Today we will be loaning some terms from the fitness world and consider how they apply to goldmaking. It is very normal to have periods of rapid improvement followed by periods where it feels like nothing is happening and you are just butting your head against a wall.
Do plateaus happen in goldmaking?
There are two kinds of plateaus that I find happen in goldmaking. When you enter a new market you will generally start by going down in gold as you invest, then you will break even for a while. Eventually you hit the inflection point and you start making gold.
The other kind of plateau you can hit is more of an issue. If you have been doing the same methods for a long while and you hit a plateau and your gold stops increasing it is cause for concern.
Identifying a plateau
Before we get into trying to separate them from each other we have to figure out if you are even hitting a plateau. You can be on the right path even if your gold is not increasing if both your sales and auction house value is increasing.
You can easily check your sales in TSM by just changing the time periods at the bottom of the dashboard. If your sales in the last 30 days is higher than the average for the year, or if the last week is better than the last 390 days, you are probably on the right trajectory even if it feels bad.
Initial market plateau
This is the on you will face most of the time. When you start a new market, especially in flipping or crafting, you have to invest. Assuming you typically get a 20-30 % profit margin it will take some time to be profitable. You will have to sell 5 items to get enough profit to cover the cost of the first item. Always expect that your available gold will stagnate when entering a new market. As long as your sales increase by it, the liquid gold will eventually go up too. It can take anywhere from a day to weeks of time, depending on the sale rate, competition and other factors, so just stick with it.
Actual plateaus
This is what you want to really avoid. If you stick with the same methods and “nothing works” anymore it is time to change something up. What you need to change will be different, but you have to change something. Things you can do include, changing your posting schedule, entering new markets, exiting some markets or just doing something else. Ultimately you need to find out why the methods aren’t working and what you can do in stead.
Goldmaking is always about helping other players reach their in-game goals, so just focus on that to get ideas for how you can improve your approach.
Good luck!