When Bad News Turns Good

Breast Cancer Care

Bad News Turned Positive

Earlier this week, a fellow WoW gold blogger revealed her recent breast cancer diagnosis.  Just happens that this same WoW gold blogger is also a close friend of mine.  Yup, me and Nev are pretty close friends.  She even has characters on my US WoW server, where I teach her how to slay Alliance and fight for the right WoW faction, when I'm not lost deep in Diablo 3.

I think it is amazing that she decided to turn her cancer news into a way to raise money for cancer research and cancer care.  If you haven't already, be sure to head over to Auction House Addict and read about Nev's story and her cancer care fund raising campaign.  Since she has chemotherapy looming in the near future, Nev has decided to cut off her long locks of hair and donate them to a charity that makes wigs for children with cancer.  How wonderful!  Major props on turning bad news into a good idea, Nev.

Supporting A Friend

I have supported my friend with a cash donation to her project of giving, which is currently only at 24% of her goal.  Nev has already raised 248 Pounds (She's a Brit btw) of the 1000 Pounds goal.  That's $348 already raised for the Cancer Care program.  Let's all dig deep and see if we can help raise that number even closer to her goal.

Being that Nev is a close friend of mine, I wanted to do something a little more than just donate my cash.  I've added a link to Nev's story & giving campaign here in the top right corner of Cold's Gold Factory.  I've even changes my Twitter avatar to a breast cancer ribbon.  Still, I wanted to do something more special.

Nev has chemotherapy treatment looming and for this reason she has cut off her hair for charity.  No one wants to lose their hair and it's even harder for women, since they tend to have much more hair than men.  I can't imagine anyone looking forward to losing their hair and then wearing wigs,scarfs, or silly hats.  I won't let me good friend look silly all on her own, so I've decided to join her.

My Pledge

I now pledge to keep my hair buzzed off until your chemotherapy treatments are over Nev.  We can both be silly together.  The hard part isn't buzzing off my head of hair.  Ya see, when someone has chemo, they not only lose the hair on their head, but they lose all body hairs.  Well, that means my goatee needs to go too, so now I'm going to look really silly and I hate shaving, but that's a sacrifice I'm gonna make to help support my good friend.  I haven't shaved off my facial hair in well over 5 years.  Boy, do I feel silly looking, lol.

So please head over to Nev's site and read her story and donate what you can to join her in supporting cancer care.  You can read her story here: Introducing Helen: A Story & A Plea.

And if you are crazy like me, maybe you can shave your head too.  If not, try to give a little to help her reach her goal and help fight the good fight against breast cancer.

Regular Cold ------Cell Mate Cold ------ Skinhead Cold

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

6 Poker Tactics That Apply To WoW Gold Making

Poker vs WoW Gold Making

6 Poker Tactics That Apply To Making Gold In WoW

World of Warcraft and Online Poker are two of the most popular games played on the internet.  As gold makers in World of Warcraft, we can learn something from some of the tactics of poker players.  While anyone can play poker or try to make gold in WoW, both often require more skill than luck to have continued success.  Sure you can get lucky and make a great overpriced sale or win a massive poker pot on accident, but continued success takes skill and understanding.  There is a big difference between good players and winning players and a combination of skill versus luck in poker.  Let's look at a few poker tactics that translate over into making gold in WoW.

KEEP YOUR VITAL INFO SECRET

In poker, you don't show your hand to your opponents.  Hell, you don't even show a winning hand unless forced to call.  In WoW, you want to keep your best markets a secret for as long as possible.  Letting others know what you are selling well, only invites more competition to your market.  So keep your best markets as low key and as much of a secret as possible.

YOU GOTTA TAKE RISKS TO WIN BIG

Only playing the best poker hands will limit your ability to rack in huge pots, as players learn that you only push on with strong hands.  If you want to win big, you are going to have to take some risks with less than ideal hands.  The same is true in World of Warcraft gold making.  You can set back and slowly bring in adequate sales (like with a Netherweave Bag market), but you aren't going to get rich quickly.  By taking bigger risks in new markets with bigger ticket price items, you just might score a massive profit from a single sale.  Although you can lose a lot of gold as well, if you don't understand the market and have a good grasp on the price players are willing to pay for your item.

LEARN TO READ YOUR OPPONENTS

In poker, we are always looking for tells, or signs, that give away your opponents hand.  Maybe his nostrils flare when he gets a strong hand?  Being able to deduce what your opponent is planning is a huge advantage.  Similarly in WoW gold making, you can gain a distinct advantage once you can pre-determine the actions of your competitors.  Do you have you main competition on your friends list?  Can you look at their Undermine Journal posting activity and find a pattern?  Learn when they post and you can undercut them as they are logging out of the game.

