Posted by WoWMidas on 9/02/11 • Categorized as Musings

A hasty recap of what I have learned from 11 months of gold blogging

10. It has accelerated my learning. The act of blogging has me reading and learning more about goldmaking. (I’ve got to walk the talk, plus other blogs are always good sources of material and controversy!) Before last September, I spent more time in the AH than your average player, but I had never gone looking for online resources to help me make more gold. Heck, I chose to start a blog so I could share (what little) I had learned, before I even knew all these blogs and resources existed!

9. I was ignorant. When I started blogging, there was a lot about goldmaking that I simply didn’t know. From add-ons to strategies to mass crafting possibilities, to being aggressive in buying low and selling high. Just look at my “perma-content” across the top of this site – the “educational material” that I was inspired to share and start a blog with – to see how much I didn’t know when I started. Which reminds me: I’ve got to update that stuff.

8. I was chickenshit. Very risk averse I was. Nowadays I’ll try all sorts of stuff I never would have before – if I think there’s good money to be made doing it. The whole learning experience has ‘learned me’ into a virtuous circle, one where I can be much more aggressive, because I have so much cash I’m not risking much, but moreso because I know more and have a much better sense of whether a bet is likely to pay off.

7a. Frequency matters. There is something to be said for knowing a site will have something, even if it turns out to be less than useful. Blogging every day will drive much larger audiences, but unfortunately I don’t have the time to blog frequently.

7b. Quality matters too. I have made minimal effort to push my blog. I comment on other’s blog sites rarely, and I have yet to “guest post” anywhere. I figure, as long as I’m writing material that is relevant and interesting, I’ll draw the attention of readers. The road to a large audience would be longer, but I’d get there. Since I cut out the blog advertising, though, there’s no real beneift from a larger audience. Other than having a larger audience.

6. Quality generally trumps frequency. There are a handful of bloggers out there who don’t post on a daily basis, yet whose insights I’m very interested in. Azuriel, Foo, Nev, I’m talking about you. (Often, the daily bloggers have such throwaway posts it’s not worth clicking on the headline. Or you feel like you wasted your time doing so).

5. People love “fighting words.” No, I’m not talking about blog wars, as we saw recently between Cold and Markco over the goldblogging equivalent of a ramshackle lemonade stand. I’m talking about simply taking nonsensical concepts to task, and calling lousy moneymaking “tips” lousy.

4. The gems are out there, but they take work to prospect. There are lots of worthwhile gold blogs out there, publishing a reasonable stream of tips. Unfortunately, many blogs have “tips” that are more excuses to post than actual insights into significant goldmaking opportunities. Some sites, in the name of providing tips, frequently direct people to activities that are (considerably) less remunerative than farming. In which case they are making people less efficient goldmakers, not more productive ones.

3. A gold blog is not a good way to make money. For me at least. My opportunity cost is WAY too high. Advertising platforms are structured to benefit the Googles of the world, not the content (eyeball) providers. I have to blog for the joy of it. I’m wildly speculating here, but guess that Markco makes some nice change from his site, and Cold scrapes up something. The problem with the whole premise is that people visiting gold blogs simply aren’t the types of folks who are coughing up additional cash, so they’re not clicking much of anything, hence their eyeballs aren’t worth very much (financially speaking!), and they’re not going to buy lots of gold guides, either.

2. Goldmaking in WoW can help you make gold in RL. This was the surprise silver lining, to me. The WoW Auction House is an environment that can teach you a lot about squeezing out profits in a trading environment. I have an MBA and an economics degree, but I have learned lessons from practical experimentation in the Auction House that have helped me make money in real life. I have become a better risk taker, make investment decisions more decisively, and am better at identifying “profit pockets and opportunities” I can seize. One strategy I have been using that has been particularly effective is selling covered calls on equities. Over time, these add up, and it beats earning 0.1% in a bank account.

1. I appreciate my readers. Yes, that’s you! There’s nothing quite like having someone, from somewhere across the globe, react to what you write. Special props to Jinx, my most loyal commenter.