A Tribute to Streaming

Ah yes, podcasting, posting on Youtube, and streaming, three great passtimes in WoW.  Or are they?  Today I'm going to be doing more of an opinion piece about the latter.

Doing research about what others are doing out there to learn how to make the coin is in a word:  Disturbing.  Right now probably the saddest example from the depths of Hades that people are plunging to is to watch streaming content of live gold making.  This is going to be a very serious post here today so I'm going to dispense with the humor, it's a serious fault with the state of things today. 

I'm not picking on any one particular site here, I'm lumping you guys all into the same bad basket.  I'm not going to bother listing them either, if you believe it doesn't apply to you, then so be it, you know who you are.  I'm positive this will result in some hate mail.

How this works:

• Make an account on a streaming site, Twitch.tv is the most popular it would seem
• Sit for an hour or two and ask questions or just watch
• Click ads/watch ads/make donations

It doesn't matter which one you pick, they're going to all follow the same format:

• A host will generally have a camera shot embedded in the game screen
• People ask questions about what the guy's doing
• People show up to troll or ask bad questions
• The host explains what they're posting
• Generally the chat is more interesting than the topics discussed
• A brief explanation of how to set up addons again ensues
• The same tactics explained by virtually every gold blogger and website are rehashed for those that can't read

So why is this so bad?  Well, if you have thousands of people all doing the same exact thing, and you're teaching new people those exact same things, doesn't that mean eventually nobody wins?  It does, and here's why.

The most commonly explained techniques are:

• Transmog flipping
• Shuffling gems
• Posting glyphs 
• Posting enchanting materials
• Severe undercutting tactics - setting too large/too small an amount, adding people to friends lists so you can repost when they log, wall posting

Save for transmog, these are the most common markets that everyone is playing in, and it is usually always passed off as one size fits all.  This means people are being instructed to work the most competitive markets.  In order to be successful with these markets it requires mind numbingly boring camping practices, constant undercutting, and essentially you urge people to engage in a practice because you make 1k per hour, or 50-100k per week doing it.  You encourage the worst possible auctioneering habits known in the game besides not posting anything.

For me, this whole practice sounds insane and it's part of the reason I took to writing my blog, I'm trying to put the brains back into the business side of the game because somewhere along the way they were ripped out by the community.  It's become almost entirely talking monkey says, talking monkey sees, talking monkey does, talking monkey makes no gold.

I commonly pull mid six figures per week, and I sell gems on reset days by posting/restocking maybe 2-3 times during the evening over a 4 hour period spending about 5-10 minutes in front of the AH total excluding recutting.  I post glyphs once per day at the most.  I use the MoP/Cata/Wrath enchanting dusts I create because they are worth more in another form than they are by themselves.  My undercuts in these markets are an annoying 1 copper.  I hardly touch these markets because they account for maybe 2-5% of my weekly revenues and they are incredibly boring, and we're talking 300-500,000g per week in sales on my server.  While researching these streams, I was busy knocking out dungeons, in queue for LFRs, and doing a few dailies in between.  In between these things I check my banks to see how business is going, then get back to the game.  I'm in management, but you're being advised to be in labor.

People are looking to make tens of thousands per day, even get to a million inside of a week.  What are people going to gain by sitting there listening to these?  None of these guys are going to be able to tell you how to get to several hundred thousand a week in sales in a 30-60 minute stream, most have lots of gold but aren't volume sellers.  They normally won't answer the tougher questions because there is no quick buck answer.  And it's been my experience watching them that they cannot explain the rationale behind why they do what they do, or why they think what they think.  I've witnessed advice and claims being made that frankly have no basis in reality.  Just "do this because" but no "this is coming and it will change the way things work for the short/long term"

It's like watching a news commentary where it's mostly unsubstantiated and biased opinion and the host hasn't got a clue what they're talking about, and this is exactly the same case.  Do you hate Rush Limbaugh or Ed Schultz?  Same difference, they have something to peddle and it's to get as many viewers as possible that will subscribe to their basic interpretation of an issue, because it's good for ad revenue. These people read something somewhere and it's all they know.  They never were taught how to think, just how to do it.  They didn't develop anything, but they market it.  I'd look at them with the same authority as I would any actor on television or in the movies.

