4 followups to 7 steps

Wow! I got dugg! And the comments and links went nuts! Thanks for all the kind words everyone. I wanted to pull a few of the things out and respond to them, so this is a followup post.

You can view the original post with 50+ comments here:

7 simple steps to grow your fortune

You can also see the digg post with 60+ comments by clicking here (and 1400+ diggs!)

1. Thanks to all the haters!

Not all the comments I got were good. Some were down right rude. Others weren't even G rated. But thanks anyway for giving me a thicker skin. And thanks to everyone who defended the post for what it was.

• Some people accused me of spamming digg because I have adsense on my blog. Hello! Millions of people use adsense. Digg uses adsense. By that logic digg itself is generating traffic to make money off of adsense. I have no problem with adsense provided the product or content it is on is worth the while.
• Some people expected more. Anonymous suggested my ideas were so obvious that I must be writing for 5th and 6th graders. Yet another Anonymous thought the post was worthless. me1.0 and Anonymous and Menlo fought back.
• Some people, like Anonymous, were mad at me because I suggested that music should be purchased rather than downloaded illegally. So sue me..wait, sue them instead.
  
• David C reminded us that the world is about to end.
  

2. Thanks for the excellent commentary!

This guy (or girl) wrote an article in his comment. This guy figured out that I was talking to younger people just starting life. This guy used it to pound his 401K horse into the ground. This guy was inspired to start looking for a fund that invests solely in consumer debt.

And this guy just went off and stole my post. Hey! If you're reading this you should at least by me a Starbucks card!

3. I didn't forget that you should invest!

This is for all you crazy people out there who gulped, gargled, and sputtered when I didn't include investing in my article: Dudes! Relax! Investing isn't simple so it didn't make it into my simple steps! Besides, I don't want my average reader to crash their car on the way home from a Super Bowl party because their eyes permanently glazed over while I was trying to explain stocks, bonds, and funds. This guy got it right when he told you to invest in yourself.

4. Thanks for letting me know the article was valuable!

All too often I read things that I find unbelievable useful and insightful and yet I fail to let the author know. Well the kind words from people like Douglas Cooty and Antagonist and posted to digg have made me want to be better at acknowledging people's hard work. Good show everyone!

A choice selection of comments for my ego's sake:

• "Good advice. The way the author talks is more motivational than anything. Puts it into perspective, while still getting to the point, without lengthy lecturing. Digg."
• "Basic, but good tips."
• "Great tips indeed, some nice siple common sense ways to help put you in a better financial position than you're in now."
• "digg - reminders of what seems obvious is actually good (my opinion)"
• "Tech or not, this was an awesome article. Thx OP."
• "everyone should read this."
• "Don't listen to all the blowhards that put the post down. They're probably in some serious debt because they thought a credit card was free money in college. It's good advice but not everything. Good start though."
• "Fantastic article. Lots of good sense. "
• "The information is thoughtful and helpful to people. "
• "Very well written... I practice several of those steps.. :)"
  

and last but not least, from a guy who appears to have signed up on digg just to post and digg my article:

• "Great article. I needed it."