Are crafting professions really useless if you want to make fast World Of Warcraft gold? That's what I used to think, until I met this Old Bird.

He told me, "Once you hit Artisan, you can start making stuff which sell well at the AH. 'Sides, chicks dig crafters."

Here are the ranks for crafting professions for reference:

Apprentice - 5

Journeyman - 10

Expert - 20

Artisan - 35

So, anyway, what this Old Bird did was quest and grind up to level 40 with skinning and herbalism. He sold the leather, but stockpiled the herbs in the bank. Of course, he doesn't make gold as quickly as I do.

He said, "Big deal. At low levels in WoW, it doesn't matter. I don't need to make fast warcraft gold. I can make do with the surplus gear from the AH and quest rewards. Besides, I'm faster once I hit level 40."

He does his homework at thottbot.com, looking up the recipes and patterns listed there. He chooses the simple recipes which only need one or two resources - these can be used to level up quickly and efficiently. Then he goes to newbie areas like Elwynn Forest to gather low level stuff and quickly level up in both gathering professions. Nothing there which can hurt him, and it's a good way to make some WoW fast gold to fund his level 40 mount.

Want to make some fast, fast World Of Warcraft gold? Then use the Gatherer mod - every time you harvest something, it leaves an icon on both the mini-map and big map. This gives you a quick way of restocking your stores. Just kill the mobs, harvest the leather and herbs, go back to sell them. Use the mod to return to where you harvested the stuff - the mobs will be there again. Kill them again, rinse and repeat until you have the gold and other resources you need.

Once he hit level 40, he dropped skinning and picked up alchemy. Then he powered through to Artisan level, FAST. Now he just spends his time in the Auction House, buying cheap ingredients, crafting expensive items and selling them back to the AH to make even more gold.

"I don't grind until I hit level 30. Just go on quests and buy and sell limited supply recipes for a nice little bonus World Of Warcraft gold. Don't know why, but most players are too lazy to get the recipes themselves. So I just go to the vendor, buy the recipe for 20s, then auction the recipe - sometimes in the same city for 2 or 3 gold."

Here is a list of some vendors and recipes:

IRONFORGE - Soolie Berryfizz in Tinker Town, IF

Sells: Free Action Potion recipe

Purchase: 18s

AH price: 3-4g

IRONFORGE - Outfitter Eric

Sells: 5 different patterns

Purchase: 40-50s each

AH price: 2-3 gold each

WETLANDS - Wenna Silkbeard in Sundown Marsh, Wetlands

Sells: Green Leather Armor and Red Whelp Gloves patterns

Price: 20s

AH price: 1g

WETLANDS - Frad Swiftgear in Sundown Marsh, Wetlands

Sells: Minor Recombobulator schematic

Purchase: 15s

AH price 1-2g

Remember to post the recipes one by one, otherwise you'll only be competing with yourself and drive the prices down.

So, what have we learned? Earning fast World of Warcraft gold is NOT hard:

Levels 1-30: Go questing, and buy and sell recipes

Levels 30-40: Quest, Grind and Gather.

Levels 40 and above: Quest, Grind, Gather, Craft.