Originally Posted by kelat
make use of your professions. if you have a gatherer profession, go "gather" stuff and then if you can sell over AH or just in trade chat. herbalists can gather purple lotus, swiftthistle, wildvine, gromsblood which are around 36 that sell well. miners can sell iron and mithril and gold. Leatherworkers obviously can sell stacks of leather. You can take those a step further with a crafting profession, such as alchemy, make swiftness pots or healing pots. Blacksmiths can make spurs and other cool stuff. engineers can make guns to sell on AH along with scopes and other stuff too. you can sell enchants, and not charge, but suggest that tips are welcome. as a tailor you can sell bags. jewel crafter can make jewelry stuff :P
i personally think using a gathering profession and selling on AH is an extremely easy way to make money. just undercut everything else, because even though you wont get a large a profit, youre increasing the chances that your auction gets sold over everyone else's.
at 36, you can farm silk cloth of humanoid mobs, but silk usually floods the AH, so thats probably not something you want to do. You can run instances, such as RFK, for XP and drops, hopefully getting drops that you can sell on AH for profit. Plus, you can sell the vendor trash for money, which adds up over time. try DLing Informant, which is part of the Auctioneer Addon for WoW that tells you how much individual items are worth when sold to a vendor.
you can buy gold, but there is always the risk that the gold wont arrive, and you'll be out 20 dollars. i bought gold a while ago really cheaply, which i must say helped ^_^ its a nice boost, but if thats not something you're cool with, then dont.
If i were you, i would suggest trying to level atm and worry about the money when you get closer to 40. itll probably be easier to get money when youre 40 and can kill stuff for drops, if need be. or just join a guild full of 'nice' people. :P buying gold is always an option if you just cannot get the gold, but i dont think you will need to. good luck