How to Find and Install Addons

Well it's Gold Making Basics Friday and today I want to talk about how to get, and install, addons. Auctioneer, Orecrusher, Trade Skill Master; if you read up on how to make gold in Warcraft you will constantly hear about these addons, but how do you get and install them?

Well in general there are two ways to get and install addons in Warcraft. 

1) Use the Curse gaming site and the Curse downloader.

     -Advantages: Automatic updates. Ease of use.

     - Disadvantages: You miss out on some information generally available at the actual addon's webpage (such as beta versions becoming available). In addition I have heard rumors for as long as I remember that some people have accidentally downloaded keyloggers and had their account compromised from using Curse. I've never been able to verify these rumors but the word is out there.

2) Go to the website of specific addons. Download from the website and manually install.

     - Advantages: You can learn about the addon straight from the horses mouth and get more information on updates, beta versions, etc. If you are using a reputable addon there is almost no chance of accidentally getting a keylogger installed.

     - Disadvantages: You have to manually check for updates periodically for each addon. Less convenient.

Once you decide how you want to get your addons this is what you do:

Option 1 (Using Curse)

Go to the Warcraft addon site here. From this page you can either search by typing in the name of the addon you want or by browsing one of the numerous categories. Once you find an addon you want you can either to choose to use the Curse downloader or to manually install.

If you want to manually install the addon simply click the button to download it to your computer. You can then skip the part below and go to Option 2 where I will explain how to install a manually downloaded addon.

If you want to use the Curse Downloader click the button and follow the prompts. It will install a special downloading program on your computer that you will be able to use to keep your addons up to date. Simply run the program anytime you want to check for updates to all of your addons and update as necessary.

Option 2 (Downloading directly)

In order to do this you will first need to know the name of an addon you want (you could go to Curse and browse through the categories to get names of addons you might want). Once you have the name of the addon you want google it and find the addon's website. As each website will be different I can't tell you exactly what you will see but there should be a link to download somewhere on the page along with instructions on what to do. You should always follow the instructions on the website but 95% of the time they will ask you to do the same thing. In general you simply download the files to your computer and then either move them or extract them to the addon folder within your Warcraft folder. This will depend a bit on where you installed Warcraft but it should look something like this:

My Computer -> C: -> Program Files -> World of Warcraft -> Interface -> Addons

Once all of these steps are done simply log into Warcraft and the addon should be working!

If you want help choosing addons be sure to check back tomorrow when I will talk about which addons I use to help make gold in Warcraft

Have fun making gold!

Inscription = Annoying but Annoying = Profits

Cold recently had a great post on how the constant changes to glyphs is one of many annoying things about inscription. I wholeheartedly agree with him but I would also like to point out that these constant changes also open a door to increased profit in two ways.

1) If you are the person who keeps up to date about glyph changes you are in luck because usually the new glyphs that Blizz adds to the game (or the glyphs that you have to relearn) sell for a good amount since many scribes won't have them.

2) If Blizzard releases a new technique that you have to buy in recipe form from a vendor you can make money by selling the recipe on the AH. There are still people who don't know Technique: Glyph of Colossus Smash on my server and while they rarely sell they sell at a HUGE markup.

So remember that while inscription is annoying as all get out it is usually the annoying things that lead to profits with this profession.

Have fun making gold!

Contest Time!

Recently I was contacted by Saate about how his blog at Massively Obsessed has just undergone a major overhaul and how to celebrate he was giving away sets of three TCG loot cards.His new site looks amazing and in  celebration Saate was kind enough to provide me with the loot codes for a Landro's Lil XT, Slashdance, and a Paintbomb card as long as I gave them away to readers. So thanks to Saate it is officially Contest Time!

So what is the contest? Well if you haven't noticed I have added an add for the JMTC gold guide over on the right of this blog. In addition I am seriously thinking about writing a gold guide of my own and possibly selling it. Now I doubt any of these things will, or should, make me rich but one thing which I would like to do is to give ten percent of all my online revenue to charity. Personally I would like to choose one charity a month so that I spread the giving around but truth be told I don't know too much about which charities are out there. I know I would like to give money to The Special Operations Warrior Foundation as I used to be in, and still have a lot of friends in, Special Operations and to The National Multiple Sclerosis Society as my father suffers from the disease. Besides these two charities though I am at a bit of a blank - and this is where you come in. I would like you to either e-mail me at bangkok.bill555@gmail.com or to leave a comment below telling me about your favorite charity and why it is your favorite charity before March 12th, 2011. You can enter as may times as you would like (one charity = one entry - but please include each charity in a separate e-mail or comment). I will pick charities to give to from the list of charities you guys provide and I will randomly choose three entries to receive one of the loot cards on March 13th, 2011. Charities get money and you guys get Trading Card Game loot so everyone wins! 

Now please, go and find me some charities!

How to Track People With Strange Letters in Their Name

Fluxdada from Powerword: Gold and Riftstalker made great comment on my last post about how some people will put strange letters in their name to make it harder for people to add them to their friends list. I am sure we have all seen people like this. They'll have names like Ottô or Àanada or Sëert.

Once you know how to type in names like these it really isn't that hard. Most, if not all PCs, should come with a character map. On my computer (Windows) I simply have to go to Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Character Map. You should get a tool that looks like this:

Simply click on the letter that is in the person's name and at the bottom right of the window a keystroke code will appear. Type this code into your add friend window in Warcraft and the letter will show up. 

If you have and use a Macintosh I can't tell you exactly how to find the character map as I don't have access to one. Simply google character map and mac though and you will find tons of results showing you how to do it.

I hope this helps you ensure you get all of your competitors added to your friends (or enemies) list.

Have fun making gold!