One of our friends put it eloquently, "I think the main problem is that if you tell someone something that MIGHT work, and it then fails, you've lost a viewer/reader/whatever.  So then the best thing to do if you're trying to up your audience is offer foolproof gold making, which is fairly bland and while it is profitable it won't be as profitable as someone who takes risks or thinks outside the box."*
*Faid - Clockwork Riot

I half expect these guys/gals to bust out in real estate flipping techniques one day.  True story, I have an in-law that decided they wanted to be a real estate investment promoter.  He wrote a guide, made some videos, and began speaking at hotels all over the place.  I asked the $1m question - How did he learn how to do all of this?  It turns out he bought someone else's guide from an infomercial on late night TV.  After being so successful and getting himself incredibly upside down in debt and cash flow, he found the real money was in selling this information to other people.  The results were pretty mediocre, he eventually declared bankruptcy, the wife left him, and today he's looking for his next big score.  The problem was he never developed the system to begin with, he took what he learned from someone else, but had never gone through years of the experiences, trials, and tribulations one gets from failing and finding little successes to refine their system.  He was more interested in scoring off the aspirations of others than anything.

If you're watching these purely for entertainment, be my guest, there's nothing exactly exciting about watching one person escalating themselves on their own pedestal.  I find them an absolute waste of time if you're serious about making gold in any game economy.  "I can watch Payton Manning on TV.  It doesn't make me a good quarterback.  To do that, I actually have to put on pads and walk out onto the field.  So if you want to learn how to think about making gold - you need to turn off the stream and start trying things out.  Streamers should know this.  They didn't learn about how to make gold from streams - they read forums, blog articles, and tried things out for themselves.  In lots of ways, they borrowed tons of ideas from the larger community to get where they are now - and now some refuse to actively participate in that larger community.  They know it, but they don't care - because the goal isn't so much to educate aspiring goblins - though it may be a very tepid, ancillary effect - as it is to be loved.  So, if you're thinking of donating to any of these guys, you'd be much more effective if you just sent them a teddy bear, instead."*
*Stede

It's true.  If you're going to be serious about making gold, you don't watch it on TV.  You get in the thick of it and make your own way.  You find out what works for you, and write your own book of business.  You think for yourself, and grow richer for it.

Of course, this is just my opinion on the matter, I've got mailboxes to empty.

Tip of the week:  Teach a man to make glyphs, and he'll become a camper.  Teach a man to think, and he'll be the one supplying the campers.

Thanks for stopping in!

Hey, the job's filled

Just a quick blurb regarding that Reddit soiree over the weekend with my name stamped on it.  I'm not a big Reddit reader, nor did I have an account there until about 20 minutes ago (same as my twitter account handle in case you're wondering), and apparently people have a lot of time on their hands, and not enough time to break out on their own.  Hey, it only took me 2 days to hear about it, that's how much people love and care.

I'm flattered that I have now inspired copycats, but this is just too much, gentle souls - you give me too much credit for giving a shit.  If you'll be so kind now as to take a number, I'll try to get to you in the next few years.  Thanks.

In the meantime, learn that it's not about the person, it's about the tactics.

Later this week tune in Zero Readers, I have a special review that you're sure to like.  Until then, I hope you're having a good week.

The Investment Mentality

Since I'm going to give some gold tips and tricks of my own here, I think it's important to know where I'm coming from.  My way isn't the best way of course, but it's built on years of in-game money/gold making.  But for my purposes, I don't believe you can lead a horse to water, you have to mold them to your way of thinking before you can make them drink.  Part of avoiding mediocrity is taking your mind to the next level of thought, and then making an effort to get to the next level after that, and constantly developing your thought process.  This is why the vast majority of the world is prevented from free thinking, because once you've seen where you've been, you don't want to go back to it.  Let's talk philosophy today.

