The Ultimate Guide to Gaining Gold on Gaia

[ThanatosRising]

Important Notice - November 13th, 2009: I no longer have time or energy to maintain this guide. I will no longer be updating it or checking back on it.

Note: While comments, questions, and notes relating to this thread and it's subject are more than welcome, please DO NOT BUMP, ADVERTISE, SPAM, OR QUOTE FIRST POSTS here. IT WILL BE DELETED. Thanks <3

NO BEGGING FOR GOLD. I made this thread so that you could learn how to make it yourself. PM's asking me for gold or items, or how to make gold will be ignored and deleted.

It's what everyone wants. Some people find it exceptionally hard to get gold. Other's seem to have no problems getting it at all. There are, in fact, many ways of getting gold on Gaia. Some are obvious, other's you may not have considered. So to help new members (and maybe even a few of you who have been around for awhile) on gaining gold, I have created this guide. I know there were some in the past, but I haven't seen an up to date one in awhile. So read on, and maybe it'll make you a little richer.

A Small Warning: Use of games, trades, marketplace and many other things are used as-is. This means that if you lose gold due to a glitch, Gaia is under no obligation to reimburse you. I wouldn't worry too much about this, however, as while some incidents occur, the majority of users rarely experience extreme issues.

If you have any more tips or idea's on how to make gold, by all means post them, and I'll update this page. Also, I'm looking for links and guides to more in depth things mentioned here. (Such as how to play Blackjack, or Exchange Guides)

(I know there's already guides on this, but I'm hoping to make this one more up to date and complete. Also, this is my first guide, so if anyone has any tips and suggestions, by all means, put them forth.)

Also see Gaia's official page for a quick run-through of some of the more common ways of making gold: About Gaia Gold.


Disclaimer: I am NOT an exchanger, I don't follow the trends and patterns of the marketplace. I'm not informed enough to answer questions like which item would be a better investment. If you ask, I can give your a personal opinion, but it may not be accurate.

Thread Mods: - Listen to them!
Pixelated Chibiety
Nabee

Special thanks to Pixelated Chibiety for all of her support. heart

Post 1: Introduction
Post 2: What You'll Need
Post 3: Making Gold Around the Site & Forums
Post 4: Making Gold from Games
Post 5: The Item Exchange System
Post 6: Going a Little Further
Post 7: How Not to Lose Gold
Post 8: A Few Little Tips
Post 9: Misc

[ThanatosRising]

In order to -really- make a fortune on Gaia you will need one very important things. And that is a trading pass, which you must purchase at the bank. The bank is accessible through

-Market > Trade
-OR-
-World > (World Map) > Isle De Gambino > Bank

The Trading Pass will cost you 500g, but with it you will be able to receive trades from others, as well as give to other's in return.

As of September 2007, the need for a Vending License as been revoked. Those who have bought one will eventually be getting a refund of 1K. To replace the vending license, Gaia has implemented a 2% fee on all sales.

In other words, whatever you sell on Gaia, 2% of the profits will be taken and simply deleted altogether from the system, to help cut down on inflation. It's best to keep this in mind when selling larger items (and perhaps if you're overly concern, sell it on the exchange instead). It's also good to know if you're playing the marketplace, so you can adjust your buying habits accordingly.

Bank of Gambino
The Marketplace

[ThanatosRising]

There are several ways of making gold, just on the forums alone. These are the simplest ways of going about doing it. There will be more ways of making gold around the site and forums, that I will address later on in the "Going a little Further" section. So how can you make gold about the site?

1. Surf! Just surfing the web page can sometimes give you gold. Every page you click on (besides profiles), has a chance of giving you gold, usually between 1-4 gold.

2. Daily Chance.

Especially for people who are new, the daily chance often hands out gold, tokens, most trash/flower/bug/exchange related items, and there's always the possibly of winning a new item. Sure, some of the stuff you get may seem useless, but everything you get on Gaia can get you a little gold if you know how.

3. Reply to Topics.

When surfing the forum and you see a topic, don't be shy about putting in your info. If you do it in a nice and polite fashion, most people will be nice and polite back. (There are occasionally some people who are mean just for the sake of it - trolls and flamers - just ignore them.) Make sure that you're post is relevant to the topic on hand though!

Note: The length of your posts does not effect how much gold you get. A single word reply will get the same amount of gold as a long reply. Keeping this in mind, don't spam short responses inappropriately, but at the same time, don't pad your posts with pointless things thinking it'll get you more gold.

Also, Nocturnal Static says that if you post over 100 posts in a day, the amount of gold you get begins to increase again. Since I haven't heard anything of this, if anyone else would like to confirm or deny it, please leave a note.

4. Post your own Topics.

Posting your own topics is also a good way to make gold. Just make sure you read the rules of each individual forum, and don't post in the wrong place. When all else fails, and you don't know where to post something, have a field day in the Chatterbox.

Note: You only get gold for topics you make, and your own replies. You do NOT get gold for replies that other Gaian's make in your thread.

5. Beg. A lot of people don't like it when you beg. But if you're polite, and do it in the proper place, there should be no problems. Try asking in the Chatterbox, or if you're after a specific item, try the Charity and Quest forum. Don't hijack or ask in other people's threads though. Make sure to make your own thread!

Note: Do -not- pm people randomly to ask for donations. This counts as spam and can get you warned. In fact, all unsolicited begging is warnable, so make sure you -only- do it in your own threads, or in places where they give your permission.

6. Polls. Take polls! They give you gold as well.

7. Post comments in people's profiles.

8. Vote -and- comment in the arena's.

There are three arena's, the Art, Avatar, and House arena's. You get gold for voting and commenting in all of these. Just make sure you're comments are relevant and aren't spam! Also, be sure to not just arbitrarily vote for the gold. Look at what you see and vote fairly in your opinion.

