JMTC Carnival: How would you make Gold if you had limited play time?

This post is written in contribution to Just My Two Copper's Gold Making Blogging Carnival. Hosted by Markco and Mageshadow over at Just My Two Copper. Check them out daily for gold making tips.

My 3 Top Ways to Make Gold In Cataclysm

What a very appropriate question. Especially for me. As you may have noticed, I haven't had as much time to post here. This defiantly correlates to the game as well. My play time has been shortened so my daily routine has had to be shortened as well. Here are three things you can do to insure that no matter how little your play time is, you can continue to bring in a continuous stream of gold.

1. Use your Cool Downs!
Most crafting professions have a special Cool Down that can be used. Alchemy is a great example of this. Every 20 hours you can use a transmute such as True Gold. These are things that are time sensitive and usually take a few seconds to do. Also included here are simple daily quests. Look at the Cooking or Jewelcrafting Quests. You can only get one token a day for recipes, so make sure you're taking advantage of those.

2. Repost your goods!
Don't ever leave goods in your mailbox or bank that have expired. If the market can support the items, make sure you're reposting them! It's a pretty straight forward concept. If your items aren't listed, they cannot sale. The Auction House works for you when you cannot, so make sure you're keeping your auctions re-posted properly!

3. Snatch!
Whether you use Auctioneer, Auctionator, or a spreadsheet, make sure you're always checking popular goods for great deals. To use a phrase from Mike Wolf of American Pickers (Great show!) I don't know about every market, but I know enough to be dangerous! You can do the same thing! Know your main market or markets, but do enough research about other markets so you can spot a good deal when they make themselves available. I don't have a leatherworker, but I can pick up leatherworking items when I know it's a good deal. I no longer have a tailor, but I know enough to pick up under-priced spellthreads. It's simple things like those that add up. It's not going to make you rich overnight, but it will add to your overall income over time.

So that's what I do guys. Of course I craft when I can, but those are three things I never miss when my play time is limited. They are three of the biggest keys to success when it comes to budgeting your playtime.

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Renewed Passion and a New Posting Schedule!

I wanted to put out an update. It's kind of a two-parter. The first part is about what's been going on in my life. The second part is about the new posting schedule. I know a lot of you still read this site, listen to Auction House Junkies and are active in this community because of the content I put out here. I know the content updates have been lacking as of recently. I wanted to shed some light on that, and let you know how I plan to fix it!

To start, work has been hectic at very best. In my line of work, this is the busiest time of year. Work hours have been elongated and I'm working straight bells pretty much (12 hour days). It makes for a lot of stress, and dealing with the same 7 people day in and day out in a confined space doesn't make things easier. To top things off we are well behind on our sales budget for the month, and it makes it a difficult situation to walk into. It is really draining on all aspects of my life. It seems now I pretty much go to work, come home go to bed and repeat. However I'm making a promise to break that cycle. I have big plans for this site and the Gold Blogging community and I want to deliver on those.

So to re-dedicate myself and enforce some kind of accountability I'm releasing a new posting schedule. I was getting close to posting daily, but I've gotten to the point where I know that isn't possible with the hours. However, I feel I can sit down and knock out some good content over the week so I want to bring you a few less, but really good quality posts.

New Schedule:
Tuesday
Thursday
Sunday

I may throw in some more when I get the opportunity, but look for those to be guaranteed, as well as new Episodes of Auction House Junkies coming out on a Bi-Weekly basis.

I want to deliver the very best content possible. I also want to apologize to other gold bloggers for not have the opportunity to sit down and get into your blogs either. I check daily with my phone but it's just not the same. PLEASE! If you have a great article send me a link, leave a comment or tweet me. I want to be interactive with everyone.

Once again, I want to thank all of you. You're the very best audience anyone could ask for and I very much appreciate you folks giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts. So be on the look out for more content!

All the best!
Wes

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Auction House Junkies Episode 2 is Live!

So soon? Yes! Episode number two of Auction House Junkies is live! Auction House Junkies is a Gold Making Podcast brought to you by myself and Cold of Cold's Gold Factory Head on over to the website and check out episode number two, or check us out via ITunes of Zune Marketplace.

This week features:
Hotfixies
The Obsidium Ore Shuffle
Hagor
And a special giveaway!

Go now!

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And the Winner Is!

Time sure does fly! The first every contest here at Capped By Cata has come and gone! For my first contest, all you had to do was follow me on twitter, and re-tweet a link to the contest. A lot of you entered, and I thank you very much. Now on to the winner!

Winner was chosen at random from the list of twitter followers who entered. The chosen winner is XanderEragon Congrats! I'll be sending a twitter message your way to collect your contact information and get the card out your way shortly!

I hope everyone enjoyed the contest, and more contests are coming very soon. So be on the look out for that!

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Last Chance for 60 Day Time Card Giveaway!

