Diversity

Diversity is important in WoW, in gold making, and in what you do in game. Without diversity a player becomes bored with the game. Run Violet Hold 20 times in a row and tell me that you're thrilled at the end (or start) of each one.

In the same token buyers will become "bored" with markets. They might be dying for 4 netherweave bags today, but you can't expect them to need another 4 day in and day out. And obviously the auction house in particular has tens if not more competitors in every market trying to lure your potential buyers away for something more interesting (see: cheaper).



Diversity is important in these last two weeks of the expansion, and should prove to be even more important as the next one gets underway. Cataclysm will bring a whole new wealth of buyers in every market, but it will also bring new competition. Players returning not only bring a need for glyphs, bags, gems, and scrolls, but also a fairly high capacity to produce these goods or the materials that supply them. To illustrate my concept of "abbreviated diversity", lets take a look at what I have available to me in terms of professions, and what I most commonly get out of them daily:

Inscription: 80-90 "core" glyphs, restocked daily. All other known glyphs sold once a day at fallback.
Enchanting: [Powerful Stats], [Exceptional Agility]
Blacksmithing: [Eternal Belt Buckle], [Titanium Rod]
Alchemy (x3): Transmute: Dreadstone
Jewelcrafting: [Solid Sky Sapphire]
Tailoring: [Netherweave Bag], [Frostweave Bag]

What's the lesson learned here? Firstly, I'm taking advantage of probably 5% of my available markets in each profession, let that be no doubt. The point I'm trying to make is that with very, very little investment within profession specific diversity, you can make a very good sum of gold by being diverse across professions. This is where my opinion may start to differ from others, but my thought is that it is better to sell 1 item across 5 professions, than sell 5 different items within 1 profession.

You'll notice that I don't sell nearly as many of every glyph as other scribes, I don't dabble in cards or offhands. I sell very few enchants (I sell more than I listed, those 2 I simply list daily), and I barely utilize my alchemists at all. Don't let me fool you, the drawbacks of limiting your depth in a profession will lower your gold potential per day.

However, there are many upsides to using this strategy. Firstly, and most importantly, I know these items will sell. I don't know that they will sell because of what items they are, I simply know these items to sell after a few months paying attention to what I was selling, and what I was never selling. Solid Sapphires for example, might be constantly undercut on your server and never turn you a profit. On mine however, they almost always sell and my return on investment is extremely high with limited cancels required.

Secondly, by selling such a limited but diverse amount of goods, I don't require a constant supply of different raw materials. With the exception of inscription, each of my crafts require no more than a minute or two investment per day (or a larger, bulk investment weekly depending on prices) and I'm ready to craft. I don't need to worry about finding a farmer, paying too much for raw materials, or worst of all, running out of stock. My profit is not as high as others with more depth, but my reliability is just as good.

Finally, this strategy allows you to focus on one or two key markets while barely even worrying about your profit margins in the other. For me, my big focus in terms of time and investment is Inscription. I'll regularly put down 2-3k a day in herbs and inks to keep my stock going, particularly if prices are good. I maintain spreadsheets and devote a modest amount of time out of game tracking my sales and results. By focusing on many "simpler" markets, I allow to get the most out of my one focused market without having to dedicate too much energy to gold making as a whole. Don't get me wrong - being lazy is never the right strategy to make gold, but it is nice to sit back and let the gold roll in certain days without needing to calculate the prices of frozen orbs and their effect on your markets!

Closing this post up - its my opinion that this strategy will continue to do me well into cataclysm. I will likely focus on glyphs, bags, and gems in the opening month as I try to ride the wave of fresh alts, fresh 85s, and new players returning to the game for an initial rush of gold in certain markets. But over the long haul, I think you'll see far better results in your time investment, if you spread it over as many professions as possible rather than getting every last copper out of only 1 or 2 of them.

That's my outlook on things, what's yours?