9. Write entries in your Gaian Journal.

The Chatterbox
Charity/Quests
The Arenas
THE List of Charities

[ThanatosRising]

There are several games. Some cost money to play, other's are free. If you're careful, and know what you're doing, you can make gold with all of them. Items can be sold at the Game Item Exchange Subforum, and are a good way to make income if you're good at games and spend a lot of time there.


1. Gaia Slots
This is probably the most risky of all the games, as it is completely luck based. You buy tokens, which can be bought at Gold Mountain for 1g, cheaper from users and the Marketplace. Then use them on the slots. If you win, you gain tickets. (Which are worth more then tokens.) However, it is entirely luck based. You can spend thousands of gold in tokens and only get back 500 tickets. Or, you can play one game and win 300K in tickets. It all depends on luck.

Pixelated Chibiety

If you're looking for Tokens, you can buy them for less than 1G in the Game Item Exchange Subforum. Often times, users who don't play Slots or Cards are looking to get rid of the Tokens they get from Daily Chance. You can make your own thread stating how much you'll buy a Token for (Ex. "Buying Tokens for .7G each!" wink or scout through threads to find users who have Tokens and are looking to get rid of them.

2. Gaia Cards
Another game that uses tokens, so you'll have to purchase those first. Far more reliable then Slots, as there's an actual strategy to it. I usually break even (meaning that if I use 1000 tokens, by the end of the game I'll have won 1000 tickets.) This does depend on luck and strategy, so results may vary.

Tobira

As far as Cards go, my friend taught me a very effective way of winning almost all the time.

9 and below - Hit
10 or 11 - double down IF your two cards add up to more than the dealer's card. If not, hit.
12-16 - Hit if the dealer's card is a 7 or higher. Stand otherwise.
17+ - Stand

Now, there's no guarantee you'll always win but this strategy has almost guaranteed that I win one and a half to two times profit in tickets (So...if I put in 1,000 tokens, I win 1,500 or 2,000 tickets)

What do you do with tickets though? You can either save them for Prize and Joy items (which sell for a lot on the marketplace), or you can sell the tickets themselves on the marketplace. Depending on how patient you are, you can get away with selling them for 2-4g, maybe even more. At the very least, if you've broken even, you can double the actual amount of gold you put in!


3. Gaia Jigsaw
In Jigsaw you can win gold or items. The gold you get depends on how fast you complete the puzzle, and at what level. (Note: Tanua points out that it may not be how fast you complete the puzzle, but rather in how many clicks you can complete it that affects how much gold you get. There's also a chance to win items as well; framed artwork to display in your house. (Or sell on the marketplace) There's also a chance of winning random NPC store items (both wearable and housing) as well. FuzzyMonkyz reminds me that, like most things on Gaia, if you play a puzzle too much, you'll get less and less gold each time you play it, though it gets reset around midnight PST.

A few tips from yume_miko - First, if you focus and practice a few of the same puzzles over and over again, you'll eventually learn them well enough to do them really fast and get gold quicker. Another tip from her: If you're doing an insane-level puzzle, save before you finish, then leave it for awhile. When you come back to it, you'll get more gold.


4. Word Bump
In this game, you can win many things. You win gold, credits that can be traded in at Edmund's Item Exchange, and even housing and clothing items. The higher level you manage to get in the game, the greater the rewards are, (IE, more gold per each level, better credits, etc) and on every 30th level or so you win an item. (BrightLuna points out that the specific items you get are completely random however, and an item you get on level 30 could be better or worse than on level 60.)






5. Gaia Fishing
In order to fish you need to buy bait and own a fishing rod. The better the rod the easier it is to catch fish, and the better the bait the better the fish that you catch. Fish can be sold to the stores, marketplace, or used at Logan's Item's Exchange to get items. There's also a very high chance of getting garbage.

There are three Fishing Hole's to fish in, each with a harder difficulty than the last: Bass‘ken Lake, Port of Gambino, & Durem Reclamation Factory.

For more information on how to fish and what you can get from it check out Fishing Ubersticky.


6. Rally
The Rally is a place to hang out and chat with people, as well as race people for fun. In addition to this, depending on the sponsor, there is often a wheel you can spin for free items/gold. It is not always there, it is sponsor dependent, but it's good to check it out.









7. Gaia Towns
There are many ways of getting items and gold in towns. Shaking trees, bushes, and rocks give you a chance of getting gold. Also, there is -tons- of garbage, flowers, and bugs for you to collect, all of which can get you gold if you know how to go about doing it.

You may be wondering what to do with all this garbage, flowers, and bugs you've been collecting. Well the next post will tell you how to make money from them, as well as about the Gaia Item Exchange.

Sundey PM'd me with her own strategy for making gold off games. She brings up some good tips on fast and easy ways to make gold without going through the marketplace hassle.

Sundey

There's something that I do, that helps me earn gold really quickly. I go play the games, and collect as many items as I can, and with bugs, create ink. From there, go to the towns exchange forum (Thana's Note: The Gaia Item Exchange), and there people will be asking to buy your junk off of you. If you have a trading pass, then just send it to them, and they'll send gold or better items in return. For me, I gain gold really quickly, and I'm sure it would help everyone else. I know people try to sell their junk in the marketplace, and it doesn't sell, but there...the people are specifically looking for those items.

Or for those who don't mind the marketplace...

valkry profile apples

One way I found to make money that is extremely tedious and time consuming but over time will give a decent return is to buy the stuff on the marketplace for 1g, flowers or bugs or whatever. Sometimes you can get more than one for 1g, but that doesn't matter much. You get the 4g for surfing, usually at least once for every 2 items purchased, sometimes more often so you're at least doubling your money there, and you can sell the items back later, also making money for surfing on top of whatever you get for selling things. This is how I got my start up money. I had about 10g to my name and by the end of the night (it was like 6 or 7 hours later mind you) I had several hundred. It's not for everyone, but it does work biggrin

8. Gaia Pinball
Click here for Gaia's official FAQ on Pinball.
The newest game on Gaia. Basic Pinball game, playing the game grants a certain amount of gold depending on how many points you get. Also, if you get a fairly high score (Starting at 1 million points), the game starts granting special Pinball only equipable items as prizes. The game also grants various power ups if you can hit the ball into Barton Shop.


