The WoW or Gold Brainstormz Podcast Index

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Blog for money or blog while making money?

"Yeah, so uhm, i'm gold capped now. Why can't I reinvent the wheel and climb all the way down!?" -Random Gold Capped Goblin (GrayzBDF does NOT see himself as a Goblin btw!)

This post was started before patch 4.3 and my return to WoW. I'm back and i'll be around for another 12 months so just have that in mind, will ya? Sorry for the confusion, but it won't be worse than usual anyways. WoW or Gold is pure confusion!

When I started the blog I was fully focused on using it to improve my gold making in the first place. Beyond that I also saw the gold addiction as a good opportunity to learn principles that would help me make money in real life. Besides doing what I believe in, which I think is the absolute most important thing a human being can do, I strongly believe in developing my financial intelligence.

Read on for Grayz's thoughts on gold making, setting goals and why blogging for money seems like a bad choice after the jump...

You have to connect the dots, Warlock!

During my absense i've had time to learn quite a lot and i'm not claiming that i'm a wizard at making money, but what I can claim is that the principles that I learn and have learned will be one of the reasons why I eventually will earn a lot more money in real life - and especially in the long run.

These thoughts are inspired by Mike Maloney: Only having your assets in the form of money is a huge risk. Just look at how the inflation has fucked the US Dollar. Metals can be good. Make sure you look at the actual buying power instead of the value of the chosen market seen through the value of money. Also the values of money and metals always fluctuates. Nothing is constant! Adapt.

Making gold in WoW has a similar pattern to real life when it comes to setting higher and higher goals. When you begin as a newbie making the first 100g can be hard. After that making 1-3000g can be very hard and the amount of gold that is hard to reach after that increases even more and so on. But with time you might notice that you actually manage to reach your golden goals every single time. And only when/if you have the discipline required to really work towards them!

The reasons why players are poor in-game are more than the reasons players have a lot of gold. Knowing which habits you have to avoid can be useful as it can hinder you from reaching your goals. I'm the kind of person that focuses on what I want rather than what I don't want. In WoW I wanted a lot of gold. I didn't know how i'd do it and I wasn't good at making gold the first years, but the main goal was clear although I hadn't chosen a set amount to aim for. And thanks to that mentality it was just a matter of time before I started reaching goal after goal. Hell, that's true for all in-game goals.

I remember being in guilds, during my first years, were players had played a lot longer than me and focused on other things rather than gold. Some were great at running dungeons and others were good at PvP. Few raided cause this was in TBC and the leveling/social guilds I joined didn't have any raiding experience. And I stayed away from raiding guilds until I felt that I was ready to join them. If you want to raid, take responsibility, learn and know your limits, even as a newbie. Progress step by step.

"Can I get an invite to Heroic Death-Wang, homie?"
 
Endgame raiding was a goal I had from day one when I began playing, but I knew that it would take time and that I would need to work my way up to get there. I have never believed in shortcuts! I don't believe in doing things the easy way, but I must say that people like Robert Kiyosaki as well as Dale Carnegie have opened my mind to things coming easier into life, if the mentality is right. Meaning that working harder isn't always the best solution for gold making nor making money in real life! You can reach your goal with less effort if you plan things well and think through how you can streamline various activities. An example would be having other people farm mats for you that you buy cheap and then use to create products that yield good profits. The opposite would be to farm your own mats and then craft your products after. The second inevitably leads to shitload of work and, surprisingly enough for the poor gold makers, less gold in total! Nope, not a viable option for me since I have my principles ready to go. Being principle-minded I don't have to know the principles beforehand, but once I come across them I can then use them in multiple situations and thus make life easier for myself.

One goal I know that I thought about that felt hard to reach was reaching 1.5k rating in arenas in Wrath. Me and Thedodge would do 2's and have fun, but when voice communication became an issue (we only used party chat) and we hit a wall at 1.2-1.3k rating, it just didn't feel as motivating. It wasn't only that though, I was bored of the game, but didn't have the bawlz to quit just yet. Things always make more sense in retrospect.


Why do I keep on blogging although i've quit the game? Because i'm still in the game of making money, which always was my main game. The auction house and the WoW economy was the university that I chose to study economy at instead of becoming an MBA or studying something else at a university revolving economy. I can read books and watch videos and focus a 100% on the parts that directly affect my life instead.

Gevlon isn't much for "fun", but I am. I believe in enjoying what I do although I don't expect to enjoy every single minute of what I do regardless of if it comes to working or playing a MMO. The difference in working for something you believe in versus just having a job is astronomical! The quality of life is most definitely a part of every day life and not just the drunk weekends.

When I began writing this post I had quit WoW and felt like turning the blog into a means to earn a passive income, but I really dislike the idea of feeling that I have to produce something in order to earn money. I write when I have something to say and that's a lot more important to me than earning some extra SEK's per month. Also, if I have any readers that have a similar mentality to me and come here for that reason then I know that they'd see it as me selling out. I don't have anything against sellouts. I hardly ever use that word. Either you make money or you don't! But, what I do look into is the genuine part of things in the way the money is made. Is it money made for money's sake or is there a contribution of some sort? I've mentioned him before and i'll gladly mention him again, Warren Buffett. He's one of my financial role models among plenty because he seems to be a cool cat. Dude has money in the bank, but doesn't go overboard with his attitude. That's how I wanna feel when I make my money and blogging about WoW for money would not take me there.

 It's not only what we do, but more what we chose Not to do that shows if we have integrity or not. So to conclude this post, I simply won't sell out for a bad reason! :)

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