Gold Farming – Make a Mint with Crafting Professions
Lots of people know that gold farming with professions can be very lucrative. Despite this, most people aren’t making much at all with their profession. They tend to think that it’s because they have the wrong profession, or that their profession isn’t currently profitable, or whatever. But the real reason is that they don’t understand the right way to make gold. In fact it’s quite easy to lose a ton of money if you don’t know what you’re doing.
So what’s the trick to farming gold with a crafting profession? Knowing the market. This one simple thing will make all the difference between going broke and getting rich. If you don’t know the market for the items you craft with your profession, you are destined for failure. You’re bank will fill up with items you can’t seem to sell, or you’ll repeatedly sell items for less than they cost you to make them. Either way you won’t be piling up money the way you hoped.
It’s hard to hear, but first you have to remember to have patience. Don’t immediately pop off and start crafting items. Do your research before you start cranking stuff out and it will pay major dividends. Go to the auction house and start searching for items in your chosen profession. Don’t try to look at them all – choose just a few. It’s probably best not to pick the most expensive item, and also not the least expensive. Find something in the middle of the pack. It’s also a good idea to find something that people need to buy over and over. Armor patches, potions, gems, etc. They will sell more steadily so the market will be more stable.
Spend a few days tracking the prices of a few different items. More important than the listing price, you need to get an idea of the actual selling price. This might be a little tricky when you first start, but you’ll get the hang of it. Keep track of which items are too high and not selling, and which are priced too low and selling below optimal price. The idea is for you to understand how you need to price things for them to sell well but still net you a decent profit.
Once you figured out how much those items sell for, you can start making them. You know how much they’ll fetch on the auction house, so you know what you can afford to pay for the materials. Don’t forget that the auction house will take a commission off the top, so don’t cut your margin too thin. As you start making the items, keep tabs on the market. If you make too many, you might push the prices down. Other things in the game can also affect the pricing, so be ready to make adjustments as necessary.
Gold farming doesn’t have to be mindless running of the same gathering routes over and over, or killing the same mobs for hours on end. Playing the market with your crafted items is an entertaining and easy way to fill your bank account. Get to know the market and your profits will add up in a hurry; ignore the market forces at work on your server at your own peril. How well you understand the pricing for your items will be the difference between the poor house and life on easy street. Wouldn’t you prefer the simplest type of gold farming?