9. Gaia Virtual Lounge
For those who can't get away from Gaia even while not on Gaia. Virtual Lounge, also known as the OMG widget is a mini Gaia hang out you can add to your Facebook or Bebo profile. It allows you to hang out with out Gaia users using the widget, originally allowing you to earn exclusive items, but now I believe it's just gold.



See:
http://www.facebook.com/
http://www.bebo.com/



10. Gaia VJ
For those who can't get away from Gaia even while not on Gaia. Virtual Lounge, also known as the OMG widget is a mini Gaia hang out you can add to your Facebook or Bebo profile to. It allowes you to hang out with out Gaia users using the widget, and earn exclusive items and gold at the same time.



11. Gaia Aquarium
An Aquarium with fish you can feed and decorate it to suit your own taste. You can gain a small bonus each day, by clicking on the Overseer (an oyster), who rewards you prizes of random value. When you fish dies, you also are granted a Fish Drop, which gives you a random free item.

Additionally, a new Aquarium related game was recently added. Booty Grab is a game you can play when you spot a glowing fish in someone's aquarium. Playing the game wins gold for both you and the aquarium owner. This is a super great way to make gold very quickly, definitely one of the more efficient ways of making gold on Gaia.

Click here to view "Your Tank and You: An Aquarium Guide List" for more guides on Aquariums.


12. Electric Love Factory
Electric Love Factory, also known as ELF, is the newest game from Gaia. It resembles the old Plumber game some of you may be familiar with, only in this game you're connecting circuits to get electricity flowing to build a robot. (Or something like that.) As you pass more levels, you win gold and items.





13. zOMG!
zOMG! is a casual MMORPG that has just been released, after a long wait. One could write an epically long guide based on this along, with how huge a game it is, but that's a bit beyond the scope of the guide. For one of the defining guides on zOMG check out Bria's Guide to you zOMG Adventures.

There are, of course, various ways to make gold using this, like all ways on Gaia, though. Here are the three main ways, and if I think of more, I'll add some.

1. Tasks. Completing tasks not only gives you shards, to create recipes, orbs which not only make your rings more powerful but also worth more the more you level them, but also often provides gold and recipe's and other such rewards.

2. Farming. Simply going around, smacking and killing things will grant you occasional drops. Farming is when you play for the sole purpose of gaining these items. Doing so can gain you gold, rings, recipe's, and raw material's which you can use to make things with or sell as is.

3. Crafting. Taking the raw material's, shards, and recipe's you have and making them into something new to sell at Nicolae's exchange. I'll touch more upon this in the Item Exchange section.


14. Gold Lotto
Gold Lotto, like any other lottery, is a game of chance. You can play every day and win nothing.. Alternatively, you could play once and win big. If you're not careful, you will lose more gold than you make.

You have the option of buying Power Picks with real money, these help increase your odds of winning, however once again, there is no guarantee that you will win when using them.

If you want to play this game and not go broke while playing, make sure you never spend more in lotto than you make in a week. If you make 70-100k+ a week playing Booty Grab than by all means, go spend 20k a week on lotto tickets. If you're making less than 20k a week however, it's advisable that you don't play the lotto as often, or don't max out your tickets when you play. Scale with what you can afford.

Gaias Games
Gold Mountain / Prize and Joy
Bass‘ken Lake / Port of Gambino / Durem Reclamation Factory
Game Item Exchange Subforum
The Mini Games Guide
Gaia Cards FAQ
A Gamblers Guide to Gold Mountain Blackjack
The Definitive Gaia Blackjack Guide, version 2.0
Beginners Guide to Jigsaw Puzzles
[GUIDE] GAIA Jigsaw
[GUIDE] The word BUMP guide
Fishing Ubersticky
Gaia FAQ/Help - Pinball
A Guide to Fish Happiness
Aquarium FAQ
Your Tank and You: An Aquarium Guide List
Bria's Guide to you zOMG Adventures.

[ThanatosRising]

So how do you get rid of all that trash and misc items you've collected. There are a few options. You can sell it on the marketplace, make a shop in the proper forum (The Gaia Item Exchange, for the record) Or you can use the Gaia Exchange system to trade your misc items in for better items, which you can then wear for your avatar or sell for cash. Also, check out the Fish Exchange Guide and Towns Items Exchange System Guide for complete details on what to do with all this stuff.

1. Rina's Item Exchange

Rina is located at the Barton Flower Shoppe. Rina's is the least useful of the exchanges, as she is one of the few people who requires gold from you to make the item. What does Rina do? She takes your flowers and turns them into bouquets. Depending on how many flowers you want in your bouquet, the price increases.

You can also use ink (that you get from Moira's Exchange) to change the color of the the Bouquet's wrapper paper, as well as the ribbons.

2. Logan's Item Exchange

Logan is located at The Ole Fishing Hole. Here you can sell your fish for gold (Fish are one of the few mini-game items that can be sold in stores). Or you can exchange your fish for better fish, or you can exchange your fish for items. Generally speaking, unless your questing for a certain amount of a type of fish, or a certain item, you probably don't want to trade your fish in for bigger fish (It's not worth it if you just want gold).

Also, if you have an obscenely large amounts of cans, tires, or boots (Also the only trash in the game that can be sold in stores) you can trade them in for rare items. But you need a lot to do so - for instance, you need 5,000 cans to make a Tin Hat.

3. Peyo's Item Exchange

Peyo is the cute little son of Ruby's, both of which are at the Gambino Hat Rack. Here, you can trade your paper garbage in exchange for an assortment of different types of hat-wear.

4. Moira's Item Exchange

Moira, of Durem Depot, allows you to exchange your bugs for different colored inks. You need 50 of a color of bug in order to make basic ink colors.

