How To Make Gold in Cataclysm

If you haven't heard the buzz already ( it's all over my twitter account ) Obsidium Ore has been a great way to make gold with lately. I've been buying stacks for as cheap as 60g per, and turning an investment of 6,000g ( 100 stacks ) into 12, 14, and even 15,000g by prospecting this ore. It's insane the gold that there is to be made here, you just need to properly Identify, use and produce materials.

Identify the markets!
Identify which profitable markets you want to get into. Do you want to use the common gems to transmute them into rares and sell the rares at the AH once they're cut? Do you want to sell the common gems raw? Will that be worth it? Do you want to turn the common gems into rings and necks that once upon disenchanted will yield a 300% ROI? Identify the markets, do some research before hand.

Use the materials
After you've prospected the obsidium ore you'll want to use the materials properly. Use them accordingly to the research that you've done. I'll tell you exactly how I use my materials.

• Carnelians get turned into Carnelian Spikes, I DE them for essences - GREAT profit!
• Zephyrite & Nightstones get sold raw, especially when it's the day of the JC quest
• Jaspers get turned into Jaspar Rings, I DE them for enchanting mats - sell the rare ( blue ) rings at 99-200g/ea
• Hessonites gets turned into jewelry as well, DE and sell the materials - I sell them raw if above 20g per
• Alicites get sold raw most of the time - can be turned into jewelry and DE'ed but not too profitable

The thing with disenchanting stuff is that you have to be careful NOT to flood the market, the materials move, but at a rather slow pace. The carnelian spikes alone pay for most if not all of the price of the ore, making the rest of the materials that are obtained from the ore pure profit.

Do keep in mind this is what I'm doing with my ore, you could transmute the gems into rare gems and cut & list those at the AH. Transmutations do require some herbs, but in the end, it's worth it. The more rare gem cuts you have, the better.

Selling gems raw isn't a bad idea either, I normally have 5 of each gem up, and they almost always sell, why? Because people are still leveling their jewelcrafting, and they need those gems to level up. I save the Nightstones and Zephyrite for when it's the JC daily, I've sold nightstones for as much as 80g ea  and Zephyrites at 35g/ea. It's great profit, especially since they need three gems for the daily instead of one.

I've pushed as much as 20k per day using this strategy, it did take a lot of time, but it was worth it. It's easy gold after all, will you be trying this out?