MONEY YOU'VE ALREADY SPENT IS IRRELEVANT

Bad poker players tend to think that they need to keep calling on a dead hand, because they've already got a lot invested into the pot.  That's horrible thinking.  What you have already invested into the pot has no relevance on your odds of winning your current hand.  In WoW gold making, some players get stuck in the same rut.  Just because you invested a lot of gold when you crafted the item, doesn't mean you must sell the item for more than the crafting cost.  If that item's value is crashing, unloading it at a loss sooner than later will keep you from losing even more of your investment.  Sitting on it and waiting for the price to return to a higher price may work, but often times just means the item has devalued further by the time you decide to just dump it for whatever you can get.

KNOW WHEN TO FOLD AND WHEN TO PUSH

Similar to the above tactic, good poker players know when to get out.  They calculate the odds of winning the hand and they either stay in or fold based on their calculated odds.  Sometimes, you have to just cut your losses and fold, regardless of what has already been added to the pot.  In WoW gold making, we must also know when to fold and get out of a market all together.  Sometime you will attempt to make gold in a specific market, only to find that there is some major competition in your new market.  Regardless of how much time and gold you invested trying to get into a new market, sometimes it's best to cut your losses and move on to a completely different market.  If your compeition is making life hell in that market, why not spend your gold and energy in a less hectic and less competitive market.  Should you fold or push back and start an undercutting war and makes everyone's profits drop?

MANAGE YOUR BANKROLL PROPERLY

If a poker player continues to gamble with all the cash they have, they will eventually end up broke.  If a poker player only gambles with small amount, then they are limiting their ability to gain larger amounts.  The same holds true in WoW gold making.  You shouldn't be tying up all of your liquid gold in materials or crafted items because the markets could go South on you and cause a major loss.  If you only are willing to invest a small percentage of your bankroll, then you are limiting your ability to earn large chunks of gold at once.

If you are interested in playing poker, be sure to check out the great poker tactics articles over at PokerListings.com

Get More From Blogging Carnival Participation

Get More From Your Blogging Carnival Participation

Each month, I host a WoW gold blogging carnival open for participation from anyone with or without a blog.  It's a pretty straightforward concept.  I pick the topic and everyone is invited to participate.  Just write a post on the chosen topic, host it on your own WoW blog (or on one of the blogs willing to host it as a guest post, if you aren't a blog owner), then send me the link for inclusion in the monthly carnival.  The July Blogging Carnival topic is up already too, in case you missed it.

So let's take a look a little deeper into the benefits of participation and how to get the most from your carnival entry submissions.  Take note, this isn't a pitch to get more participants in the monthly carnival here (although the more, the merrier).  The primary purpose of this article is to help educate other bloggers, and those readers thinking of starting a blog, about ways to use the carnivals to be of more benefit as a participant.  I was a newer blogger once too and would have appreciated the same types of tips in this article, much earlier than I had to discover them on my own.  I hope these ideas help you out too.

Perks Of Carnival Participation

Participating In Blogging Carnivals Gets You Traffic, New Readers, and New Subscribers

Guest Posting and Blogging Carnivals are two of the absolute best ways to grow your own site's audience.  Being featured on another site, especially one with more traffic or a higher page rank, is an excellent way to get exposure to other readers within your same blogging niche.  Many of the visitors that read your carnival entry will return back to visit your site to read more, if they enjoyed your carnival post.  Remember that any g7uest post, carnival entry, or anything featured outside of your own blog, should be of your best quality, since these will be exposed to many brand new readers.  The Cold's Gold Factory Gold Blogging Carnival is a great place for readers to discover more cool bloggers that also write about making gold in World of Warcraft.

Another key benefit of participating in blogging carnivals is the fact that the carnivals tend to continue sending you traffic forever.  New readers to my site often check out the dedicated blogging carnival page and the older carnivals, which continue to send traffic and new readers to the participants.


