This site provides a lot of free tips on making gold in World of Warcraft.

But for some people this isn’t enough information.  I work a full-time job, and play WoW in my spare time…and I focus most of my WoW playing on learning gold-making techniques.

But honestly there are some folks out there who do this for a living, and they create some really fantastic guides.  They spend WAY more time on it than I do.  (I like to think of it as the fact that I have a life!) 

Anyway, for a while I’ve provided links to most of the major gold guides out there.  Some are better than others, but they all provide mostly the same information in the gold-guide itself.  (Several include other bonuses, like leveling guides, etc.)

But there’s one that members of MakeWoWGold (folks that subscribe to the newsletter) actually provide feedback to me about.  It’s the one by Luke Brown, “Gold Secrets“.

I’m not sure why they seem to like that one more than the rest, but Luke does seem to add a bunch of bonuses that no one else has, including a forum with folks sharing tips with each other.  And his product is guaranteed, which is really cool.

So, if you want to learn a ton about making gold, keep browsing this website.  If you want a separate guide with all kinds of printouts and bonuses, check out the Gold Secrets Guide.   Like I said, it’s the only one that I have heard great things about (even though it’s not mine!).

In case you missed the original video, I show how to use the addons to create the SHORTEST PATH between all known spawn points.

The original video was a bit grainy. I’ve used a better video capture program this time, and added a few steps that (hopefully) will answer many of the questions that I received about it.

Here’s the video.

Note: If you like it or find it useful, please consider Sharing this video via Digg, Twitter, etc. Let’s get the word out…people will thank you for sharing what is probably one of the most powerful gold-making strategies in the game.

It calculates cost of materials based on either Auction House or Vendor prices (or can pick the best of the two).  It adds up the cost of all the materials and then compares it to the Auction House sale value of the crafted item.  It flags items that can be crafted and sold for a profit.

Obviously this requires that you also have an auction house mod that captures average prices.  It can use the AH prices from Auctioneer, AuctionLite, AuctionMaster or Auctionator.  As long as you have one of those, it can correctly identify profitable recipes.

You can download the addon at curse.com: Lil Sparky’s Workshop

I’m feeling irritable because of all the ads I still see for selling WoW gold. I personally think it stinks. Maybe I’m selfish, but I think it devalues the game. I know it can cause inflation…in other words a weapon that would normally sell for 300g might now sell for 1000g because there are people that can easily get 1000g by ordering it. And it’s a little unfair that people who don’t have extra spending cash in Real Life aren’t on a level playing field with people who do…I mean, it’s a game. Your personal economics should be left at the login screen.

But here’s a practical thought.

If you really do have enough Real Life spending cash, why buy gold? It’s risking getting your account banned.

Besides, the professional guides that are for sale can be bought for LESS than the cost of 2000g…and between the tips on this site and those guides, you can learn how to make 2000g over and over again!

So, to my mind, it doesn’t make sense from a practical standpoint to buy gold.

The cheapest WoW gold you can get is the gold you make yourself!

If you must spend money to get gold, please consider one of the following before you actually pay for gold itself:

Ultimate World of Warcraft Guide

This guide is enormous.  It’s actually a combo pack of leveling guides, gold guides, class guides, and some useful other stuff like macros, loot lists, etc.  The members area is pretty cool, allowing interaction with other proficient gold-makers.  The guarantee is what really locks this up as a top guide.  (UPDATED for Wrath of the Lich King!)

World Of Warcraft Gold Secrets

One of the most thorough gold-guides out there. He provides lots of useful bonus products, a private forum, etc. He offers a very good guarantee, so it’s worth trying.  (UPDATED for Wrath of the Lich King!)

World Of Warcraft WoW Valkors Gold Making Guide

A large guide, updated regularly. Lots of lists, and a lot of emphasis on the Burning Crusade. (UPDATED for Wrath of the Lich King!)

Warcraft Riches

A new WoW Gold Guide! This guy has compiled a lot of the strategies from many of the other guides…also with a strong guarantee.

WoW Wealth

This is a relatively new one. There are two great things about this guide: 1) it’s the most current one on the market and 2) it comes with some really cool Video Tutorials.

I did check out some of the bigger guides out there and the Gold Secrets one has been updated for 2.4 already. (Luke has been busy on the test realm!) So you can check that out if you’re looking for a big package like that.