Just wanted to touch base with everyone again. More content is coming next week. I just wanted to remind everyone that today is the last chance to be entered into the 60 Day Timecard giveaway!

You can find all the details on the original post by clicking the time card on the right side, or by clicking here: 60 Day Timecard Giveaway!

Rules and details can be found on that post. Good luck! Winner will be announced tomorrow!

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I'm still alive!

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up why my content stream has slowed. Work has been extended for me, so I'm working lots of 12 hour days. The money is good, but it's hard to have time to sit down and write. Let alone play WoW at all. I haven't even been able to log in in three days. But alas, I'm still alive!

I hope everyone is enjoying the first Episode of Auction House Junkies brought to you by myself, Cold from Cold's Gold Factory and Hagor da Goblin. More episodes will be coming out in short order.

I'm also working on getting everything accessible via Itunes, however I'm currently waiting on them. The feed has been submitted, but not approved. So it's out of my control. Sorry :( I'm also going to be working on making the show available via the Zune market place for you user who are still in the dark ear :P I joke ;)

More content will come soon! Don't forget to sign up for the 60 Day time Card giveaway either. Drawing will be Sunday! Get entered!

Oh, and I hope you all are looking forward as much as I am to the game Sunday. The road to the super bowl goes through Pittsburgh. Black and Yellow :D

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Auction House Junkies Goes Live!

You've seen it on Twitter. You've seen it in the Blogosphere. The secret is out! Auction House Junkies is live!

Auction House Junkies is a new Gold Making Podcast brought to you by myself and Cold of Cold's Gold Factory. Take a listen and let us know what you think. This is the first episode, so we apologize up front if its not the best. But it can only get better as we continue to grow.

Hope you enjoy it!

Listen to Auction House Junkies!

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Guest Post: Hagor da Goblin

Received this in my E-mail today. I thought it was urgent so I had to share it with you all.


It looks like Hagor is up to no good.

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Chaos Orbs and the Crafters Who Have Them

One of the things I've ran into recently is that more and more Chaos Orbs are coming into the economy. In recent changes, you can only roll on an Orb if you have an acceptable profession, along with 425 in that skill. This means more and more players who have crafting abilities are actually ending up with the Orbs.

This lends its self to a great Gold Making opportunity. With more people having the Orbs, you have more leeway in the ability you have to negotiate. This can lend its self to some low priced Orbs. If you can find an item that requires the Chaos Orbs and has a low Material cost and a decent, none declining price point, you could land yourself a fantastic profit.

Do some market research. See which BoEs are selling well on your server. Find these materials sans the Orbs when they are cheap and wait to run into a desperate crafter. That shouldn't take very long. I see several competing to have their Orbs used every night in trade chat.

Now is the time to take advantage of this influx in Chaos Orbs and land yourself some tidy profits!

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I think I play on the dumbest server in WoW

A picture is worth a thousand words. However, in this case, a picture is worth my entire post.

Above is a screenshot of my Auction House as of 11:45PM. Yea, you did the math right. 181 stacks of Obsidium posted BELOW THE FLOOR COST. Not familiar with the Floor Cost of Obsidium? Read up on it over at Phase 3 Profit in a great article written by BigJimm How A 9 Gold Vendor Value Changes the Jewelcrafting Market

In short, at the very least a stack of Obsidium Ore is worth 54g. The average stack when prospected will yield 6 Uncommon Gems. When cut, these gems can be vendored for 54g. That means ANY obsidium ore posted under 54g should be bought and prospected.

The best part about all of this is I'm still prospecting, making jewelry, and DE'ing. Enchanting mats have not dropped in price and materials continue to fall.

I love it!

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Mobile Blogging and Open Ventrilo Server

Now that I'm back on the horse, I wanted to run a few things past you. During my brainstorming phase for the first of the year I've come up with a couple ways to continue to grow Capped By Cata. Some of these still remain a mystery, like the secret project I'm working on with Cold from Cold's Gold Factory how ever, some I'm not quite sure about and wanted to test the water.

Do you think either of these things would benefit you?

Mobile Blogging:
I'm really amazed at what the Android phone can do. Besides letting me control the AH on the go, I have complete access to posting content here. I'm thinking perhaps written content based on the daily trends, or maybe even branching out into audio or video content. Something similar to The Mana Cooler except more gold making related. Is this something you would enjoy?

Open Ventrilo Server:
This is another idea I've been kicking around. One of the things that are unique about the WoW Gold Making Blogosphere is that we all share a common goal, but outside of blogs, forums, and comment boxes we don't get to interact a lot. Also, a lot of Gold Aficionados are guildless. I was thinking about buying a small Ventrilo Server and opening it up to people who are interested in the Gold making community. This is probably something that would be done in conjunction with the Consortium and opening it up for interaction with the Wind Traders there.

So what do you think? Would you take advantage of any of these other outlets? Or would I be wasting my time. Any feedback helps!

