed by clicking on the HOME link in the ribbon that runs across the top of the page. Clicking the HOME page link sets all things right. Over the years, attacks required re-indexing and renaming of links to clean up hacks. The debris left behind is not possible to clean over ever...

Message Board

This space is for messages, announcements and appeals. It's for everyone. Scroll to the end of the messages to put your message in the comments box at the bottom of this page. After approval, your message will appear first in the list. Reminder: messages are reviewed before they are posted to make sure they are from real people, not bots. If you are a real person, it is the official policy of the Billy Lee Pontificator to post your message or comment. Editorial Board

The Billy Lee Privacy Policy

Since going live in January 2014, theBillyLeePontificator blog-site has been successfully attacked three times -- once by bots representing, ostensibly, disgruntled gays; once by people upset about some essays we posted which defended gay marriage (protestors intimidated Billy Lee into shutting down his site for six weeks -- it's a complicated story); and again during the 2016 presidential contest after Billy Lee endorsed Hillary Clinton. Hackers took down the site and an anonymous person threatened Billy Lee's life in a private video message forwarded through Twitter. Site stats suggest that the threat originated somewhere inside the Ukraine. Despite fear, we hardened our site and continued publishing. Our intention is to keep theBillyLeePontificator.com website public. Anyone should be able to read an article or post a comment on our blog. That's the fun of open discussion, isn't it? We can argue with one another in a safe place, where we are respected&...

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