You Guys Are Great
That last post was a doozie now, wasn’t it? Ok time for me to admit a couple things :
1) I’m not the ignorant a-hole you all think I am. I wrote that post the way I did on purpose, I wanted to get your attention and get you posting replies. And hey it worked, this was my first 100+ comment post.
2) I still do hate taxes and the post wasn’t to complain about having to pay them, I’m actually paying them legit this time around as I don’t want to get audited in my first year paying taxes hah.
3) I’d like to say I’m very impressed with a lot of the responses and conversations you guys started. It proves to me and everyone out there that I have some smart chaps following this blog and I’m proud of you all ::tear::.
4) I do not associate poor people with doing drugs, that seemed to piss people off the most. I’m well aware that there’s many hard working families out there doing their best to put food on the table, and this $600 could help them pay a missed mortgage payment or something like that.
In these spirits, I did get some solid laughter out of some of the comments. Here’s my favorite one :
Comment by Daniel
Greedy fucking pig. I’ve been meaning to prune my rss reading list for a while. Thanks for reminding me to get started. Unsubscribed.
Hahahaha. I don’t know why but this one made me laugh. This has happened before in comments, people disagree with one of my posts so they unsubscribe to the whole blog and disregard any tips that would actually help them make more money? I guarantee that guy will either not unsubscribe, or keep reading my blog in some way. Another funny one…
Comment by Adam
One of the most ignorant, disgusting and egoistic posts ever. Unsubscribing.
Anyways, I applaud those who made an objective response to my post and made some good conversation/debate about it. I enjoyed reading all the comments and I’m sure everyone else that participated did as well. I apologize and I’ll have to crank out some nice tips now ;).
LOL nice one UberAff, You’r right… I bet those two people are reading this post as we speak… if anything they some here more often now (and i’m not even being all that sarcastic when I say that)
-Nick
What I hate about the post is the complete wrong calculation..
how can you complain about taxes when you can’t even calculate how much taxes you have to pay?
Well, just a small word of suggestion… try to become hard skinned and take comments to your advantage… something I learned from Darren of problogger and John Chow…. It doesn’t look nice on your part to NAME your critics on a blog post.
Ahem, Ahem…. I am not going to unsubscribe :)
I have an accountant, I know how much taxes I have to pay…
tl;dr you did it for the lulz.
Well played! It was very entertaining. :)
step 1) write retarded post
step 2) when everyone hates it and flames you, pretend it was just a linkbait joke
keep trying to be shoemoney
I don’t know why people take this stuff so seriously, it’s someone’s opinion on a specific subject. You mean they enjoy paying taxes? Nobody does, but we do whether you consider it a duty or responsibility, you know you’d rather keep your money. Like it or not, you still pay them.
I fall undet that category where I won’t enjoy this benefit, I’m not whining about it though, I’m used to getting screwed everytime I get a raise. It’s just life.
Speaking of taxes, I haven’t even filed mine yet, I’m such an irresponsible and greedy ahole! aren’t I?
Hmm, nice twist on the event saying that you ‘meant’ to provoke that kind of response.
From the way the post was written it seemed more like an off the cuff rant. These are the best posts as it lets your readers see you for who you are. I dont 100% agree with your point of view, but as someone who has also had to fill out self assesment tax forms and had to pay copious amounts of tax, i can understand.
You probably lost a few readers but the ones that stay know you a bit better. Does everyone like and agree with arrington? Hell no, but he has the most popular and well respected blog for stating his opinion.
That was your opinion on taxes, thats cool – you either agree or dont agree – take it or leave it.
Flamers and trolls take note.
Thats a cutting comment right there.
hahahaha
Wow, the fact that it was just linkbait makes you a bigger asshole than if you honestly felt that way.
I’m constantly amazed by how many people hold stuff like that against people.
It’s not a question of a “good or bad” person. Normally it’s just where you’ve been and who you know. (And which side of that lovely bracket you’re on)
Just when I thought you were apologizing you write:
……..”I wanted to get your attention and get you posting replies. And hey it worked.”
Now you are insulting a great many people that read your blog. Paul, please drop the issue you were wrong and continuing to shove your foot further down your throat.
Controversy worked…now what? I for one am relieved it was ahem…just a test.
I thought I’d have to pay those ‘poor drug buying people’ to beat your arse:)
Now get back to work!
Good post Paul. Linkbait or not, conversation is good…
Where in the world is the ever so smart “Juan”? Probably trying to figure out how to turn his parents computer back on so he can get back to clicking on his own Adsense ads.
Writing a post that causes a little controversy isn’t such a bad thing if it brings up a good point (sometimes its a good marketing technique IMO).
