just got a chance to try it out and it worked!! thanks. so now I let my coins sit in there and they gain interest.
sorry to be totally lost but whats the difference from leaving it on the exchange as opposed to in the wallet (besides exchange getting "hacked")
Nice, glad you got it working

Much better having them in your wallet, because now you can reap the rewards of Proof of Stake. I don't know of any exchanges that give the rewards to the coin holders. Some exchanges keep the rewards for themselves

. Other exchanges,such as Poloniex, modify their wallets, so they don't stake at all.
You may already know this, but just in case.
The folder that you placed the conf file in, also contains a file that is called "wallet.dat". You should make a backup copy of this file, and save it elsewhere. I usually have at least 2 copies of every wallet.dat of each coin that I own, on usb disks and/or external hard drives. If your hard drive crashes, or gets accidentally wiped, you can restore your wallet with that file.