If you want to know which Daily Quests to do, Curse.com has a good summary of all the dailies and lets you know which ones to do for gold and which ones take more time. I’m not 100% sure I agree with the guide yet though…it estimates 20-30 minutes for a whole pile of dailies. I’m not sure that all of them are available on all servers yet, and I would think that it depends on the class on how fast you can kill things. In addition, personally I haven’t gotten the knack of the new bombing run yet, and I’m not able to get it done in just one run (maybe because so many people are doing them at once…I can’t manage to tag 3 Sorcerers on one run). If you have to do the bombing run more than once it becomes less efficient from a gold-per-hour standpoint.

Good luck with the patch, your addons, etc., and I’ll be in touch!

UPDATE:  The dailies are nice, but the gold-per-hour rate still doesn’t come close to other methods listed here and in the guides.  You might make 250g in 1.5 hours doing dailies, but methods like using Cartographer for a mining route is still better.  The dailies are more interesting than ‘grinding’, and they don’t depend on the AH market.  So I leave it to you to decide how fast you want to make it, and how interesting you want your farming experience.

The general concept is to provide one-stop for your server where you can post ads for your wares, search for buyers, search for sellers, etc. For example, if you’re an Alchemist, you might advertise that you’re looking for certain herbs on a consistent basis, and are willing to pay C.O.D. for them. That keeps you supplied, keeps your cost fixed, and avoids the Auction House and its fees.

It’s an interesting concept that I’ve heard discussed from several sources as being needed. Something beyond the Trade channel in-game.

It’s basically setup like a forum…you register, then you make posts in your Server (Realm) forum. And you can search easily, just like a normal forum.

It is in the early stages of release, so there’s not a lot of users yet. Hopefully readers here will go register there and increasing the user base…the more that use it, the more useful it becomes, but somebody has to be the first signups. Gold-making experts like you make the most sense!

Couple of other thoughts: It’s free. It’s got a built in feedback tool (called Karma), which acts like eBay feedback, which can help avoid scams and build reputation. But one of the things that I like is that by doing this you can advertise across factions…let someone on the Alliance side know what epic drop your Horde toon has, and double your potential customer base!

Go to http://www.WarcraftTrade.com to check it out and learn more about it.

You need a guide that will spell out every detail that will help you get to the max level the fastest, and cheapest as possible.

Penn’s Profession Leveling Guide is the most complete, detailed guide available. It spells out exactly what to do in what order, provides maps, etc. And it’s guaranteed to be updated for Wrath of the Lich King when it’s released.

World Of Warcraft Gold Secrets

One of the most thorough gold-guides out there. He provides lots of useful bonus products, a private forum, etc. He offers a very good guarantee, so it’s worth trying.

World Of Warcraft WoW Valkors Gold Making Guide

A large guide, updated regularly. Lots of lists, and a lot of emphasis on the Burning Crusade.

Warcraft Riches

A new WoW Gold Guide! This guy has compiled a lot of the strategies from many of the other guides…also with a strong guarantee.

Ultimate World of Warcraft Guide

One of the things that I don’t care for with this guide is that he has some exploits. Most of the ‘hacks/cheats/exploits’ that people advertise are old ones that won’t work, or can get you banned. In addition to the gold guide (which is really well done, with tons of interactive links), he offers a list of CURRENT exploits that work. Not my thing, but if you’re interested, check it out.

NEW:

WoW Wealth

This is a new one. There are two great things about this guide: 1) it’s the most current one on the market and 2) it comes with some really cool Video Tutorials.

To that end, I’ve compiled a list of resources devoted strictly to teaching you how to level your toons as quickly and efficiently as possible.

PLEASE NOTE: 2.3 changed the amount of experience awarded with questing to make leveling faster. This has impacted the leveling guides, but the Alliance guide is already updated with the new changes!

World Of Warcraft Brian Kopps 1-70 Alliance Guide

UPDATED FOR 2.3!! The Only Alliance Guide For Getting To 70 Fast With Interactive Coordinates! You actually download a mod to go with the guide that puts waypoints on your minimap. He tells you, for example, “go to 35, 78 to find the book”. That’s the kind of detail about the quests in this guide, and has 35,78 already plotted on your map. Very cool.

World Of Warcraft Joanas 1-70 Horde Guide

Joanas 1-70 Horde Power Leveling Guide For World Of Warcraft. This is the gold-standard guide, with very clear step-by-step instructions. No mindless killing/grinding, it uses quests to efficiently pass through the levels.

World Of Warcraft IDemises 1-70 Alliance Guide

This guide was actually put together by a TEAM of folks who are power-players. These guys are insane. They have a mod and some videos to help as well.