This is something I reviewed with people about 2 years ago via the Consortium forums, but it's something anyone who is in business needs to be told or figure out for themselves.  I put this here because it's part of my approach to building a system and my approach to the game itself.

What you do on a daily basis in the AH is applying an age old thought process.  You buy things to resell, hopefully at a profit.  Many people only make gold to buy things they want or need, but many people like me make gold purely to make gold.  In the real world, industrialists and investors do this and people often question - when will it ever be enough?  In short, never.  Why would I want to go backwards?  Why would I want to stay the status quo?  Is being poorer fun?  It's part of our competitive nature.  Sure it's been lost in many areas of the world, but that's their loss.

Years ago when I was finishing college I was forced to take some liberal arts classes - obviously to kick some tuition over to them, and even though I was studying engineering and business.  But, one of the best classes I ever took was on the history of American manufacturing from Reconstruction to present.  The professor was a noted Andrew Carnegie biographer, and really conveyed the spirit of the robber baron.  Within the first weeks of the course, he tried to get us to understand their mentality, explaining that you have to understand that there's an Investment Mentality, otherwise everything he taught after that would make little sense.  After it was over, I found this to be the most important discussion, because you had to understand the frame of reference to understand their motivations.

What this means is that a person does not look at money the same as a consumer, they look at money as a means to make more of itself.  Consequently, they are most concerned with a return on an investment (ROI), not buying a new mansion, castle, or late model sport car.  In fact, most millionaires are notorious "tightwads", not because they don't believe in blowing money on themselves but because they would rather use the money to make more money.  This is actually how Carnegie got his start, he got into his railroad/steel empire by investing every spare dime he could (even borrowing), because he was introduced to compound interest and how to think long term from his first mentor at the railroad when he was just a lowly clerk.  He did it so well that after age 24 he never worked for another person the rest of his life.  Keep in mind he started penniless and a poor immigrant.

It's a fascinating association, because you begin to see how people tick.  You stop looking at it as a consumer wanting to just buy things.  The majority of people go to work daily because they have bills to pay, and their minds never extend beyond a cubicle or their next paycheck; but buying that fancy new gizmo on credit which they'll pay back later is a priority for them - simply to keep up with others.  Who has the investment mentality here?  Why, the company issuing credit of course.

You have to look at money as working for you, not you working for your money.  That means you aren't out there spending your time by the sweat of your brow, you're expending the energy of your brain.  Zig Ziglar mentioned it in one of his tapes I liked:  From the neck down you're worth minimum wage, from the neck up your value is infinite.

This concept applies to my version of the gold game.  I don't blow the gold on things I want because it's shiny and attracts attention, I look at the gold moreso as a way to make more of itself.  When I make a big purchase, it's usually because I have something else in mind to possibly make more.  The more I can keep invested wisely, the more of it I can make.  The microeconomy of a server is a fun mind game to me, far more interesting than any raid.

So what's this got to do with Warcraft?

Before MoP started, I had eliminated most all of my gold in game hoping to enjoy another title more.  That title didn't work out for me, so I came back to the game with about 80,000g to my name.  Now, I'm not exactly going to light any infernos with that amount, but I do have knowledge.  Since I have the knowledge I have the capacity to make enormous sums very quickly.  Additionally, I had the tenacity to do what it took to get to a point where I didn't have to bust tail anymore doing it.  In other words, I rebuilt my in-game system like I've done since implementing one in Vanilla and other games.  I went to seven figure again rather quickly, simply running a system of investing as much of my gold as possible, and not foolishly buying toys.

I prefer to reinvest my profits 100%, whenever I can.  It's important to me to be able to continue an uninterrupted supply of raw materials sourced at the lowest possible cost.  Later, when I go over spreadsheeting and its superiority to Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing, all of this may make more sense.

