There’s always been a trade off between scaling your goldmaking and focusing on things that give immediate rewards. The optimal choice will vary, and there are some considerations to make about how many markets to enter and how quickly.
Experience from the gold cap challenge
As you all know I’m currently working on the second go through of my 30 days to a token challenge. In this challenge you will obviously have a fairly strong short term focus. The last time I did it I mostly focused on long term stuff, and I really ended up investing too much, at least if the goal is to finish the challenge as quickly as possible.
Right now I’ve hit a point where I can coast through on the markets I’ve found that works and we will likely make the challenge in time. I don’t really have to add more markets or do more lifting, and as far as reaching a token as quickly as possible the only real thing I could supplement with would be more farming.
Long term versus short term
To grow as a gold maker you always need to be on the lookout for new markets. Either because you are not yet using all your time or resources (gold or characters) effectively, or to replace low-efficiency markets with higher efficiency ones as you get the gold needed to do that.
Entering new markets always carries a cost. You’ll spend time finding out how it works on your realm and fine-tuning an approach that works for you. I’ve done loads of adaptation on the token challenge, and I focus only on what has worked so far on the realm I play. More markets always takes up more capital, so in the context of a 30 days to a token challenge I’m really now at the limit of the crafting/flipping markets it makes sense to pursuse
Adding the next market is expensive
Adding new markets will usually lead to a short term decrease in liquid gold. There will always be a periiod where you invest and work towards the point where your sales are equal to the gold you spend. This will take a while though.
It can be discouraging to see your gold trend flat, or even downwards. Depending on your personality it could mean that you shouldn’t do it too often to avoid feelings of stress or burnout. On the other hand if you love risk or keep finding good niches on your realm you can reach some great heights by going as hard as possible.
Alternate pushes for scaling and consolidation
If you want to spend big on something then you should stick to your guns. Keeping it rolling at a level where everything works and you can generate a nice profit is perfectly fine. If you know you will reach your goals that way, then just scale back your new market experiments for a while.
You can also use this to plan out more periodically. Do two weeks where you work on new markets, then two weeks of consolidation where you just optimize the stuff you have that works. Rinse and repeat to get a good mix of experiments and potential for new riches and periods where you ensure that you actually generate the profits we are all hunting for.