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I'm sick :(

It's been two days since I've given you guys an update so I just wanted to post something. I'm a little under the weather today and get to work Open til Close today! Yay!

Anyway, worked a lot of hours on a big project yesterday that I'm sure all of you will be very happy about. So stay tuned for that.

Also, don't forget to enter the 60 Day Timecard Giveaway contest. Link is on the side of the page.

Have a good Friday!

Wes

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Response to Venture, LLT: Return on Investment

If you haven't checked out Gold Blogger Stede at Venture, LLT I highly recommend you do so. He is putting out some high quality content. From How To's to Gold Theory Crafting, the man is on his game. In a recent post Holidays are Over - an Update he mentioned the need for leveling alts. One of the things that can oft times lead to success (You like how I just threw "oft" in there like I usually use it in everyday conversation? Yea, I watched V for Vendetta the other day.) is diversification of income streams. Opening your self up to be able to work in more professions can many times lead to more lucrative returns. Here is what Stede was saying:

"Above all, I want no, I need to get into enchanting, which means leveling my DK through BC and Wrath content. As much as I've been talking about leveling alts lately, I've failed at it. By the time I get on, get mail, cancel, repost, craft, and post - somebody in the guild needs my help in a dungeon. It kills me that we spend 2.5-3 hours getting through a heroic. It's great learning, and I always know it will be faster next time, but that's a lot of time to sink into a 5-man dungeon."

This struck a chord with me because this is something I'm also struggling with. Right now my only Cataclysm ready professions are mining (no longer being used really) Jewelcrafting, and Enchanting. The rest of my professions are 450, but sitting on toons who are 65. I have a 65 hunter with 450 Alchemy and Enchanting. Like Stede, I very much want to level this toon up. However, I'm torn because I have a limited amount of time.

Currently my main routine is buy out all Obsidium Ore under 80g. Prospect it all. Cut Rare Gems and post. Post Nightsone and Zephyrite. Craft the rest into D/E fodder. I'm doing as much as 150 stacks of Ore a day. It makes GREAT money, however it takes a lot of time. The most time consuming part is the D/E'ing. Because each ring or neck piece has about 20 variations each, it makes making a macro nearly impossible. So I'm limited to clicking the item rather then spamming a macro. I know this sounds stupid, but clicking 500 different pieces to DE'ing makes things incredibly tedious.

So my question is, and I think this is something Stede can relate to:

Is slowing down or bringing your current gold making process to a stop to level an alt for another profession worth it?

This is where I would post the answer, but I don't know. I hear the phrase Return on Investment thrown around a lot in my real job, and I think this is something that can equate back very well to gold making. If I take this time I'm spending on my routine, and dump it into my alt is it going to bring me a larger profit margin in the long term? I don't know, maybe you can help.

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Theory on Staying Motivated

One of the things I struggle with the most as a Gold Maker is staying motivated. I'm sure a lot of folks went through this lull during the the overly drawn out Warth of the Lich King. However, even during the fresh new content that Cataclysm has sprinkled upon us, sometimes I still feel unmotivated. It may be something as little as not re-posting my auctions before I go to bed. Or not checking the Auction House to see if there are any good deals lurking.

So what do I do when I get the gold making blues? Start over! Well, not literally. However, what I've found myself doing is sending all of my gold to my guild bank and leaving 5k to play with. It actually turns out to be a lot of fun. If you have a six figure gold amount sitting in your bags, making 3 or 4k doesn't feel that great. However, if you remove all that gold and see that you've turned your 5k into 25k in just a few days, then it's fun again!

I guess it all goes back to setting goals. I've made my goal the new gold cap. Now that the economy has picked up I feel this is obtainable with the right amount of work.

What do you guys do? What do you do when you feel you've hit your gold making plateau? How do you switch things up to increase your gold making skills?

Let me know!

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60 Day World of Warcraft Time Card Giveaway!

Lot's of new things are happening this year at Capped By Cata. I figured I would kick things off with a bang and keep you guys warm by your LCD monitors this Winter. That's right, I'm giving a way a 60 Day US World Of Warcraft Time Card to one lucky reader!


How To Enter

1: Become a follower of CappedByCata on Twitter!

2: Tweet a link back to this page!

3: If you're already a follower, just tweet a link and send me a mention afterward!

That's it, you're in!




One Twitter Follower who tweets a link back to this page during the contest period will be drawn at random and be awarded a 60 Day US World of Warcraft Time Card. I will contact you by Twitter message if you are selected to obtain contact information to mail out the Time Card.

Contest runs from January 2, 2011 until 11:59PM January 22, 2011. Contest winner will be announced here on January 23, 2011.

Again, this is a US Timecard. Sorry EU readers. If anyone wants to educate me on how to obtain an EU Timecard here in the states, drop me and e-mail. I didn't know there was a difference until this morning.

Good luck, and have fun!

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