Making gold - With a Guarantee

There are low risk professions that will enable you to make gold. Skinning, Herbalism, Mining, Fishing.



Your risk comes from a few sources:

• You will be competing with bots.  Bots exist, and it is suspected that Blizzard doesn't ask, doesn't tell.  
• Gathering is traditionally low gold/hour compared to other skills.
• Skinning, Herbalism, Mining are not traditional raiding skills, as they do not provide the best bonuses.
• The may be an oversupply of fish to as guilds attempt to obtain the guild reward of  Seafood Magnifique Feast (10,000 pool fish caught). 

Gathering skills advantages

• At the start of the expansion, there will be a huge demand for toons to get 525 skill needing large amounts of raw mats.
• Mining provides a Stamina boost.
• Skinning provides a Crit boost
• Herbalism not only provides a personal heal, but now also provides a haste boost.
• You and your party get XP when you gather a herb or mine a node (but not from skinning).  At low levels at least, it is about twice the XP from killing a mob when you have a rested bonus.
• All toons can take fishing.
• Fishermen will have an advantage to get into some guilds.
• The fishing daily traditionally has the most lucrative reward of all the dailies in the form of vendor trash.
• Guilds to trying to get the 'Master Crafter' achievement with the reward of a Cloak of Coordination continue to maintain demand.
• Can generally be combined with daily quests to provide additional income.
• No significant financial expenses (a few copper for a skinning knife or pick axe don't matter, or a bit more for ongoing training)

I recommend http://www.elsanglin.com/ for advice on fishing.
Skinning happens.  If you find yourself wanting a quick skill up, look for Hemet Nesingwary in Nagrand or Sholozar Basin, or Hemet Nesingwary Jnr in Stranglethorn vale.
Mining and Herbalism are worth looking at a guide for if you are struggling.

You will want a skill of about 5* your current level between toon levels 1-60, 375 at lvl 70, and 450 at level 80, and it maxes out at 525 at lvl 85.

This post is part of a series, where I talk about what professions you should take.

PS.  This post has been re-entered as it was meant to appear after the 'setup' post, and some readers will have missed it due to the joys of blogger.