How To Make Gold In WoW - Top Posts Of 2011 @ CGF

How To Make Gold In WoW - Best Of 2011 Here At Cold's Gold Factory

The 2011 year of the gold blogger has been an exciting one.  We have seen a massive increase in the number of bloggers talking about how to make gold in WoW.  A quick peek at the Power Word Gold : Gold Blog Directory will show the large number of gold blogs out there, with many of them joining the blogging community in 2011.  Here's to another great year of teaching players how to make gold in WoW.  Hopefully our community will continue to grow and prosper long into the new year.

2011 Was an awesome year because Wes, of Capped By Cata, and I started up The Auction House Junkies gold making podcast, which has recently expanded to include Mike, @MSherretz, as our regular 3rd anchor host.  The show has been chugging along since early 2011 and we are starting to be more consistent with releasing new episodes in a timely manner.  We can't keep you Junkies waiting too long for your next fix!

Now let's take a look back at some of the best and most popular posts here at Cold's Gold Factory.

Most Popular Posts From 2011

1. Firelands Daily Quests: Shadow Wardens or Druids Of The Talon? - This was the most successful post of the year from a traffic standpoint.  It was released at the perfect time, a few weeks into the Molten Front patch.  As players were starting to get close to completely the first wave of Molten Front dailies and acquiring the tokens needed to choose your first faction to unlock, this was a great question to target for traffic.  Everyone wanted to know which side to choose first and this post was a perfect example of one of the fundamental types of blog posts - Answer a popular question within your niche.  While the post wasn't directly gold related, it was indirectly related, as there was a race for unlocking the recipes as fast as possible to monopolize a market until competition could catch up.  This post sent still sends me crazy traffic, currently sitting at over 54K pageviews.
2. Patch 4.3 Epic Gem Transmutes From Alchemists And Cut By Jewelcrafters - Well the Alchemist patterns were data-mined but are still not in the live game.
3. Epic Gems:  Pyrite Is Fool's Gold After All - The big bomb dropped on stockpilers expecting Epic Gems from Pyrite Ore.
4. Patch 4.2 Introduced New Embersilk Farming Spot - Druids of The Talon Killing Madness.
5. Patch 4.2 Engineering Love - Engineering Patterns for the win!
6. Elementium Ore Farming Sweet Spot - Was awesome while it lasted, but has since been nerfed.  This spot I discovered was a beauty!
7. Mysterious Forune Card Barking Tips - More fun with MFC barking!
8. Patch 4.3 Cata Epic Gem JC Recipes & The Tome Of Burning Jewels - The news came and we started get excited for Epic Gems.  Whomp Whomp Whaa!  Not so great after all.
9. WoW Patch 4.2 Firelands Recipes Are BOP - Keyword targetting FTW!
10. Don't Stockpile For WoW Patch 4.2 Just Yet - Think for yourself, don't blindly follow.
11. New Firelands Vendors Offer Auctioning Opportunities - The recipe race to sell the new goods.
12. New Rugged Leather Farming In Cataclysm - Cataclysm shook up the world, including farming spots for making gold in WoW.
13. Call to Arms & The Satchel Of Exotic Mysteries - The Call to Arms addition to the game has been one of my favorites.  This alone has created an easy way to send starter cash (or items to sell for starter cash) to your alts on the opposing faction. See Also: Free Gold Exchange Cross Faction.
14. Passive Income Project | The Random Invites Guild - The project has been a great success.  The guild of all random invites has just hit guild level 24!  The macro is currently broken though, since Patch 4.3.
15. Embersilk Farming In Cataclysm's Deepholme - Still one of the best spots to farm Embersilk Cloth in large numbers.

Most Discussed Posts From 2011

1. The Whistleblowing Post On Markco & The JMTC Coaching Program Scam - A major shitstorm war in the comments as the evil forces of Markco the Deceiver battle it out against the side of Truth and Honor.
2. Off Topic: IRL Troubles & Blogging Consistency - The responses of support and encouragement have been so helpful and overwhelmingly suprising at the same time.  I really appreciate everyone of my readers and especially those that took the time to leave supportive comments and send thoughtful emails.
3. Screw Inferno Rubies, I'm Stocking Dream Emeralds - Well, of course I was stocking Inferno Rubies too, but my Dream Emerald stockpile has been a lifesaver as I continue to sell the hell out of Flintlocke's Woodchuckers as the competitions stock has dried up.  Tons of people laughed at me in the comments, but I'm laughing all the way to the mailbox collecting my mail.
4. Opportunity Costs - An IRL Case Study - Stupid work bake sales.
5. Opportunity Cost Part 2 - More discussion.
6. The Twilight Highlands Vendor Nerf - The shift of patterns to the major cities.
7. Transmutation:  Profitable Or Not? - My original stance is slowly changing as I am getting my feet wet in this new emerging market.  It is very server and faction dependant, but the Moggfather, @DeAzeroth, has been having great success flipping items for Transmogrification.
8. Patch 4.2 Tanked Volatile Air & Volatile Fire - Prices crashed, but crafting costs did too.
9. You Know You're A Greedy Goblin When... - This post was a fun one.
10. Obsidium Ore Prospecting Crash Incoming - The gem price reductions were on the way.
11. The Auctioneer Hot Spot In Orgrimmar - The cow town area is tops in my book.
12. Powerleveling Professions - Worth the extra cash or is there a better approach?

My Personal Favorites Posts From 2011

1. The Ideal Alts Series - I reall yenjoyed putting this whole series together for you.  It's nice to hear the praises of people who have directly copied or modified some of these Ideal Alt ideas.
2. Best Uses For Your Free WoW Veteran Account - Easy entry into cross faction trading to make even more gold in WoW.
3. The Tale Of A Lowly Gorilla Hunter - Man, I was so clueless back then!  The Tale of my humble beginnings farming Lowland Gorilla Hair greys to vendor and save for my first mount.
4. Get Stoned At The Darkmoon Faire - Too bad the old Heavy Stone strategy has been removed from the new Darkmoon Faire.  I loved the thrill and rush of maybe getting a Rare recipe for dirt cheap!
5. Mysterious Fortune Card Barks Revisited - A second round of barking modifications.
6. Multiple Profession Coverage In WoW - You aren't a one trick pony, are you?
7. Ravenwood Fair Facebook Game | WoW Easter Egg - Even more proof that all the pretty princesses play Alliance.
8. Rift or WoW?  Goodbye Azeroth - The April Fool's Day spoof that spawned many upset emails and led many to unsubscribe (oops!).  It was a joke you sillyheads! 
9. Profit From Icy Prism, Frozen Orbs, and WotLK Gems - A forgotten strategy that has been making me thousands.
10. The Top 9 Uses For The Remote Auction House - Good stuff in this post.

Poor Wes!

Reminders

The Cold's Gold Factory Gold Blogging Carnival will be returning next month.  Make sure to check the current topic and get those blog entries written for your Page Rank 4 link backs!

The Cold's Gold Factory Birthday Celebration Giveaway will be ending soon.  Make sure to Like, Tweet, and Plus One this post, as it may be your last chance to get extra entries for the awesome Jinx and Amazon.com Gift Cards and in game mounts and pets.  Thanks for reading my blog and helping me make it past my 2nd Blog Birthday!

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out The Teenager's Gold Guide To Get Started With Learning The Auction House As A Younger Player Or Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold making Combo.