5. Edmund's Item Exchange

Edmund, of H&R Wesley, allows you to exchange School Credits (Bachelors, Masters, etc) for various school related items like graduation hats and the like.

6. Rufus' Item Exchange

Rufus, Ian's pet cat, is in charge of the Event Exchange. It's located in the Barton Boutique. Here, you can exchange certain event-only items (like clovers and the like) for better items related to the event. (Note that this is only available during certain events!)

7. Devin's Item Exchange

Devin is in charge of the long awaited Tattoo System. He's one of the workers of the Skin Tyte store, where you can mix inks to make more rare inks, and exchange inks and gold to trade for tattoo's, which you can then wear and sell like most other items.

8. Nicolae's Item Exchange

Nicolae (or more affectionately known as Nicu to most), is in charge of the Recipe Exchange. Here you can take the raw items, recipe's, and shards you own and turn them into actual items you can equip. This also costs gold, so it's better that you check out the going price of the item you plan to make on the Marketplace. More common and oft-made items cost far less on the marketplace, and it would be cheaper to buy the item there and sell the raw material's separately. But for some of the more rare, lesser made drops and items, you can make a nice bit of gold through creating and selling them.

Barton Flower Shoppe/Rinas Exchange
The Ole Fishing Hole/Logans Exchange
Gambino Hat Rack/Peyos Exchange
Durem Depot/Moiras Exchange
H&R Wesley/Edmunds Exchange
Barton Boutique/Rufus Exchange
Skin Tyte/Devins Exchange
Back Alley Bargain's/Nicolae's Exchange
The Fish Exchange: How to Get Nifty Hats and Other Stuff
[GUIDE] B.U.G
Towns Items Exchange System Guide

[ThanatosRising]

These aren't the only ways of making gold however. Here are some other ways of making gold that take a bit more effort, or may not be suitable for all member's for various reasons.

1. Buy Monthly Collectibles

If you have 2.50$ American, and are allowed to buy items online (make sure to ask your parents if you're not old enough to do it on your own!) you can make 10K easily! Sealed Letters have been going for 10K on the marketplace recently, sometimes even higher. Or, you can save your item and keep it for the future - there's a high chance it will be worth even more.

First Dawn also points out a few useful things. Usually, but not always, the letters increase in price to about 15K instead of 10K. So it's best to buy them in the beginning and sell them mid-month for 15K

Keep an eye on the prices though, since sometimes this number will be less or even more than 15K. Also, since they are more expensive in the middle of the month, and usually drop down in the end, you can sell your letters early on and re-buy them cheaper. Note that this might not always work, and in some cases they may get more expensive, so it's a risk.

Kyrillos

Just thought I'd throw in my two cents from experience on exchanging. Use at your own discretion:

Generally, Letters and MC's are easier to exchange than Casino/Game items. Also, the higher in value you go, the more likely the person will want substantial amounts of pure [gold only] or will be more willing to want to do things in ONE trade. Also, exchanging requires patience. Usually you can buy items cheaper in the Exchange, as it's a bartering system, rather than a store/booth system like the Market Place.

You can make a substantial amount of money by buying Sealed Envelopes at the beginning of the month, and SELLING them ON the 15th. You can keep a few for yourself, but usually the items will deflate by the first of next month. Buy letters for cheaper [11-13k] and sell them on the 15th for whatever the going price is at the time, after the item is released.

Another, slower, way to exchange is to take an item, and save it, hoping it goes up. This is similar to a stock market. The item can rise or fall in price. This is just another way of doing it.

The exchange is as big of a risk as any other part of the Gaian economy, it's all about having luck. I bought a Demonic Pitchfork in March for 190k, and all it's done is decrease to 170k. It's all luck.

2. Become an Exchanger
Different from the Item Exchange, as I mentioned. Basically, you scour the marketplace and exchange, looking for under priced goods and selling them for a higher price. It's the basic buy low, sell high principle at work. To do this properly, you need a nice bit of gold to start off (10-20K), but once you do, you can make thousands of gold in weeks. Check out "How to Make Your First 100K Without Begging or Bumping" for more info.

3. Make a Quest.
An easy way to make gold is if you make a quest. Is there a specific item you want? Well go to the Quest and Charity forum, set up a nice thread, and there's a chance people will help. The more you bump your thread, the more chances of people noticing and donating. And, by bumping, you're making gold towards your quest as well. But please, be serious! Don't lie about your quest to get money.

Note: This type of questing is different from the official Quest System. The term questing was invented before the official system was implemented, and the name stuck. Don't confused user run quests with official quests.

Short Guide to Setting Up a Quest Thread

4. Get a job!
Do you have a talent for something? Can you draw? Code profiles? Absolutely adore bumping for other people's threads? Head on over to the Minishop forum and set up a thread. There's all sorts of things you can do, as long as you have the imagination for it. Set up, and keep at it, and you're bound to find someone who will pay you for your time and talents.

Quote:

Could you tell me more about the mini stores?

How do you know if people are looking, how do you 'advertise' and is there a way to look at other peoples?

Extended answer here.

Quote:

how do you sell art

Extended answer here.

5. Enter contests, lotteries, lotto's, etc.
There's all sorts of contests out there. Bump contests, art contests, coloring contests, random draws. It never hurts to try, and at the very least, you're posting and being active which gets you gold. At the most, you win the jackpot and become instant-rich.

Occasionally, Gaia hosts its own official contests as well, with various prizes, to keep an eye out for this as well.

5.2. Make your own contests. Specifically avatar contests. If you charge 2 people 600 gold to enter, and give the winner 1000 gold, you can keep 200 gold as profit. A lot of Avatar contests are run like this.

6. Holiday Events!

Gaia has a lot of events, depending on the season. Participate in them, collect the items. They may not sell for much now, but in the future they'll inflate and you'll get a nice bit of gold from it.