It's not important to worry about what you have in gold, liquidity is the enemy of growth because that's a dead asset.  It is potential growth, but you have to find those things to invest in that will make you a decent ROI.  More importantly, you should know your costs to as close to 100% vs. Market Value of the finished product so that you can compete against anyone.  Currently, according to my inventory, my net worth is now 64% raw materials, the remaining 36% is in liquid gold, and I'm liquid over seven figures.

Note:  You can determine the value of your raw materials quickly by keeping everything in a guild bank, and then using Sapu's macro.  I use this across several banks to help determine my net worth and total investments.

These raw materials have the potential to make 120-500% of their present value.  This is why my profits today are as close to my sales volume as I can get, I acquire everything I need daily, not when I need it, and whether I need the supply or not.  My costs are preserved, which guarantees my ROI.  It's also another reason I do not engage in speculative markets - which are those markets where the price fluctuates greatly or the value is depreciating rapidly (unless I have proven to myself that the product can be produced and delivered to an end consumer quickly, or the price is below a historic market price).  Depreciating assets are DMF cards, TCG mounts (these are commonly duped), and world/raid drop BOE.

Of course, material availability prevents me from ever hitting a 100% investment portfolio.  Once you get to a certain point, momentum will take over and you start seeing higher revenues as your stockpile begins to build.  For me the quest is to break the previous day's/week's record, and that's only done in one way: Investing the bankroll with little regard for my liquidity. In the real world, of course, this would be an insane model.  But we are dealing with a system that's removed regulation, taxation, theft/spoilage/catastrophe, payrolls, cost of living, and all those other fun things mandating we hold something back in reserve.

This also goes for your time investment.  What should you be doing to become more efficient?  Are you watching pointless videos about goldmaking?  Are you reading prime pieces of advice?  Are you leveling an alt to possibly open a new market for you?  Honestly, your choice determines your wealth.  It's funny to me so many people camp out at the auction house, when your best use of your time is to do that on your second account, while placing more producing alts in the pipeline.

So as I stated in last week's tip:  You make money when you buy, not when you sell.  The less you have invested in materials the less you will make consistently.  The more gold you have laying around the less you have in the market to make more.  There's no shame in having 10k available, if your banks are stuffed with everything under the sun and you're keeping up with posting daily.

Thanks for stopping in!

You know who's gold blog I miss?

Stokpile.

Yesterday I put together a little article about another site.  It's all in good fun and obviously people can take criticism.  Even my colleagues felt I was a bit rough, but it was amusing at best, cruel at worst.  (Thanks Faid)  I want to build it back up though and let you know what the community was always about, at least from my perspective and from many solid thinking individuals out there currently grinding out the wins.

Stok was really cool.  He was a musician by trade and someone you wouldn't expect to be a genius at business principles.  This is a guy who put a ton of work into writing lots of good quality content, and the thing that stood out about his blog over all the other train wrecks out there was his thought process and being completely original.

It was a rare, rare thing to see a "meh" post there.  Everytime he would publish something it would be useful information.  He collected gold for the sake of collecting gold, and then blew it for the sake of blowing it.  Sort of like a lottery winner going on a spending spree, except this lottery winner was able to make all of it back very quickly after pissing it all away.  Now that, ladies and gents, is a champion.

There are few gold makers and authors in WoW that are memorable who can do something nobody else does.  I've met some of the best and most have been around for a very long time.  We have Sterling, Elen, Z-Man, Stede, Sinshroud, and others.  Then we also have the purveyors of TSM, TUJ, and Wowuction.  I personally wouldn't put myself in that group, I'm just good at creating systems.

I'm still a fan of Gevlon, the original junk yard dog blogger, who's demeanor is very much like my own:

 

Gevlon though, was often found to make mistakes, and brag about things to the point he would often get called out for overstating the truth...  on his own blog.  Screenshots were memorable to say the least.  But let's get back to good gold blogging.

