Introduction:
This is an idea I have been using for a while, and it just occurred to me to share this idea with Mmowned (exclusively, even!).
The idea is simple, when you pick a crafting profession at a low level, it is common to pick a gathering profession that assists it. For example, inscription/alchemy would go well with herbalism. This is true, but it is important to consider the economy when making a decision that many people consider a mindless one. Consider these two pictures:
Example:
This is a picture showing the [Copper Bar] market in my server's economy. Prices are a tad low at the moment, so take note of the market price x20 that auctioneer is giving me.
First of all, with this picture, I had bought out a little over 15 stacks of [Peacebloom], so please excuse the small volume of the herb at the moment. Once again, consider the market price x20 for this one.
Look at that! Auctioneer tells me (with a sample of just under 200) that [Peacebloom] goes for 1g 35s per stack, whereas [Copper Bar] goes for a whopping 25g 21s! That means that for every stack of [Copper Bar], I can get 18 stacks of [Peacebloom]!! Obviously I won't buy so much, but it means that one stack of [Copper Bar] will fund all my tier one herbs, allowing the rest to go to profit!
Conclusion:
Please, please, please do not just mindlessly follow my example. Check your server, and all the prices between ore and herbs. Another example is [Mageroyal] in my server being about the same price as [Tin Bar], and sometimes even more expensive; when I was posed with that situation, I got a person who had about 14 stacks posted to sell them to me for cheaper than the [Tin Bar], but not by that much. This just happens to be how my server works, so make sure your server is the same (or the exact opposite) before doing something like this. For me, it worked out, and I just want to make sure that everybody who is lucky enough to have a server like this takes advantage of it!
Hope this helped!
Amirite, signing off.