7. Random Events

The random events you can get are as followed:
Magical Brown Giftbox - Contains Uncommon Items
Magical Blue Giftbox - Contains Uncommon & Rare Items
Magical Pink Giftbox - Contains Rare Items
Enchanted Wooden Trunk - Contains Uncommon House Items
Enchanted Golden Trunk - Contains Rare House Items
Lucky Chest - In order to open it you need a Luck Key which you can pay 99 Gaia Cash for. The item you get will always be worth more than 99 Gaia Cash, making a good deal for those who spend cash on the website.
Pink Link - A link in the forums that has been colored pink. If you click on it, you 1,000g. Lanzer implied in the March 18th, 2008 Ask the Admin Thread that Pink Links were removed as they were incompatible with the new layout and easy to bot.

You're normally able to find any of these surfing around the site, and any of the gift boxes and trunks minus the Lucky Chest while wandering about Towns. Lucky Chest is found on the website and in Aquariums.

8. Enter the Avatar Arena and Contest Arena

Only the avatar arena actually give you prizes. Now, this is risky risky. First, for most you have to pay gold to enter. On top of that, if you don't make the top 10, you don't get any gold at all. However, if you do win, you get a nice sum of money, and fame to go along with it.

With the new arena coming out, a Contest section has been added. This provides other opportunities to win via the Arena's that aren't solely based on avatars alone.

9. Join A Guild
If you're having difficulties settling in at the forums for various reasons - you don't like the trolls and spam, you're shy and don't like such a large audience, you're looking for something a but more focused; try finding a guild and joining it. There's all sorts, from role-playing to poll-whoring, so you're sure to find something you're comfortable with.

BlueK250

I'll tell you what really helped me was finding a good guild to join.

Try and find a more experienced guild with older members, who seem to be more charitable than others.

For example, on the third day of joining my guild, I headed over to the quest and charity section and asked for the Elemental Hair item. And wouldn't you know it, that same day, a nice member of my guild traded her Elemental Hair for just 100G!

But remember, If you're joining a guild, don't do it just for the free stuff.

10. Invite Friends
If you have friends who you think would like to join Gaia, by all means invite them. If they sign up, they'll get an extra 200 gold and you'll get an extra 100 gold per person you get to sign up. You can gain up to 5,000g doing this.

I'm pretty sure the random bonus increases such as wooden trunks have been removed, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Please note however, that making mules for the sole purpose of getting the bonus is frowned upon by Gaia, and can get you and the mules banned.

11. Purchase Gaia Cash
Previously known as Gift Credits, the system was later changed to Gaia Cash and the entire system was reworked. Now, in stores, items have two prices. Gold, and Gaia Cash. Gaia Cash, like the previous Gift Credits, is bought with real money, and can be used in NPC stores and buying MC's.

The prices to purchase Gaia Cash are as follows:
500 Cash = 5$
1000 Cash = 10$
2500 Cash = 25$
5000 Cash = 50$

This may seem more expensive now, but the system has changed. For instance, Fairy Wings at 40K are only 667 Cash. In the old system, you'd have to pay 20$ for a pair of wings, now it's less than 10$.

12. Ghost Sheets
Since a few people have mentioned this, I'm going to add this. If you're feeling lucky, pick up a Refurbished Sheet from Barton's Boutique. You can take it and turn it into a ghost sheet. You can do this under your main inventory. (Shortcuts > My Inventory, under the Special tab btw.) There are several different styles (like the Howling Ghost and Angel Ghost.) Which ghost sheet you get is random and depends completely on luck however.

If you're unlucky you'll get a sheet under 100g and lose money. If you're lucky however, the ghost sheet maybe be one of the styles over 100g and you can sell it on the marketplace for profit.

13. Cash Shop
The newest shop in Gaia, the Cash Shop items can be purchased using only Gaia Cash, which was mentioned just a bit above. You can make gold easily if you buy these and then sell them on the marketplace. Also, as in the future, some of the items in the Cash Shop will not be permanent, you can save some of the items for when they inflate in price at a later date, as many people do with MCs.

14. Gaia Quests
Occasionally Gaia announces various quests, which users can participate in. These quests can be anything from sponsored/promotional quests to quests that involve the story plot. While occasionally, a quest requires you to spend gold, more often then not it is a way for you get get free quest items that you can keep, or sell later on. The quests are usually made available through announcements, though on rare occasions other means are used.

15. Gaia Store and Real Life Promotions
Some things to look out for, occasionally Gaia will release gift cards at various stores that come with bonus items. Sometimes at their merchandise store, when you buy items they'll come with a free item or will award gold to your account. Be on the look out for such deal, especially if you're were considering purchasing something to begin with, as the extra bonus is always fun.

Also, if you can go to an official Gaia convention, sometimes they have the Gaia Wheel you can spin to win an item, you could win anything, including something really really expensive if you're super lucky.

16. Gaia Alerts
For those who want to keep tabs on Gaia all the time you can sign up for alerts. They will alert you of pm's, comments, friend requests, announcements and such directly to your e-mail. Additionally, if you're in the US and your provider supports it you can receive these alerts via cellphone.

Signing up for these services also gets you gold. You get 1000g for the first time signing up for phone alerts, 250g for e-mail, and 50g for every month you stay subscribed. Just be aware that while free, cell-phones may have a standard charge for receiving text messages. Make sure to check with your phone carrier provider before deciding, so you don't get any surprise bills.

16. Gaia Toolbar
Downloading the toolbar and using it gives you a 400g bonus for downloading it. You also get gold just for using it. Available for Internet Explorer and Firefox.

17. Gaia IM
Gaia IM is an instant message program that allows you to chat with your Gaia friends directly. You can ear up to 200 g a day, or 6000 gold a month simply by using the program and talking with friends.

Collectible Item Info
Invite Friends to Gaia
Mini Shops
The Gaia Exchange
How to be an Exchanger
The Stock Market: How To Make Tons Of Gold Using The Market
Playing the stocks.
New Light on Rare Events!
Eshals Guide to Making a Winning Avatar
Quest System FAQ
[GUIDE] The GAIA Quest System
GAvSim Quest Info
Tektek Gaia Quest Info

[ThanatosRising]

An important part of gaining gold is not losing it. There are many mistakes you can do that can cause you to lose your gold, or even worse - your entire account. Here are some tips to watch out for. Also, make sure to check out the following links for more info: Avoid Getting Hacked! and Get your strong password; while theyre HOT!