Stok was a master of time management, master of AH etiquette, and took no prisoners.  There wasn't any question when he set his sights on a market that he was going to dominate it.  He took the time to clarify his ideas and revisit them.  He would even help yours truly understand better what his idea was getting at.

Truth be told, I spent years working the Auction House prior to meeting his blog.  I had the core characteristics when I found it, and I walked away enhancing my own thought process.  He invented his own way, developed and discovered markets, experimented, and did what it took to be successful, and gave you the keys to compete with him directly.  Everything he did came from the fruits of his own research.  Simply an amazing individual.

Most important - he asked nothing more than for you to read and enjoy.  No ads.  No "buy my book".  No pyramid referral schemes.  No illegit tactics or underhanded techniques.  No hands out.

From 2009 to present day, blogs regarding gold have cropped up all over the place.  The vast majority are recycling content from others and proclaiming and presenting it as their own.  This is unfair to the people who spent the time developing these techniques and were good enough to share it for free.  Like they probably taught you in writing class - FOOTNOTE your sources.  Give credit to the people who developed the idea.  At least MENTION where you got the idea.  Taking another human being's work and presenting it as your own, whether in a game, at work, or to friends defeats the human spirit.  Doing it to profit, well, there's a reason professors are drummed out of universities when they do this same thing.

This is the standard by which your blog should aspire. Do it because you love to do it, and not because you see some pocket change to be made off a readership.  Take a few minutes, and go learn how it's done.

Start your hate machine!

Part of the offerings of my blog are Anti-Gold Blogging commentaries.   I believe these are the lowest form of the low, since they are 99% (/wink at Stede) purely to feed someone's ego (like mine!), proclaim their brilliance for copy pasting from others, and to bring in money from ad revenue and guides.  As a result they tend to be people that aren't interested in being part of a community, but dominating and leading their own community of worshipers and "friends" while promoting other people's ideas as their own.

I'm positive this will earn me LOTS of hate mail/comments so make my dreams come true, internets!  I run purely on tears and the gas tank is empty.  I'll give a brief run-down of why I dislike them, and some positive suggestions.  Hell, it's even some free advertising for their site and all in good fun!

Picking the first one to review wasn't hard, the majority of us in the elite side of the gold making community voted this one up for review immediately.  Let's all give a big hand to the first in what I hope will be an endless supply of material...



Power Word: Gold  (Part 1 of 10)

Site Location: http://www.powerwordgold.net/
Site Author:  Jim

Site offerings: 

* Streams that I would use to put my 6 month old to sleep with, if I had a 6 month old.
* Live gold making action! Ok, the only action is Jim sipping from his drink
* Droning on about flipping pre-Cata greens and setting up TSM
* A gold making guide - with a Power Word: Price Tag that you select
* Niche marketing - something I only do when I'm not making 100k a day in common markets
* Exploiting various game mechanics for profit before they get removed/nerfed.
* A Just My Two Copper experience - complete with monetization on every spare piece of real estate on the site
* In depth discussion of flipping - buying something from someone that's underpriced to repost at a better price

Power Word: Gold is a site dedicated to live streaming, money donations, ad revenue, ware hocking, setting up TSM for people that can't find their way to The Consortium to read the dozens of threads dedicated to the issue (and answered by the addon's authors), overpricing transmogs and flipping gear for those leveling (to insure the price stays further out of reach).

I was going to stream this while I typed it up and have lots of shots of my dog (who I would interview and ask advice of), and then litter my blog with ads everywhere because I'm fairly certain that people watching the streams on that site would probably enjoy watching it, but then they would ask me how to set up TSM and I would have an aneurism.  Or I would get flamed for copying that site's theme.


Why I Loathe it and You Should Too!

The site is 100% offering nothing new but streams of one person playing and farming.  It offers a gold guide, which is updated and whatnot, but as everyone knows buying a gold guide is about as smart as lighting your wallet on fire.  Having ads all over the site and asking for more money is double dipping, something Blizzard already does.