But doing it in the way you did and then bragging about it really emphasizes your adolescence and the fact that this is some teenager’s blog. Is that the message you want to send to your readers?
I won’t unsubscribe but that previous post hurts your credibility. If you hurt the relationship with your readers then that means you f*cked up.
I’ve been audited three times.
It’s only scary the first two.
Awesome to know that about fulltiltblogging.. I won’t be reading their tax suggestions..
I call for a group hug…. :D
All you people hating, please just stop. If you don’t like what you read then fuck off. No one is keeping you back. Read the blog, use the info given, if you don’t like anything, move on. No need to bitch and whine about it.
I just wish you would start posting about topics related to affiliate marketing again. Ever since you went to ASW your post quality has gone down… Please Don;t turn into John Chow and make one good postevery month surrounded by a bunch of filler.
Paul, why don’t you admit you make 16 to 17 million dollars a year and pay 6 million in taxes you coward
*group hug agreed*
I call bullshit. I fucking *knew* the next post was going to be like this… way to cover your tracks.
AMEN AMEN AMEN
I took this site off my igoogle page. Now I can look at better stuff.
Who fuckin cares? There is no reason to stay broke ass in todays world. Access to quality information on ANY subject is free to anyone for the first time in history. Get your poor crack smoking ass off the couch, put your wifebeater on, finish your beer and head down to the public library, learn something, and move up in the tax brackets.
Next up, universal health care! Shiiiiit.
…
Awww.. don’t be a jackass.. hah. Paul told me he was going to post this and to his credit, it worked.
Hmm yea I’m of the school that when you’re in a hole you stop digging. I mean it’s your personal blog and you can post whatever opinions you want to on taxes or anything else, but c’mon. If it WAS linkbait then you don’t really need a follow up post, by outing it as linkbait you kinda killed the chance to get any more links to it. Now the cat is out of the bag no one is going to bite.
Paul, I respect you enormously and have learned a bundle from your site. That said, I was pretty dissapointed by your post yesterday as it felt selfish (“I’m rich and the poor should fend for themselves”), dismissive of poor people as lazeabouts (a stupid stereotype – case in point is this close family friend who works 8-14 hour days doing tough manual labour and earns about minimum wage) and not nearly as intelligent as your affiliate posts. To put that in context, outside of Slightly Shady SEO and another blackhat – whom I mostly read for the SEO stuff anyways – yours is the only affiliate blog I visit daily/subscribe to.
Probably a good lesson in not mixing business and politics.
The rich get enough crap for being rich, it’s fair that the poor get it to. Take any person and go back step by step through their life and you will find out why they are where they are. Most of the time it will be decisions they have made. As a Sociology degree holder I can definitely tell you which of the two groups bring down society more than the other.
You guys need to all clam down. Theres nothing wrong with having the opinion he has about taxes. You think your better than him because you think the government should be all about free hand outs? Get over yourselves. Its his blog, his opinions, if you don’t like it just don’t come back. Your opinions aren’t any better than his.
You sir, are an idiot.
Anddddd. The RSSSS is on theeee Rissseee.
10k month RSS soon, on it man, keep up the good work.
Linkbait or egoist. Either way, it does nothing to establish or maintain a positive reflection of your reputation, unless that’s the kind of company you keep.
So how would you intend to run;
– a hospital without any nurses
– a factory without any workers
– a haulage company without any drivers
– a school without any teachers
– a retaurant without any waiters etc.
If everyone was rich then nobody would be rich.
I’m really not sure how Daniel and Adam came up with their comments. I find nothing ignorant about the last post at all.
It is not an opinion people, it is a fact: their is a higher percentage of tax on more financially successful people than there is on those with smaller incomes. And this can easily be looked at from the point of view ‘they are punishing the rich.’
It’s not greedy, Daniel. Paul most likely pays more in taxes than you do because he probably makes more than you, therefor you should thank him for those roads you drive on everyday.
I disagreed with the post, but I have to admit it smelled like bait to me. I still bit though, and left a comment. I wouldn’t unsubscribe because of one post though. this blog is still one of the most valuable in this category.
Well he certainly lost my respect. I’ll continue to drop by every now and then to see what’s happening, but losing respect is not good for business. I reckon he will lose a lot of readers, but they’re not the ones who are going to mention it to him.
I really can’t see how this is affecting your guys’ respect for him. This is certainly nothing knew.
Ever read Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich, Inc and Grow Rich? Do you even know how to read?
Everyone hates paying taxes, especially the more you earn as you have to fork out hard earned cash for nothing.
It’s just one of those things you have to deal with.
I won’t be subscribing just yet :P