1. Make Decisions Wisely
Didn't like your gender? Want to change your name? You can only do each of these twice before you have to pay 10K to do it again. Want to delete your avatar? Remember, you'll lose any salon bought hair. Not sure if you'll like an item, preview it before you buy. Be sure of your decision before you make it.

2. Your Signature.
Make sure your signature is the proper size (500X500 pixels). Also, make sure the -file- size isn't over 100,000 bytes as well, or your sig could be disabled. You'd have to pay to get it back if this happens.

3. Don't Break Simple Rules
Sure, trolling forums and sending chain-letters may seem ok once in awhile. But if you make a habit of it, and do it too often, you could get banned, and then all of your work will go to waste, and you'll have to start over. It's better to follow the rules and not risk this happening. Don't think you can get around this by making a mule to cause trouble on either. If you get caught, your main can be punished for actions on a mule.

4. Pay Attention to Details.
Check your trades over carefully, and don't be in a rush. When selling items in the marketplace, make sure you're writing the proper figures, and that lag doesn't cause you to under price. If you're rushing, you might miss something, and that something might cause you to lose gold.

5. Don't Bot!
Gaia has ways of knowing when you bot, and if they catch you doing it you will get banned. Botting includes the use of auto-refreshers!

6. Don't EVER give out your password information
Not to anyone. Someone who may seem a friend may turn out not to be. You should never hand out your password to strangers, nor people promising free gold, people who threaten to hack, or even if they say they are a mod or admin. Don't post your password on any site that is not Gaia, or to anyone in any e-mail. Almost every time, it will be someone who wants your account information, so they can log in and steal your stuff. It's never for your benefit, no matter what they may say.

A lot of times, especially selling expensive items in the Marketplace, you can get scam PM's, but anyone can get them any time. They'll accuse you of hacking, of botting, etc. They're liars who are just trying to scam you.

saturnwonder

In Thana's 'How Not to Lose Gold' post he talks about hackers and how they can trick you into sending them your Username and Password.

One specific PM that is floating around is one stating they're a Moderator OR Administrator and they need your Username and Password to fix a problem. They may look like they are because you can't see their avi, BUT IT'S A FAKE! If there was really a problem the admins and mods would E-Mail you, not PM you.

Don't fall for this trick! I'm still recovering from an almost hacking that started with a PM like the one spoken of above. I'm in a turtle shell because I'm scared of a still hacking that might take place.

Remember that if you get a PM like this, CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD TOO!! Just to be on the safe side 3nodding

I just want to mention once more, the mods and admins will -never- have to ask for your password. Not by PM, e-mail, or IMing. They don't need one. Even if they say there's an error it's a lie. Don't ever believe them, no matter how persist they seem and report it right away. Hell, even if a mod -did- ask for your password - you could report them too!

7. Beware of suspicious donations an deals.
First and foremost, this is more to err on side of absolute caution than a true concern. Gaia moderators do not simply ban users because someone donated them botted gold or items. In most cases, if you did unknowingly receive illegitimate items, the items and gold will simply be removed from your account.

That being said, if you're still worried, there are a few things to keep an eye out for. Most of it falls under the "If it's too good to be true, it probably is" train of thought. If a user you've never met or had contact before donates that AFK you've been questing for, you might want to rethink accepting.

Someone selling 03' items on the Exchange way below their normal price? Nitemare Mini's selling for 24g in the Marketplace? Chances are, someone's up to no good. A new account, dressed in newb clothes? It could be a new user with lots of money to spend on Gaia Cash or a mule, but they could be trying to pawn off hacked items. Likewise to old accounts that have suddenly been stripped to nothing raises red flags.

Please be aware that moderators don't do trade checks unless the item is exceedingly suspicious (Complete stranger donating millions of gold or 03 items, for example.) Despite this, you shouldn't worry about receiving hacked items, as Gaia tries to be as fair as possible. Regardless, if you're still worried, err on the side of caution. Cancel trades you find suspicious, and don't purchase items you're weary over. If you accept an item but late think it's suspicious, just keep the item on your account without trading or selling it.

8. Don't purchase Gaia gold or items for real money.
This is a major breach of Gaia's TOS. If you purchase any item on Gaia for real money, there are several risks. First, since it's not authorized by Gaia, what you buy may never even be sent to you. You risk losing real money. It's also going likely to get you permabanned if you're caught. Additionally, since most gold or items are either hacked or botted, you're supporting and encouraging others to break the rules, and it also wreaks havoc on the economy. Boo.

Please note that this doesn't apply to buying Gaia Cash, Cash Shop Items and MC's from the official website or from stores that sell Gaia Cash Cards. Obviously if you're buying items from Gaia or from the various offline stores that Cash Cards are available from, then it's not against the rules. This applies solely to third-party websites or people.

9. Don't use the same username/password combo everywhere.
After the whole Subeta/420Chan hacking fiasco, I feel the need to bring this up. It's very unwise to use the same Username/Password combo for everything. If even one of the sites gets hacked, then you lose everything. If you have different username/password combo's for different sites, then you'll only lose out on the site that was directly hacked.

10. The Giftbox Scam

Giftboxes are not longer can be traded or sold on the marketplace, so you don't need to worry about this scam so much anymore.

Dokusei REIN

Please add this as well.

There have been people sending others pms saying that they will give you 2003 items for the items in your store.....but they will only give them in gifts. [As in the one you can wrap yourself] They are usually things like starter things, so please be careful and only accept pure items. Not in boxs and such!!!

