A quick guide to making it on Gaia

Are you new, but curious as to how you can earn enough gold to afford that item that you want? I will not go into it in detail, but here are some basic steps that can help you out.

When you are starting out, there are many ways to make a good deal of gold:

- Do the beginner quest This gets you a good sum of gold to start out with and some items too. You can sell them later if you don’t like them.

- Daily Chance: This gives out a sum of gold and some items every day. Although it’s usually junk, sometimes you get items which you can actually use or sell for gold. Sofar, I’ve gotten as much as 250g from one click on the Daily Chance.

- Play Games Puzzles give out a good deal of money, especially for the harder puzzles.

- Post, Comment, Make Journal Entries, Pollwhore I make roughly 1000g a day just from posting around in the forums, surfing, voting on polls, making journal entries, and commenting on profiles. In just 10-12 days of doing that, I would have enough to buy a sealed letter of the current month without spending my own money. razz

- Sell your unwanted items If you don’t have a vending or trading pass yet, you can sell some of your unwanted items gained from daily chance in the shops. Generally, they go for less than the cost. But once you have 1500g for both a vending and trading pass, you can begin selling and trading your items for more gold. :3

- If you can, buy sealed letters
Some people fund their entire Gaia accounts by buying sealed letters for $2.50 US each. But I would not reccomend this if you do not have the cash to spare yourself, or your parents are not OK with it. I don’t fund my account with these, but I usually buy two a month with my own money. Items often go up in worth over time, and are a good investment. Plus, they’re addictive and fun to collect!

- Set up a quest thread.
If there’s an item you are questing for, set up a thread for it. Don’t beg and plead. Instead, place a link in your profile.

- Participate in raffles, giveaways, and contests
This is a great way to earn wanted items and gold. Although there is a good deal of competition. I look for giveaways that include items I want, and I also participate in Art Contests.

- Set up a shop or auction
This is, in my opinion, the best way to make gold. I go into the art shop process more in a later post. But this is how I fund my Gaia account, while also gaining some experience and giving me a chance to practice new techniques.

- Vend (buy low, sell high)
Once you earn roughly 10-30k from using the above methods you can begin vending by buying monthly collectible items for cheap and then selling them for higher. If you don’t have any marketable talents, this is the best way to make riches in a short amount of time.

Ways not to get gold and items

- Buying gold for real money
Do not use other sites to buy gold. This is against the TOS and can get you banned. You can buy Gaia Cash to purchase monthly collectibles or items in the shops for your avatar however.

- Hacking, Spamming, Asking for Passwords
Again, another bannable offense. Don’t steal from those who work for their money. It just shows laziness and a lack of respect for others and yourself.

- Unsolicited Begging
Gaians hate beggars. The more you beg and annoy, the less likely we are to give our gold and items away. There are lots of people out there who donate… but there are ways to go about getting a donation tactfully:

a. Be kind, courteous, and literate. Nice and intelligent people are a rarity on Gaia. Therefore, you will be more prone to getting a donation. Sure it’s more work to type out your words, but it goes a long way.

b. Mention offhandedly, or bring up a quest when the discussion calls for it. This requires a bit of tact, but I’ve actually gotten items that I want this way.

c. If someone inquires during an above discussion, you can send them to your donation thread. Don’t just randomly spam people right off the bat. I do this only when one person asks, or I ask others if they have their own threads or quests, and we share them as a form of networking.

d. Show interest in what others want too. Don’t be self-centered. Even if you really aren’t that interested in what others want, pretend. razz Usually, I am… but some people aren’t. But you can at least put up a very good facade that you do in fact, care. Try to help them out a bit too. You might be surprised to see the favor returned several fold in return later on by them or another stranger.