I find it interesting that I get so many questions from low-level players that are trying to farm gold. Let me be perfectly clear for all of you players that don’t have a ton that is maxed out: LEVEL, don’t farm!

Now I know, when mounts finally become available to you, you want to get one right away. Some of you either stop leveling until you can afford your mount, or you start ‘farming’ a few levels before you are eligible. And who can blame you? Running is a PAIN!

But making gold at low levels isn’t that hard. There are really only 3 things you need to do:

1. LEVEL, and do it quickly! Leveling should be your number one focus. The higher level you are, the higher mobs you will fight. The higher level mobs, the more valuable the drops. Also, the more valuable the quest rewards will be. NOTE: pick up the “Sellfish” mod from curse.com, which will tell you how much each reward item is worth…that way if you can’t use any of the reward items, at least you will be picking the one with the highest vendor price.

2. DO NOT SPEND any money at the AH. You don’t need to. So what if you can upgrade your weapon or armor a little. In two levels you will have an upgrade through a quest anyway, most likely. Watch your copper, and the silver will take care of itself! You shouldn’t ever need to go to the AH to BUY anything!!

3. Take TWO GATHERING professions right away…Herbalism/Mining, Herbalism/Skinning, or Mining/Skinning. Level them as you go. Collect all the stuff you can and dump it on the AH (using Auctioneer to help you find the right sale price).

You will find that obeying those three simple rules will put you in the money!! You should have enough by the time you are eligible to buy a mount without having to ‘farm’.

Here are my stages to becoming a wow millionaire, hopefully you will be able to identify which stage you’re at and then figure out how to move on to the next one until you reach a million wow gold.

Stage 1: Vendor Discipline
Vendoring items suddenly is restricted to grays and all whites or greater get sold on the auction house. You find that you have enough money to pay for repairs while leveling and get your mount, skills, etc.

Stage 2: Bidding on the Auction House
You discover that selling the items you farm is not the only way to make gold on the auction house. By bidding on trade goods, especially old world mats which often lie under the radar of more experienced auctioneers, you find great deals and an awesome supplemental income to your leveling or farming endeavors.

Stage 3: You find farming spots that make the most gold
You wouldn’t think of this normally as a stage to getting good at the auction house, but it actually is! You have to search the auction house for the items that sell the best and then where to farm them, or you work backwards and find farming spots then look up how much they are worth. You also have to figure out the demand for the items farmed and several other factors.

Stage 4: Buying low and Selling Normal
You have auctioneer and you understand the basics of scanning, buying low, and selling normal. At this stage you start to take risks and move away from the comfort zone you created by farming and selling goods at the lowest possible price for quick cash.

Stage 5: Competition
You learn how to deal with your competition on the auction house, more specifically, you learn how little the competition should influence your markets. This stage is where most people get stuck, and they allow competition to determine their prices, thus limiting their sales and wasting a lot of time.

Stage 6: Market Focus
You start to focus on markets that really give the most bang for your buck, and you eventually develop a system of scanning, snatching, distributing to crafters, crafting, then selling.

Stage 7: Farmers
You find that just running snatch scans, even multiple times a day, does not provide you with enough materials to satisfy the hungry auction house’s demand for goods. By recruiting farmers, whether professional or just random acquaintances, you are able to finally get access to thousands of gold worth of materials each day.

Stage 8: Millionaire
You combine the lessons learned with even new and craftier ones which allow you to become a powerhouse seller who processes thousands of gold a day in the shortest amount of time possible. You are an expert auctioneer not because you spend hours of time, but because you found the fastest ways to make the most gold with the least cost to yourself.

What stage are you at?