As Dokusei REIN points out, many scammers will use this technique. They'll say they'll send you an expensive item if you trade them one of your own, or give them gold. However, they will refuse to sell the item itself, but rather in a wrapped box. Don't confuse these boxes with Magical Giftboxes. They are very different looking, and come from the Gift Giving system which allows users to wrap up any item and send as a gift.

Inside this item will not be an expensive item, but some starter item of sort. So if you agree to the trade and send an item worth more, you'll be ripped off! Remember, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

11.TekTek

WatchUrFackingNeck

And one more thing you might find useful. Is what i do. Say you want to purchase a common/rare/donation item from the MP. Always have tektek open in a new tab. Click on search MP, tektek will automatically display the lowest buy price while the MP which does have that feature most probably will display the item mixed with several other items causing frustration.

Though i noticed lately tektek cannot detect the ORLY Hat and of course that's an issue a long time now the "cig",means the cigarette.

TekTek is a great resource to help you manage your money and not lose it. Not only can you preview many items before you buy them, it also lists every item on Gaia as well as it's current worth, so you can easily check your item's worth and not get ripped off.

Also, you can check which items are in which donation letters to make sure you're selling them for the right prices.

Be aware that Tektek isn't an official Gaian site however, and so the layering for the avatar differs on site and many times looks different from GaiaOnline layering.

12. Beware of Phishing Sites and Cookie Stealers

Kamirose

I'd suggest adding a warning about the password phishing sites and cookie grabbers to your hacking and scamming section.
If you get a PM that says something along the lines of 'go to this thread/vote for me in the avatar arena,' check the link! If it leads to a site other than gaia, then report it.
Always be careful. For example, I can do this:
http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/
It looks like it'll go to the forums, but it really leads to TekTek. If you put your mouse over the link and look at the bottom left of your browser window, it'll show you where the link actually goes.

If you click the link by accident, then how do you know it's really dangerous? Tne thing to look out for along these lines is when you click the link, it brings you to a page that looks exactly like Gaia except logged out. You think Gaia just glitched, and logged you out, so you re-log in. At that moment, the scammer gets your password. How to avoid this? If the site loads up, and that warning pops up that tells you you're going to a site that's not on Gaia, then it's a phishing site.

Some of these sites require you to type the password. Others simply have scripts that run cookie stealers/grabbers. If it has a cookie stealer, you won't need to type your password. So how do you fix this?

First, close your browsers. Don't click back, home, or anything, because the moment you do the script may be able to find out your cookies from that. Just exit everything immediately. Then clear your cookies, and afterwards change your password.

Also, some advice from Kiyoshi:

Kiyoshi Ayame

I just want to point out something. ^__^
Now, I know that you already have the part warning gaians not to click random links without checking the bottom right corner first.

But how about links that are converted by TinyURL ?
There is a way to veiw the real link, without going to the website.
http://tinyurl.com/2lw2a
^ Say someone posted a link titled "vote for me in the arena" and it was converted by tinyURL. I know that TinyURL isnt focused on scamming people, it's actually rather innocent, but many members are desperate enough to hide hacking links with that website.

So instead of that url, you may want to type 'preview' before the TinyURL name.
Example:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2lw2a
This will tell you what the URL of the actual website is.
Perhaps this will help alot of people?

(Though, don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that we do this for every TinyURL we come across. Its simply for those who suspect someone is trying to hack, thats all. :3 )

Rules and Guidelines
Tektek
TekTeks Dream Avatar Creator
(For previewing hair and items - be aware that layering differs from here then the official site in some cases.)
ATTENTION! Do NOT give out your PASSWORD ever!
Get your strong password; while theyre HOT
An ANTI-HACK/SCAM Guide - Protect yourself
How to: Keep your account safe
You and botting
Avoid Getting Hacked!

[ThanatosRising]

Lastly, a few little tips that may help you out while making gold. There's aren't necessary, but could be of help.

-Be active. Be courteous, be nice. Generally, people will treat you back nicely in turn. And the more pleasant your Gaia Experience, the more you'll want to stick around. The more you stick around, the more gold you get.

-Collect everything. Even Daily Chances Sure, most daily chances won't seem like much, but if you don't try it every day, you might miss winning something big. And, every little bit helps when you're new. You can get 6 Daily Chances total, one for each of the 6 main landing pages: Home, My Gaia, Shops, Forums, World & Games.

-Don't buy something you don't want. In the beginning, a lot of people look down on newbies who wear cheap clothing. Don't let them pressure you into buying an item you don't want, however! Save your gold for something you really want, instead of wasting it on something you're unhappy with.

-Daily Bonuses. Your first poll, post, comment, and journal entry for the day all give you extra gold. After that, it slowly tapers down. So take advantage of it whenever you can. They're reset roughlyevery 13 hours after your last post/poll/comment, etc. Listed are the normal first bonus you get for each thing you do.
Forum Post Bonus = 75g
Comment Bonus = 40g
Journal Entry Bonus = 60g
Voting Bonus = 15g
(Thanks to MrJingles The Mouse for updated amounts)

Note that commenting in a profile and commenting in in a journal count as the same thing, so it doesn't matter which place you comment in. Also, voting in arena's and voting in polls seems to count for the same thing as well.

-Double check store prices when using the Marketplace. The marketplace is a good way to find deals, but it's also a good place to get ripped off. There are a lot of people who sell store items for cheaper then the store price. But at the same time, there are people who sell it for more then the store price. Always check the actual price of store items before buying.

Sundey

Another way to earn gold:
I go to the marketplace, and I buy ghostys and blox that are priced at like 40g, and then sell them to gaia stores for 50g. It may not seem like much gold that you make, but it adds up. Same with other items as well.

WatchUrFackingNeck

Hint.
Note that some of the items you get from the Daily Chance are sold in the MP lower than you can sell them back at the stores.So check on your item before heading to the MP to sell it for less than you would get if selling in the stores. ^^

-Wait to decorate your house. Spending lots of gold on your house.. is well, a tremendous gold sink. Especially in the beginning. To make a good looking house will cost infinitely more then an avatar. And, if there are no vacant neighborhoods to move into, nobody can see it in towns anyway. Hold off until you're a little more settled in.

saturnwonder

In your 'Little Helpful Tips' Post about the decorating your house, the Daily Chance actually gives furniture like side tables, clocks, wall/floor tiles, and even more expensive items like an excercise ball and punching bag (I got a step excercise thing lol).

