Early Cataclysm crafting for profit

Well I'm loving Cataclysm, and crafting has been so profitable that I'm still only level 83! My bank account is loving it even more. There's so much to write about that there's no way I can fit it into one post without making it absurdedly long, so today I'm going to give a brief rundown of what I've been making money off of and then in the next couple of days I'll get into more detail.

• Blacksmithing has been an absolute gold mine, especially because elementium was so plentiful that prices came down very quickly. Avoid the early recipes that people are using to level, just check your AH to see what there's a lot of. Belts and gauntlets, mostly. The higher-up stuff like helms, chestpieces, legs, shoulders, and the blue ilevel 333 weapons are selling great. I've been moving pretty good volume at 200-300% profit margins.

• I've also been prospecting a lot of elementium ore and selling raw gems. The key here is that jewelcrafters can't prospect elementium themselves until they hit 475 skill, so they either have to prospect obsidium (which on my server is 3-4 times the price of elementium), or buy gems. This means that the vast majority of jewelcrafters will be hitting the auction house to buy green gems. Hessonite and Nightstone are especially valuable, as they jewelry they make takes you to higher skill levels than green gems. You can make a huge amount of money just doing this.

•  Truegold is...well....gold. I sold my first truegold for 7,500 gold (the cost was about 1,200), so I actually paid for a guildmate's last 25 points in alchemy in exchange for him giving me his transmutes if I supply the mats. If you've been holding off on leveling alchemy, get it finished up. Just a transmute or two will pay for all of the cost.

The key to all of these is that people just aren't leveling professions quickly. Everything's so expensive, the vast majority of players are waiting for prices to come down. So while it's expensive to level professions right now, you'll also be one of a very small numbers of crafters who can make the higher-level items. Check your AH's prices and supply and see where the opportunities lie.

Tomorrow I want to get into more detail on the relationship between Cataclysm resources and items. The markets are so new and so volatile that there is a huge opportunity to make money. I've already made a profit of close to 30,000 gold in Cataclysm, and that's after dumping about 80,000 in the first night leveling professions. Listen up, because this part's important: that means since leveling my professions, in the space of TWO days, I've made about 110,000 gold in profit. The money's out there, people have it to spend from all the money made while questing. It's just a matter of figuring out how to make it.