Blogging Carnivals Help You Build Page Rank


Cold's Gold Factory has a Google Page Rank of 3.  That means any link from me is a good quality relevant link that will help to build your site's Page Rank with Google, especially if your site's Page Rank is lower than mine.  Higher ranked sites that link to you are worth more, than lower ranked sites.  Find out your own site's rank here:  http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php

How To Get More From Your Carnival Post

Use A Proper Title

One of the common mistakes I see made with blogging carnival entries is what the post is titled.  You should title your post completely based on the content within that post, as if you weren't submitting it elsewhere.  Too often I see Cold's Carnival Entry or Cold's Blogging Carnival as the title of the posts with nothing about what the post is even about.  For your own benefit, always use a title with good keywords and a phrase that describes what your post is about.  You are robbing yourself of 2 of the best places to get page rank and keyword ranking for your post (the title and the url).  You always want the title and the url to be relevant to your post, so others can find it later through the search engines.

Deep Link Within Your Post -

Deep internal blog linking is a great way to get visitors reading more of your posts.  It's ok to add links (I suggest 2-3 in every post you write) in your carnival entry post.  Then some of the readers will dig deeper into more of your posts.  It also helps to catch readers from feeds and other syndications (like those damn copy-cat & content stealing bot sites) by bringing them back to your original site, if they click on one of your links.  This also helps increase your page views and your visitor's time on your site.

Don't Wait To Post In The Final Days Before The Carnival Deadline

Ideally, you want the post you submit for any blogging carnival to go live on your site as far away from the actual carnival day as possible.  Procrastinating and posting your carnival entry on the last few days prior to the carnival's live date can cost you traffic.  Readers of gold blogs skip over visiting your article because they recall seeing it recently (possibly in another site's blogroll) and it is fresh in their mind, even though they may not have even read it yet.

Also, if you post sooner rather than later, your post may already have a vibrant discussion in the comment section.  When the wave of carnival traffic flows in, there could be more participation and discussion as people tend to comment more when there is already something being discussed.  Google likes active comments, especially keyword rich relevant comments.

Tweet, Like, Plus, Reddit, and Share Your Entry And The Final Carnival Post

Share the hell out of your posts.  Every one of them.  Social Media is great for increasing your reader exposure.  So don't forget to share your carnival posts too.  Then share the Cold's Gold Factory Gold Blogging post that wraps up all of the carnival entries into the 1 big post.  I share it all over to get you guys more exposure and more readers.  When we all share, we all benefit.  Hosting and participating in blogging carnivals are very symbiotic relationships.  When we all do our best, the entire group shines.

The Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival is here for the benefit of the readers and to help out other bloggers.  Readers get an exposure to a variety of ideas on a similar topic on making gold in WoW, but are also introduced to new authors and new sites to read in that same area of interest.  I hope you enjoy the carnivals here at Cold's Gold Factory, both as a reader and a contributor.

Thanks for the great posts!



More Blogging and Traffic Tips at BloggingVitals.Blogspot.Com
A Site I Put Ideas For Helping Out New Bloggers.

July WoW Gold Blogging Topic

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - July 2012 Topic

A big thanks to all of the participants who submitted entries for last month's blogging carnival. Everyone is welcome to write a post for the blogging carnivals at Cold's Gold Factory. Again, thank you to all the bloggers who submitted posts for the June Carnival on New Player Pro Tips. If you missed the last carnival, be sure to check it out! 

What If I Don't Have A Blog And I Want To Participate?

If you don't have your own site, you can still participate in the gold blogging carnivals. Sometimes a topic may tickle your fancy or you may have a unique spin on a blogging carnival topic that you would like to have read by others. Well, you are in luck. There are WoW blogging sites that will post and host your content as a guest post. Just follow the normal blogging carnival rules that the others follow and get your post hosted and live prior to the carnival. Then, just submit the link to me for inclusion in the upcoming gold blogging carnival.  

Be sure to check out How To Get More From Blogging Carnival Participation.

The friendly sites willing to host your content are:

1. Goldgrub's Goblin Academy - Contact: Me (Cold)
2. Squidoo - Join up and make a lens on the topic and earn money too.

  

July 2012 Gold Blogging Carnival Topic

With the Mists of Pandaria expansion on its way and many markets starting to feel the end of expansion lull, we must start to prepare for the new WoW expansion, Mists of Pandaria.  For the July Gold Blogging Carnival Topic, let's focus on ways to take advantage of the current lull in WoW.

What Do You Recommend Players Do During The Current WoW Lull To Benefit Gold Making In The Future?

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The WoW Pet & Mount Loot Code Giveaway Continues -
More Details On Your Chance To Win A Pet Or A Mount



Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

WoW New Player Tips - What To Watch Out For To Make Gold

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - 2012

Welcome to another 2012 edition of Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival. These carnivals will continue to take place the 11th day of every month and will be hosted here at Cold's Gold Factory. All World of Warcraft bloggers are welcome to participate and feedback both here and on the original authors' sites is strongly encouraged. So show some support and please leave some feedback in the comments section. These bloggers put a lot of time and hard work into these blogging carnival posts so please tell them what you think.