There are people actually watching the streams that aren't laughing at it.  As boring and dry as they are, I would say a "best of" stream would be the way to go here.  Brevity is the soul of wit; 3 hour streams, or watching them, is the soul of someone who needs something else to do.


Let me refer you to a post that made me cringe.  January 12, 2013 - Jim's Fabulous Sparkle Pony!  (Probably purchased with fabulous guide purchases or live consulting dollars).  The Cynical Brit referred to this as "That Retarded Horse (TRH)" when it was first released and it's perfect for those people who enjoy shoveling extra money to Blizzard only to be laughed at in game, BGs, instances, and raids.  I was going to sit through that stream to find out why it was so fabulous, but I'm not sitting through 3 hours of streaming to find out.  I have gold to make.

I caught one comment made in a stream where Jim mentioned his intentions of streaming his leveling experience on alts.  I just have to question, are people out there this lonely?  Pathetic?  Narcissistic?

I know lots of you like this place, but when a person comes out and promotes the exploits in the game, and spreads them around, doesn't that make you the least bit upset?  The difference between this guy and the person that runs Ownedcore is....?  Waiting for your response here.  Answer:  Ownedcore makes more in ad revenue and donations.

Some people I come across like the guy, and say he's a nice person.  But he's also exploiting the hell out of the least common denominator (like a boss).  The man's a phony.  He proclaims the ideals of capitalism and exploits the shortcoming of others but is ashamed to be decent at making gold and brags about being richer than others.  In that post he ridicules others who are not as fortunate.  I guess just like real life (which this is), it's good to bullshit your target audience to get what you want.  As long as everyone perceives you to be on the side of good, it's ok, right?

You can't have it both ways.  Either stick to your ideology and give that gold to others wanting something off the BMAH or quit making gold in the game since being in the "wealthy" class makes you sick.  I was repulsed when I read that entry, only to be met with an ad at the end.  And at least I profess I'm out to make as much gold off people as possible, and I don't feel badly for the people who won't help themselves.

Let me clue you in people, there's absolutely nothing innovative going on at this site and it's one-size-fits-all approach.  It's merely copy pasted content from other sites, served up with a revenue stream for the author.

What needs changed

I'd immediately remove the live streams or put some editing in there.  Podcasts are more interesting because they keep the attention of someone for 1-2 minutes, then you're done.  More of these.  This streaming works for internet gods like Athene who proclaims to be better than everyone, but it's at least an act.

The monetizing makes me think Markco wasn't so bad.  Just the first page pukes up ad upon ad, including gifts and souvenirs.  I don't think Mr. Younkin's left anything to chance here.  Overpriced hourly consulting is even here.

Post material worth watching, not just watching you farm and use the auction house.  I'm fairly certain if I put a live stream together of me brushing my teeth in the morning I would probably attract the same audience.

Remove the guide.  This makes you look cheap and like a beggar.  Actually, everything you do on the site is begging.  Make that guide a feature of the site.

Introduce material that you've come up with.  Most everything here is explained in other blogs with nothing being original.

Talk about yourself in the first person.  I know your cat is probably your financial advisor but there's no reason to channel Mr. Rogers and call yourself "we".  This is absolutely creepy.

This is an example of a site that demonstrates what happens when you replace your life with a game and a camera.

Good points

I guess he serves a market of people who are incapable of spending 20-30 minutes reading in-depth guides on a site like The Consortium, or hell even at MMO-Champion.  The problem with following these blogs like these is that they are all doing the exact same things and take content from major sites and make it their own.  There's no creativity, ingenuity, or inside information.  In the end this merely fills one person's pockets, and fuels the myth that all gold grinders are merely in it for the cash or to sell gold.

I'm sure he's raised some bads in the streams that I've destroyed when they entered the AH.

Do you like this?

I encourage you to tell me I'm full of shit and why.

Thanks for stopping in!


This week's tip: Dailies aren't required, but damn do they pay off for alts!