So like you said, instead of going rampage on furniture, do the Daily Chances and see what you get from that, and if it's not something you want sell it for gold 3nodding mrgreen

-When purchasing a donation item, check both the item price and the letter price. For instance, say you wanted a Gwee. You know it's in the August 06 letter, so pick it up for 20K which was the lowest price for a letter on the marketplace. But wait! Gwee's themselves cost only 14K. You could have saved 6K. This works in reverse. Sometimes the items will be more expensive then the letter, so always check both.

-Wait until the last few minutes to bid on something in the marketplace. The closer to the auction's expiration you place your bid at, the less chance there is of someone out-bidding you.

Quote:

Can you give me some tips on auctioning things?

Click here for the response.

-Don't sell existing items for quests unless you're sure you won't need them. You're questing, and you only need 20K more to get that item. It may seem tempting to sell a monthly collectible you recently got for 20K. But two months from now, what if you want it back? Chances are, that MC will have inflated in price. Only sell items you're sure you won't want again!

Pixelated Chibiety

It's never a good idea to sell something you'll even partially regret losing from something else. For example, if you sell your Kiki Kitty that you unbelievably love to finish your quest, you just might regret that. surprised Instead, sell things you can bear to part with, and even though it may take a little longer, you won't lose an item that you like (and you won't have to re-quest for the item you lost :3).

-Use mules. Edit: Gaia recently added a new section of the TOS that indicates that they do not want users making mules for the sole purpose of making gold to funnel to a main account. This does not mean that you can't still use your mules to make gold for you, this is meant to curb massive exploitation of mule accounts - things like making tons (hundreds even) of new accounts, just to do the new user quest, stuff like that..

If you have enough time to deal with more then one account by all means. I make an extra 200-400g per account a week from DC's alone. And I have 5 or 6 mules, all with their own legitimate purpose. Note that if you're good at multi-tasking and have two separate (and different) web browsers up, you can log onto two accounts at once. (Ex: Log onto Account A using Internet Explorer, Log onto Account B using Firefox.) This makes it far easier to trade items between mule accounts as well.

Please be aware that this only applies for surfing on the website, and not on zOMG! While you can use mules on zOMG, in all honesty I'm not the most refreshed on what counts as an exploit in game or not. As such, I wouldn't recommend crewing with your mules to increase drop rates, just to play it safe.

Note: Each account requires a separate e-mail address. You can't make two accounts with the same e-mail.

.

-If you have the time, fish. Daily Chance often gives out Grade F Fish Bait for free. Selling it gives you at least 12g. Or, you could actually use it to fish and gain over 100g per bucket. (As Xena~Rose points out, with fishing items and most other items on Gaia, you can make even more gold by selling in the marketplace rather than Gaia's store buyback.)

-Be aware of mod banned shops. (Pretty sure they fixed it so these shops don't shop up ages ago. =D )

Often when searching the lowest buy price in the Marketplace you'll encounter severely under priced items. Only on clicking on them do you find out the shop has been banned. So when pricing your own items, make sure the lowest buy price in the marketplace isn't a banned store, or you may end up underpricing your items by a lot!

-Sell and buy secondhand. Whether it's commons you bought, a guild, or even a housing slot when there's none free, chances are you're likely to find someone who'd be willing to buy it (usually discounted.) So don't be afraid to offer it up if you're sure it's something you don't want. Heck, for commons, you can make more by selling the item above the store buy back but below the store buy price. This works in reverse for many things. Why buy a guild full price if you can get a slight discount off someone who no longer wants theirs?

-Be aware of the gold degradation. The more you do anything on Gaia, the less gold you get. Posting, polling, etc, all start out with bonuses, but the more you do any of these things, the less gold you will get each time. You'll still get gold for what you do, but it drops down to 1-2 pieces. This is normal and returns to normal after you take a break from the site for a few hours.

-There is no way to get rich quick! Getting gold on Gaia is easy. Getting a lot of gold quickly... Not so easily. Almost all things on Gaia take time, but if you're active enough you should get at -least- 1K a day. The three fastest ways of getting gold on Gaia aren't for everyone. You can either learn to exchange and get good at it, get good at drawing and sell artwork, or get permission to buy MC's with real money to sell.

-Set limits for yourself

_Pays_Imaginaire_

Heres a tip

When I first started Gaia, I didn't have a lot of items so I would spend gold like crazy. I remember I could barely keep 1k in my account. So I set myself a limit. If I had lets say 1,607 gold. i would not let myself spend more than 607. That way I would keep my 1k. And still spend a little. It really helped me save and as I moved up to 2k, 5k, 10k.. I kept the same rule.

Despite how simple this may seem, it -really- works if you have the willpower to keep doing it. Not only can you do it this way, but you can make other goals and limits. "I won't spend money until I make 50K" for instance.

[ThanatosRising]

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[ThanatosRising]

Alright, all the major content is up, it's mostly just graphics that are needed now <3

~
Imma take over the world~

[teh ebil ducky]

Along with the graphics you plan on adding...How about using color to your advantage? Right now, it's just one large wall of text, and the italics don't really bring any interest to it, like where to start and stop if you're just skimming.

It seems like a nice guide with potential that you put loads of time into, but without nicer headers and the such, no one will want to read the whole thing. Well, I wouldn't...

[ThanatosRising]

Aye, I plan to do all that too, with the layout update ^^

~
Imma take over the world~

[Nabee]

Holy crap :O You went all out, it looks amazing.

I SHALL USE THIS TO EARN GOLDS!!11one

PS: <3

[` TenTen]

I have subscribed because this topic is awsome smile