The 5 Methods of Earning Gold in WoW

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There are five ways you can earn gold in World of Warcraft: Dailies (questing), Farming (killing monsters repeatedly), Gathering (herbs and ore), Professions (crafting and services), and buying and selling on the Auction House (aka "Playing the AH").  

All of these methods are not equally effective at earning gold. Some are more profitable than others, and some are more difficult than others. Generally, the most profitable professions also are the most difficult (or not as mindless I should say).  

Let me introduce you to the Gold Pyramid:

This figure demonstrates the amount of potential profitability of each method of gold making. We will be expanding on each section later in the guide, but for now, allow me to elaborate briefly:

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Dailies and Questing

Being at the bottom of the pyramid, questing and doing dailies is actually the least profitable way to earn gold in WoW. For this reason, it is somewhat laughable that this is the recommended method of earning gold by many gold guides. Do you really need to buy a guide to tell you to go do dailies in game?

Gathering

Gatherers is an usual thing. During mid-expansion cycles, it is pretty worthless in my opinion. However, it really shines for a short period with the release of each new expansion.

While it provides more gold than dailies, and usually experiences less competition, you can certainly earn more via farming, professions, and buying and selling on the auction house.

Gatherers need epic mounts and need to actually have mining or herbalism leveled up to actually make gold. Very few professional "gold-farmers" are gatherers due to this pre-requisite, and those that are usually do not have epic flyers. Skinning is more popular among farmers due to the ease of leveling it and the lack of a mount requirement.

With a good travel route, Gathering is more profitable than dailies and on occasion, a server may experience a time where gathering is more profitable.

Farming

Next up on the list is farming. Farming generally involves repeatedly killing some a high-value target in order to get a crafting reagents, gold drops, random BoE rares and epics, cloth, and other such valuables. Many players mistakenly think that farming is less profitable than dailies. See the farming section for farming ideas that are sure to out-pace the amount of gold earned by questing.

Professions

Jewelcrafters, Alchemists, Blacksmiths, and the like are the crafters of World of Warcraft. Think of them as the professional caste of World of Warcraft; people who use professions to make gold are akin to Lawyers, Doctors, Accountants in the real world.

The difference is that many players have professions leveled up, but most neglect to make money from them. It can often be hard to pinpoint which recipes are profitable due to intense competition.

In the professions guide, we will be revealing some easy gold-making methods so you can earn a few hundred gold per day in just a few minutes via crafting. At some point, you will want to take up a craft.

Playing the Auction House

Playing the Auction House involves buying and re-selling items on the auction house for a higher price. There are a lot of different tactics for earning gold this way, but they all have the same thing in common: this is the most difficult and most profitable means for earning gold in WoW.

Unlike everything else in World of Warcraft (which involves pointing and clicking), you do have to use your brain to make money by playing the auction house. However, if you are the type of player that wants to make thousands of gold per day instead of just a few hundred, this is the route we recommend.

Now that we have covered the basics, we will cover each gold-making method in detail so you have plenty of options when to get gold. You can pick and choose based on your server's economy, your playstyle, your level, and your playtime.

---> Next: Why Dailies Are A Waste of Time 

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