It's entirely up to you - with Fable villagers, regardless of how nice you are and good, some of them just don't ever respond in the right way to you. I did all the "right" things on one playthrough and they still hated my guts, even though through my actions they were all saved.
Shops, stalls and pubs are a worthy investment though - no upkeep and you can make a nice tidy sum in no time at all by keeping the prices at their highest. That way you can make the "good" decisions as King/Queen and then just donate your personal stash to the treasury to make sure you are able to save everyone at the end. Hang onto your properties though and lower the rent a little just so you have extra cash coming in - it all helps towards that 7 million or whatever it is that you need.
Having waffled on about all that chances are the villagers will still hate you no matter what you do. Which is why Peter Molyneux should have implemented some sort of execution minigame to keep them all in line
