When starting out a new character in the World of Warcraft, getting money becomes your first and foremost issue. You will find that you will need new things with almost every level that you gain and trying to stay ahead in your finances can be a real trick. Here are a few tips to help you steadily increase your income and improve your enjoyment of the game.
The Auction House
The Auction House is your friend. If you can, try and go to a website like curse gaming and pick up the add-on, Auctioneer. This mod allows you to scan all of the auctions that are active and helps you bid a competitive price for your items. You can also check to see what items are being sold on a "buyout" price and compare the buyout price to the average sale price. If the buyout is significantly lower than the normal sale price, you could make a killing with that item. For example: a stack of 20 Vision Dust sells normally for 12 gold and someone is selling a stack for the buyout price of five gold, you could buy that at 5 gold then put it back on auction for 11 gold and conceivably make a six gold profit.
Consider what you can sell at the auction house. The items that I have found to sell very well are cooking materials like fish(especially the clam meats) and meats, and raw materials like stone (like rough and coarse stone that you get from mining) and cloth materials like wool, silk, etc. People need these items to level their own skills up and some may just want to buy them and be done with it rather than go out and harvest them. Do not underestimate what sells.
You should also note that most people wait to sell things on the weekend when there are more people on. That being said, there are still people who play during the week and they need things too. You will see what your server does and make adjustments to fit the buying patterns.
Professions: All are interesting and fun, but for the sake of making money fast, I prefer Mining and Enchanting. Once that you have established yourself financially, you can always unlearn a profession and try something else.
Mining
The biggest money maker from the start, mining is just good business. I have never failed to make money with mining. Seek a mining trainer to get the mining skill, then go buy a pick from a mining supplier and you are on your way. You can mine anytime and in any zone, and usually while you are traveling from quest to quest. Before you start mining, remember this: bag space. Always try to keep room for ore and the occasional stone that you get.
Speaking of ore, the first ore that you will mine is Copper. Copper is used in professions like Blacksmithing and Engineering. In fact, copper is used a LOT in those professions as each item that an Blacksmith or Engineer makes to level up their own skills requires several pieces of copper to make that item. This is true with all of the ore that you will mine and as you get into Iron and steel, the selling price gets higher too.
Enchanting
Did you ever finish a quest and receive as a reward an item that just didn't work for your class? Plate mail gloves - and you're a Priest; two-handed sword for your Rogue? Since the item is "soulbound" to you, what choice do you have but to go to a vendor and sell it for a paltry amount. Sometimes when questing I will get a green item that I will try to sell, but find that a lot of weapons and armor don't seem to sell that well for some reason. With the enchanting skill you can disenchant that item down to the magic essence that it contains then either sell that (usually collect a large amount and sell it, or small groups of 4 work good too) for a good amount of gold or use that material to enchant your own items for bonuses that benefit you and increase your enchanting skills too.
When you first start enchanting, go to an enchanting supplier and buy the copper rod from them. You will be able to make the "Runed Copper Rod" which will allow you to enchant items. To skill up, try enchanting your own bracers over and over. Disenchanting an item depends on the level of the item, so you may have to get your enchanting skills higher to do it. Be patient and in no time you will have a large amount of materials that you can use to skill up or sell on the Auction House.
Enchanting also can earn you gold in tips that people will pay you to enchant items for them. A good example of this is the "Fiery" enchant which makes a weapon glow a brilliant orange flame. This is one of the more cosmetic enchants, but there are many more useful enchants that you will be able to perform as you get higher in levels. Just watching the chat channels in any major city should get you a few enchanting jobs within a few minutes.
Remember, everyone starts the game out with no money, so they all had to work their way up. The good news is that as you gain in levels, your ability to increase your cash flow increases as well. Earning gold can be a daunting task, but it's not impossible. Just keep at it and try not to spend too much and pretty soon you will notice that you have acquired quite a bit of wealth.