Farming gold in World of Warcraft is very simple and requires anything from a bit of effort to a lot of effort depending on how much gold you want to make and how fast you want to make it. Don’t bother buying it with how easy is to make it, so let’s get started on the top five ways to earn cash in WoW.

Basics                                                                                                                                            

Gold is simple to make. You obtain an item that someone else needs and they give you gold in exchange for that item. The goal is to find what people want to give you money for and obtaining a lot of it to sell. This can be done by farming, running quests, or other methods. However, there are a few basics you should understand beforehand.

If you’re going to sell anything on the Auction House then check out a good AH mod like Auctionator. If you can’t sell efficiently then you’ll feel frustrated as you work more than you have to sell everything in your inventory, doubling back to the search in order to price everything.

Remember to keep your inventory clean when you go out farming. You can waste a lot of time moving from your farming spot back to town in order to sell all of your loot. Our suggestion is to make an alt and stick it in front of the auction house. Then go to a nearby down and mail all of your loot to that alt so that you can simply just log out and move to that character in order to sell everything. This works really well when you’re in a farming area that doesn’t allow flying.

Be sure to keep your eyes on your bottom-line. If you’re spending more than you’re making to farm gold then you’re going to be driving the gold cart in reverse. The only exception is when you’re leveling a tradeskill up that will be making you more money than your initial investment. You have to think long-term as well.

#1 – Gathering Skills

It’s not a joke that gathering raw materials (Herbs, Ore, and Skins) is massive cash. You can make major bank by roaming around Kailmdor, Eastern Kingdoms, Outlands, and Northrend farming anything and everything you can. It requires a lot of elbow grease but is very rewarding and one of the best ways to turn your  time into gold. Just turn on some music and enjoy farming peacefully.

We have a big tip for you. If prices on high level materials are plummeting on your server then you should consider farming in lower level zones. On some servers you can see stacks of Sungrass move for 80 to 100 gold if there is any even on the auction house. Always keep in mind that lower level areas can be worth a lot more than higher level areas even if you can’t fly to farm.

#2– Eternal Fire Farming (or Instance/BG Farming)

Here is a simple tip that will result in a lot of gold in a short period of time (depending on Eternal Fire prices on your server). Eternal Fires are needed for many tradeskills and especially by Alchemists for their Cardinal Ruby transmute. One Scarlet Ruby and one Eternal Fire can be transmuted into a Cardinal Ruby once every 20 hours. So Eternal Fires are constantly being consumed and in demand. You can farm these from any fire like monster in Northrend.

[protip] We’ve found that farming at (84,70) in Wintergrasp (when your side holds is) is the best place to farm Eternal Fires. They have at least a 25% drop rate on Crystalized Fire (10 turns into 1 Eternal) so you’ll end up with about 8 Eternal Fires an hour. At 20 gold each that comes out to 180 gold an hour![/protip]

3.3.3 has changed the prices on Eternal Fires a bit, but that's alright, because you can now either farm them if they're doing very well on your server or if the prices are going down you can move to farming instances which might land you a Runed Orb (which can be turned into an Eternal ___) along with the gold and badges which can be turned into gems. Additionally, the random battleground tool allows you to easily queue up and hit the battlegrounds. 10,000 Honor will get you a primary color gem.

#3 – Daily Quests

The daily quests available at the Argent Tournament (northern part of Icecrown) can award a level 77 or higher player over 150 gold in less than 30 minutes a day. That’s a substantial amount for such little work, not to mention the extra bonuses you get like reputation, loot, titles, and achievements. There are many other daily quests in Icecrown that you can take on as well for more cash.

Looking at the grand scheme of things, we’ve found it’s best to stop farming here once you’ve gotten your Crusader title (about a month of playing) and all of the loot that you want. Why? Well, because you should be making a lot more money elsewhere. The tournament is a great place to fund your tradeskills and any other projects when you first hit 80, but you’ll find that the grind can get on your nerves after a month or two of farming. That’s not to say it isn’t lucrative, but it can become monotonous.

#4 – Professions

Many players will think that professions are a no brainer when it comes to earning money. I disagree though, many players don’t know how to earn money with their professions or which professions earn cash. For instance, Blacksmithing can’t produce anything that’s worth more than the materials that go into the item except belt buckles and even then… some servers have belt buckles worth less than the mats used to create them!

We’ve found two professions that really stand out when it comes to making cash. They are Jewelcrafting and Inscription,  both of which are newer professions, and both are very lucrative.

Jewelcrafting has two things working for it. First is the Jewelcrafting daily quest which results in a Dalaran Jewecrafter’s Token at the cost of two uncommon gems and a bit of footwork. The token can be turned into a Dragon’s Eye which can be sold or used to make Jewelcrafter only gems (saving you cash). Jewelcrafting also can produce a variety of gems that are easy to sell at the auction house. You can cut Cardinal Rubies bought with honor and turn a 170 gold gem into a 220 gold gem (depending on the server) not to mention selling your services off at a huge profit.

If you want better margins then there is Inscription. You have to be a bit more dedicated though because there is a lot of competition on most servers. However, most glyphs cost almost nothing to make and can sell upwards to 50 to 100 gold each, all pure profit. There is a lot of randomness in the market and a lot of competition, but those devoted to it can find a lot of easy profit to make.

#5 – Transmutations

5x Transmutations can earn you massive bank if you're lucky enough to get one.

Finally we come to the biggest money maker that requires the least amount of effort. Alchemists and Tailors can make special items that sell for bucketloads of cash. Alchemists can do a daily transmute with the most popular being the Cardinal Ruby which takes about 40 to 70 gold in materials and turns it into a 140-190 gold gem. That’s over 100 gold worth of profit per day! That’s even before we talk about Transmutation Mastery which could allow you to proc and create up to 5 gems a day. That’s a ton of free cash.

Tailors can make Ebonweave, Moonshroud, and Spellweave without a cooldown now. You can take a small bit of materials (Eternal Elements, Imbued Frostweave) and turn it into cloth that sells for over 100 gold each. Mastery into one type of cloth allows you to make two pieces of cloth instead of one, doubling your profits. Especially useful if cloth is holding high on your server but the mats aren't.

Small note, patch 3.3.3 has unbalanced the prices on gems a bit, but you can still make a profit and the market will always rebound.

Well I hope these tips help you earn the cash you desire. Be sure to join us on our forums to talk about how you make your gold.