Been a relatively interesting month:

Greetings from Central Command

Welcome to Zerohour's Nameless Blog.

Hosted by the King of the Most Hated Wind Traders of The Consortium.  Go hard or go home.

Yeah, I'm the bad boy of the crown jewel of WoW gold making websites - The Consortium.  I'm the guy everyone can count on to call a person out and be very blunt.  Even the other Wind Traders wonder how I can be so cruel to apps, so remorseless to stupid questions, and still be one of the few still grinding gold in this game after 7 years when everything is already known. Of course, not everything is known, except by a select few of us that dedicate way too much brain power to acquiring virtual wealth.


I play WoW almost entirely for it's economy.  I do the same thing with all other games I play, all the way back to my Monopoly days when I could be counted on to bankrupt my own parents, siblings, and friends.  The point of any game economic mechanic is to figure it out, then exploit it to the best of your ability, without little regard to what others think of you as a player or a person.  I personally believe I am one of the best at making systems, and even better at refining them.  I bring the characteristics needed to be successful, which are patience, creativity, and most of all consistency.  Lazy people need not apply.

My attitude is pretty simple.  If you can't keep up with the herd, you're gonna get eaten.  Therefore it's better to lead the herd or at least be plotting the death of the leader.

So with all this being said in my introduction, let's get down to business.

I don't like:

* People that are lazy about things - either do it or don't, stop complaining
* Non-hackers.  These are people that won't get off their ass or postpone things
* Beggars in disguise.  These are people usually hocking a poorly written guide for money
* Impatient people.  The best things in life take time, even in video games
* "Just a game" people - If you're investing your time doing anything, do it the best you can
* One Trick Ponies - Those that only know one way to make a profit and if their market changes they give up or go away

If you're going to make a comment on posts, remember to be coherent, witty, or at least somewhat interesting.  I'm choosing to moderate posts.

We're going to be discussing in this blog from time to time the antics and idiocy we commonly see in the game, especially among the WoW gold blogosphere.  We are no-holds-barred here, I don't care about your e-rep or mine, if you are in a World #1 or just a casual that logs in on the weekends.  I will treat you with equal disdain and intolerance!  =)  Sure I'll probably piss off some people along the way, but who cares, it's just a game, right?

A quick bit about my playstyle - I have had 8 x 90s since early November, and currently have another 10 at 85-89 spread all over the largest servers in the US Realms.  I am a gold millionaire and have spent and made it all back twice, most recently in MoP when I started the expansion at about 80,000g and took it back over 7 figures quickly on one of the largest and most competitive servers in the world.  I am a profession baron, meaning I have every profession, every recipe, and utilize all of them daily. I don't camp, bot glyphs/gems, deal in DMF trinkets, or flip TCG mounts.  I do not raid hardcore anymore, and I derive my happiness in the game grinding alts through dailies and LFR.  I spend roughly 1-2 hours a day performing AH duties, and I am not a habitual cancel/reposter. 

Here's a typical week anymore around Zerohour's industrial complex (as of Jan 17, 2013):

In a typical day I see about mid-5 figures and lots of 6-figure days, just doing my standard grind.  My long departed hero, Stokpile, was a big stockpiler, and so am I.  According to my gbanks I presently have about 893,000g in materials awaiting processing.  I heavily use addons to control this empire, and since I've been doing it for so long I have a routine that allows me lots of time to do anything I want.  I use proprietary materials that aid me in developing every market, which means you can't just download them, you have to make them yourselves.

I'm going to offer some tips from time to time, and anyone that knows me knows that Zerohour's tips are generally rather solid.  I'll be adding lots of different features that will benefit all of us in the end, too.

Several other Wind Traders have also opted to contribute to this blog, and their names you will instantly recognize if you are a regular of the gold making universe.  I'm putting content in the queue as you read this, which will post from time to time, and as I get the kinks smoothed out a regular post will be scheduled.

This week's thought:  You make money when you buy, not when you sell.

Thanks for stopping in!