If you would like to be included in the next month's carnival, please review the guidelines for Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals and submit your live post link via email (ssmith0911 at live dot com) before the 10th of the month. Read up on the benefits of participating in blogging carnivals at my other blog designed to help new bloggers, Blogging Vitals.  (Lots of tips for those of you starting out or interested in blogging.)  Articles for the CGF carnival are listed in the order they are received. Thank you to all the bloggers participating in this months carnival!

If you are not a blogger, you can still participate in the monthly carnivals as you can have a post hosted at Goldgrubs.com.  Now I present to you this month's participants answering the question:

What Are Some Things You Recommend Players Look Out For While Leveling A New Character In WoW?

New WoW Character Leveling Tips by KhasDylar at Goldgrub's Goblin Academy (Guest Post)

Chests & Lockboxes by Farli of The Overcut

Archaeology Leveling Secondary Profit Sources by Cold of Cold's Gold Factory

What To Look For When Leveling A New Alt by Nev of Auction House Addict

Cash Flow Positive Leveling by Frinka of Warcraft Street

Alerting Your Alt - Episode #144 by GeorgeWoW of The Mana Cooler Podcast

Thanks again to all of this month's participants.  Be sure to check back later for next month's carnival topic and remember to look for next month's gold blogging carnival on the 11th.  If you have a topic idea, don't be afraid to send it in.  We may use your idea, which will get you proper credit as well.  

Until next month,

Keep on Keepin' On!

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Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

Don't Forget To Enter To Win A Free WoW TCG Loot Code Pet or Store Mount!

WoW TCG Loot Code Pet Giveaway!

 

Win A FREE WoW Pet From

The TCG Loot Code Giveaway!

Gregarious Grell Loot Code Pet

Just the other day, I noticed that someone had purchased a couple of WoW TCG loot code cards from one of my Amazon links on one of my Squidoo pages.  What caught me by suprise was just how cheap these loot card codes from the new WoW TCG expansion were on sale for.  Apparently, you can buy some of the WoW TCG Loot card codes for WoW companion pets for cheaper than the sale price of the vanity pets from the actual Blizzard online store!  The Blizzard stores pets cost $10 each, but Amazon has a lot of the TCG pet codes for well under that price!  Many for under $4 for your pet code!

Win A Gregarious Grell From The New Podcast

So, I decided to snatch up a few of these cool pet loot codes to use as Giveaways here at Cold's Gold Factory, on Auction House Junkies, and on the new podcast, The Eviscerated Gaming Podcast.  Be sure to listen to Episode #7 of The Eviscerated Gaming Podcast (on iTunes & Stitcher Radio) to find out how to Win a Gregarious Grell Loot Code Companion Pet.  Episode #7 will be out this weekend, but be sure to check out the older episodes for some great content and laughs.  It's a pretty easy contest entry, just listen to the podcasts and leave us an iTunes review for a chance at winning!

Win Bloat The Bubblefish or a Celestial Steed From Cold's Gold Factory

Bloat the Bubblefish is a pretty cool companion pet that comes from the WoW TCG.  I have bought a few of Bloat the Bubblefish, Gregarious Grells, and a Nightsaber Cub pet to give away.  I also still have more Pandarian Monk pets and Celestial Steeds to give away.  I'll start the TCG Loot Code giveaways with a chance to win a Bloat the Bubblefish loot code or a Celestial Steed mount code.

How To Enter To Win Bloat The Bubblefish or a Celestial Steed Mount

Similar to past contests, this one will be a social media sharing and newsletter joining contest.  Here are the various ways to earn an entry for your chance at winning.  The contest entries will end on July 3rd (midnight Central time) and winners will be announced on July 4th. 

The Celestial Steed code was bought from the US store, so it can only be redeemed by a US WoW Account.  The Bloat the Bubblefish loot code can be redeemed by any US or EU account, as long as the correct region is selected when redeeming the loot card code for the appropriate in game code.

Each Action Earns One Entry:

1. Join The Cold's Gold Factory Gold Tips Newsletter (You can join from the pop-up or from the sidebar sign-up form.)  Already get the newsletter?  Congrats, you've got 1 entry already!
2. Tweet this Post. (add me into the tweet @SSmith0911 - so I can see the Tweet)
3. Google +1 this Post.
4. Facebook Like and Share this Post.

