an apology...

Gah, this is seems to be one of those stop start blogs that we’ve all come to hate.

The reason for my slack approach to blogging is that real life is more pressing atm. As much as I’d love to spend all my life playing wow, real life is much more important.

I’ve managed to level my inscriber to level 50 which has opened up North rend herbs which have been holding up about 6 tabs of guild bank space…

I’ve also...

Started to work on some of my babies, and all bar 2 are level 30 or more…

A feeling that my main competitor has become gold capped, either that or he’s swapped chars as I’ve not seen him in the market for a while, which is nice of him.

Got into a guild with my main, and although I’m not raiding it is a lot more social than having a one toon guild bank and as it’s level 16 I’m using it to power level my crafters.

I’m still involved with TSM but no the initial rush of people wanting to know how to set it up has died down it’s enabled me to start playing with it more an looking at some of the nicer functions that Sapu hadn’t included in the original.

however... I noticed today though that it got a plug on WOW insider... so i'd expect that there'll be more traffic through the IRC soon...

http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/03/03/gold-capped-tradeskillmaster-basic-guide/

For an intro it's not a bad... but Zoxy's still more comprehensive...

http://tradingwithzoxy.com/2011/01/tradeskillmaster-addon-guide-2/

I spent about an hour resetting my glyphs into separate groups for each one which will make give me finer control over the whole posting process…

I’ve got a great little add-on called market watcher, which graphs the cost of products over time, much like you’d see in a newspaper… it does make interesting watching things like neatherweave bags and seeing when the best time to post/buy also elementium ore on my server’s been very predictable up and down which may be useful to exploit…

Right off to uni…

Have fun making money…

Running Wow as a business part 2

first of all ding 85 on my main whoot!

Know your strengths, know your weaknesses

The second part of the list asks you to examine yourself.

Do you have any weaknesses, any gaps in your master plan?

If you do how do you plan to fill that void?

Do you actually even need to fill it?

If it is a case of ah pvp, do you enjoy it or hate it?

For me, I hate it, the answer is to find a niche market, let the gyphs (in this case) cool down a little and maybe return later. Unless I find that there is something more profitable.

At the moment I am getting a shed load of cash from simply questing and mining along the route but not going outta my way to mine the mats. Unlike many people I enjoy farming, i find it therapeutic to just unwind listen to some tunes and point and click my way through the game...

... that and pets ;-)

How I make money in Wow

The beauty of a game like World of Warcraft is that there are more ways to make money than there are ways to have your eggs in the morning. I have changed the ways I have made money more times than I care to imagine but it largely boils down to what I am doing at the time with my toons and what my goals and objectives are.

I don't want to talk about what products have made my money as a) it's different for every server b) it's done to death and better by other people. Instead I want to talk about the person behind the toon. A little self indulgent I know and I'm sorry, But I want to talk about me!

What I find the best way to make money is to have a clear objective in mind. If you don't have any objectives or goals then the desire to make the money will disappear, if that happens then it may be best to take a break and re-evaluate your position.

It is also important to know your market. The internet is such a vast resource that there is a massive amount of information about how to make money in wow (You're reading this aren’t you?). By using the experience in the forums it will give you the edge over someone who doesn't or at least level the playing field with someone who does.



Finally know your addons.

Which ever way you look at the money game, (and how you measure your wealth) if you know fully what your add-ons do and don't do you can either save yourself a huge amount of time or make yourself time in order to make more money.

It took me ages to find the searches in auctioneer!

There are some truly amazing addons and guides in the ether. Currently I use APM, auctioneer, Lil's Sparky and skillet. When farming I use gatherer and routes... to name but a few. Each of these addon's is a post in itself. So for now, I'll sign off and let you get on with making money.

Check out the other submissions for the JMTC Wow Gold Blog Carnival!

Dools

Running WOW as a business

It takes a certain type of person to make money in WOW, just as in the real world it takes a certain type of person to make a business work.

I have worked in the banking industry for a number of years and as a result have experience of a multitude of businesses, from the very successful to the not so, from companies that had been going for hundreds of years to ones that had only been running for a few days.

The ones that were successful all had some key qualities in common, and these qualities are all as applicable to wow as they are in the real world.

1. Know your goals
2. Know your strengths and weaknesses
3. Know your market and product
4. Be quick to adapt
5. Welcome competition
6. Customer service
7. Use available resources efficiently
8. Know your value.
9. Be close to your organisation
10. Streamline your market.
11. Have a USP

Each one of these points are probably a blog or at least half a blog in their own right. What I will do over the next few blogs is cover each in turn, and how it applies to the game we all know and love!

To start off though I will look at my first point.

Have Clear Goals

If you don't know why you're making the money the appeal of spending time making the money will quickly fade. In some circumstances purely the idea of becoming Gold capped will be enough to keep you going.

For myself, however, I don't see the point of becoming Gold capped and having a toon running around in his underpants where as he could be riding around in some of the best kit in the game atop either his Mammoth or flying around as a Dragon.

The reason I left wow was due to the fact I got bored of dalies, I got bored of the monotony of doing the same thing over and over and over again. I got bored, I didn't have goals I quit.

In an environment where what you are collecting has no value outside of the game (I can't use my Gold to buy a house after all!) you need to establish WHY you're doing what you're doing.

There is nothing to say that over time your goals won't or can't change, but it is important to have a goal, something to aim for, or you may become dillusioned with the game.

For me as I have suggested earlier it is to have the mammoth, viel of sands and some great kit, and be in a postion where I could do the same for my guild, I already fund all their repairs and buy their first mounts for them, should they want me too!

New beginnings

Ok, SO I know there are about a million other blogs out there all talking about the same thing...

Wow Gold.

I know that there needs to be something that makes this blog stand out and above others of it's ilk.

I don't have the experience of Marko, or BigJimm. I don't have the technical expertise of those over at Wow-Insider.

However what I do have is probably more mistakes than anyone, and I continue to make them on my slow climb to increasing my riches.

What I'm going to try and document is these mistakes and how I overcame them or whether or not I just chinned it and moved on in a vain hope to never make the same mistake again.

I'll also try and post what works for me, all servers are different though so what may work for me might not work for my readers and what works for my readers may not work for me.

I guess what I should do is talk a little about myself first.

I've been playing WOW off and on for the last 4 years, however I believe now I may be back for the foreseeable future as I have aims and objectives.

I aim to have multiprofeesions maxed out, currently only mining is maxed with Jewel crafting close behind. I'm leveling several alts which is probably where the most of my cash is currently going. I view it as investing in the future and being able to quickly switch markets should the one I'm currently in be too competitive!

In the real world I've recently got married and am expecting my first child next summer. I work for a multi national bank until Friday and after that I'm returning back to university to study to be a teacher.

In my next post I'll start to talk about where the characters are, and how I go about making my money in game.

But for now, thanks for reading and I hope this is a journey I will not be travelling on my own!