Professions

Weeks have passed since I've suggested to book your different moneymaking activities. And I'm sure you did it, so by now you know exactly how much money your professions earn you. :-)

If you have somehow lost your carefully collected data, let me have some approximation:

• Any profession that is below slvl 350 made you nothing at all
• You spent a fortune on leveling one or two of your professions to 450 and it made you little-to-none income
• Unless you spend time to watch AH prices of different products your crafting skills made you little-to-none
• Your gathering profession makes really nice income, around 3-500G/hour

If you have enough money and don't have to do a single daily just to have money, you don't have to keep on reading. Yet if you depend on dailies or grinding, it's time to make some serious changes with your professions.

There are three kind of professions:

• Gathering professions (Mining, Skinning, Herbalism, Fishing): you don't need anything else than free time to make money. You fly around seeking nodes to mine/herb, stand next to a popular questing spot where people are required to kill animals and skin these, or casting your line into pools. When your bag is full, you fly back and sell the products. Don't forget to check which form of the product has the highest price, sometimes bars sells higher than ores, and heavy leather higher than normal. Engineering might fit a bit to this group since you can extract motes from clouds.
  
• AH-only professions: (Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, Inscription, Leatherworking, Cooking). You can craft exactly what every other guy with this profession can (5-10% of the server). Theoretically you can make 0 profit from these professions. Of course you can make profit since most of these possible competitors don't bother scanning the AH, seeking craftables that sell. So making money from these are actually making money from AH-business and not the profession. You can make money from these without having the profession.
• CD-ed professions: (Mining: titansteel, Alchemy: transmutations, JC: daily quests, Tailoring: cloth creation). The cooldowned items are in short suppy, since most competitors ignore them and the others can only create 1/day (or/4days). If you have these professions, you can have a stable 100-200G/day income for 5 mins. Of course you can trade with the rest of the craftables too, just like in the previous point.
  

The following questions are to be answered:

• Is 100-200G/day extra is enough for you? If yes, level one of the cooldowned professions and enjoy financial freedom.
• If not, which do you prefer (hate less)? Spending lot of time seeking nodes/animals/waiting for the bobber or learning the AH and risking losing money now-and-then?

After you made your choice, drop the profession that does not fit into the scheme. Yes, you may spent lot of gold and time level it. But it does not serve you. Profession is a mean for an end: to get you money. That slvl 230 BS that you will level "someday" does'nt serve you. That slvl 450 herbalism that you leveled during questing but since lvl 80 you did not picked a single flower serve you no better. Drop everything you don't use!

Level your new profession fast! If it's gathering, take a deep breath and seek nodes/skins until you reach at least 375 to be able to gather in Northrend. If it's crafting, check the AH often for materials. I'm not suggesting to buy materials for 200% price, but don't hesitate to buy if the price is acceptable. Low level profession does not make money for you.

Always check what sells. Sometimes it's more money to mine Mithrill in lvl 50 zones than fighting for cobalt. With crafting you can get some selling tips here.

If you want to level herbalism or mining to 420 to be able to pick saronite or lichbloom, you can do it fast picking top lvl 70 herbs in Netherstorm or Isle of Quel Danas. You can also mine quest nodes on Netherwing ledge, Shadowmoon Valley (needs flying mount).

Good luck!