So Joining the newsletter earns you an entry, but you can earn additional entries by sharing this giveaway post on the various social media sites.
 

Good luck to all that enter and participate.  If you want to win, be sure to share on multiple platforms to further increase your chances of winning. 

Thanks for reading and Good Luck!

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

Archaeology Leveling Secondary Profit Sources



Death's Embrace

Secondary Profit Sources And Archaeology Leveling

This post is part of the June Entry for the Cold's Gold Factory Blogging Carnivals, hosted here at Cold's Gold Factory.  This month's topic is:  "Tips For Leveling Characters".

Archaeology leveling has to be one of the worst in game activites in World of Warcraft, next to fishing.  Seriously though, which do you hate more - Archaeology or Fishing?  Man, they are both miserable professions to level because of the monotony and boredom involved with each secondary profession.  You may get the notion to level one or both of these miserable professions some day.  Fishing can be leveled without even leaving town, but Archaeology is quite the opposite.  Since leveling Archaeology requires traveling all over the continents to the various dig sites, there is plenty of opportunity to benefit from our travels.  Here are the top 4 things to look out for, while leveling your Archaeology profession.

Top 4 Secondary Profit Options While Leveling Archaeology

1. Vendor Recipes
2. Raptor Nests
3. Rare Mobs
4. Gathering Raw Materials

Leveling Archaeology will take you all over the continents of Azeroth, unless you limit yourself to a single continent in WoW to speed up the leveling process.  Even sticking to one continent, you will be flying all over that land mass hunting the dig sites.  Why not take advantage of all of that intracontinental and intercontinental travel and make some extra gold in the process?

Vendor Recipes - While out and about hunting dig sites, you will pass through many different towns and villages.  Many of the settlements will contain npc vendors that sell recipes and items that can be bought for cheap amounts of gold and then sold for much more on the auction house.  There are even vendors out hidden in the world that sell specific recipes and items that can be sold as well.  Many players can't be troubled to venture out to get the recipes and items themselves or they don't know where they are found.  This creates a golden opportunity for profit, so be sure to check for recipes to flip while you are leveling up your archaeology.

Raptor Nests - There are 4 Raptor Companion Pets that are guaranteed drops from the rare spawn Raptor Nests available in certain areas of the game.  If one of your Archaeology digsites spawn in an area near a possible Raptor Nest, take a few minutes and peek around to see if one of the rare nests have spawned.  If you are lucky enough to find a nest and loot the Raptor Hatchling pet, then you can sell the pet for a nice chunk of gold now, or wait until Mists of Pandaria brings us Battle Pets in hopes for even more gold from the sale.

• Darting Hatchling can be found in Dart's Nest in Northern Dustwallow Marsh.
• Leaping Hatchling is found in Takk's Nest in the Sludge Fen in Northern Barrens.
• Ravasaur Hatchling is from the Ravasaur Matriarch's Nest in Southeastern Un'Goro Crater.
• Razormaw Hatchling can be found in a cave in Raptor Ridge in Northern Wetlands and is contained in the Razormaw Matriarch's Nest.

Rare Mobs - As you are traveling the World of Azeroth, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for rare creatures.  You could be suprised at the number of rare mobs that you will encounter while leveling up your Archaeology profession.  Some of the dig sites will spawn right over top of the same area that rare mobs can spawn.  When I leveling my Archaeology up, I would find anywhere from 2-8 rare mobs per digging session (usually 30 mins to 2 hours per session before I was ready to smash the screen from boredom).  These rare mobs can contain some nice stat combination green gear to sell to other players for leveling or for transmogrification.

Gathering Raw Materials - Farming up raw materials while you are out is also a great idea, especially since your Archaeology dig sites will appear all over the map and include areas that spawn Ore & Herbs.  Using your Mining and Herbalism are great ways to make extra gold while leveling up the dreaded Archaeology.  Focus on stopping by any of the raw material nodes that are in higher demand or are commonly in shortage on the auction house.  These raw materials will be good choice for gathering up while traveling, without taking too much time off of your main goal of Archaeology leveling.

The best part about using these 4 Tips For Increasing Your Profits While Leveling Archaeology is that you get to break up the monotony of the dang Archaeology digging grind fest!  If you can stick with maxing your Archaeology on your Alchemist, then you can begin the even more annoying hunt for the Canoptic Jars that rarely contain the Recipe: Vial of the Sands.  Then you can start using that maxed Archy skill for even more profits, provided the cheating dupers haven't ruined the market on your server already.

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.