I would say mining is the best profession. You can usually get tons of gold by selling stacks of gathered materials. If you want to make the most money in WoW, make a new character and start out with two gathering professions (I recommend mining and herbalism) and sell as many stacks of materials you can. I don't mean selling them to a vendor... look at the prices on Auction House and sell your stacks at lower prices (or at least a suitable, median price). Build up both of these professions until 375 and keep selling your gathered materials! Having different toons that have different professions will rake in tons of gold... you can have an enchanting toon that makes money off of void shards or dust (I recommend having a level 70 character with plenty of gold to pay for enchanting though, and to run lower-level instances to get to get uncommon, rare, and epic items to disenchant). You can have alchemy on another character that specializes in primal mights (which makes TONS of gold when it procs).
DON'T START THE GAME OFF WITH A CRAFTING PROFESSION. You'll only waste money as you constantly buy materials off the AH for that "must-have" robe that will become worthless in two levels. Don't waste money on any kind of AH item while you're leveling... save ALL of your gold and sell ALL of your crafting materials on the AH and all of your WORTHLESS items (vendor trash, mainly) to a vendor.
The key to gold-making is having multiple toons with multiple professions that farm and sell their goods. Alternative gold-making strategies include farming primal materials (primal air, primal fire, primal water, etc.) which are used in a variety of crafting professions. The Elemental Plateau tends to be over-farmed, so these locations are much alternatives (I don't bother with Primal Earth because it only goes for 5g on my server and is practically worthless):
- Enraged Fire Spirits in the Hand of Gul'Dan, Shadowmoon Valley, for Primal Fire.
- Enraged Air Spirits north of Netherwing Ledge, Shadowmoon Valley, for Primal Air.
- Shimmerscale Eels north of Cenarion Thicket, in the lake, Terokkar Forest, for Primal Water.
- Mageslayers and Mana Wraiths in Kirin'Var Village, Netherstorm, for Primal Mana.
- Fungal Giants in the Spawning Glen, Zangarmarsh, for Primal Life.
Farm the one that's easiest for you... for example, I don't tend to farm the Motes of Fire because I'm a fire mage; instead, I go for the Primal Air, which sells for the highest on my server. Speaking of that, always go for the ones that sell for the highest on your server... for me it's Air and Fire, but for you, it might be Water and Life. ALWAYS CHECK THE AUCTION TO SEE WHAT'S THE MOST VALUABLE.
Well, those are all of my tricks for WoW. It's really that easy, and I don't see why people have to waste time downloading (or worse, buying) gold guides. It's no secret, it's just common sense.
