This is by far the most involving way to make money in the world of warcraft. In this, you have to have a monopoly on the market - our example will be large glimmering shards. To start off, you will need a good bit, at least 10g if not 200g, of initial investment.
What you do is identify a market, large glimmering shards for our example, and start to up the price on it.
Let's say a stack of one large glimmering shard is selling for 90 silver. And, there are 10 shards up at the Auction House. To control this market, what you would do is completely buy out all of the large glimmering shards- every last one of them. Then, you would go back and sell them for any price you decide as you are the only supply for large glimmering shards. Let's be reasonable and only sell them for 1 gold 80 silver. Now, people are used to them being 90 silver and will not buy them for the first week. Also, you *must* have at least 3 - 5 items up at any given time for the price you have set. If they are not yours but are at 1 gold 80 silver, no problem. If someone puts them up for less, immediately buy them out.
After about a week of doing this, people will start to accept that the price of a large glimmering shard is now 1.8g. Also, the people selling the shards will think that they have been selling at 1.8g, so they will put them up for that amount as well. Now, all you have to do is sell off all of your large glimmering shards at 1.8g - you just made twice what you invested.
Now, it may seem that the buy low/ sell high would work better - but, where it differs is that you set the price. Make sure to no more than double it at first. But, once the price is accepted at 90s, then you could do the same thing, this time at 3 gold. All the time, you have more and more large glimmering shards. Sell those, and you have made 3x what you invested in the beginning.
Also, control more than one market. If you only control large glimmering shards, then you will only sell at a certain rate. Instead, control several markets. It can be anything - fish, herbs, items ... You could even decide to control the market for items level 30 - 40. That is, you buyout every item within that level range and then double the price.
The people that level will need items, and they will have to buy from you.
Two things to note:First - other people will see the rise in price in that market and decide to start selling the item as well. If too many people do this, which ALWAYS happens, abandon the market - sell what you have left for more than you bought it for and be done with it. A way to identify if there is too much supply is if there are 20+ of that same item at the auction house. So, you will be controlling a market for roughly 2 - 3 weeks before you move on to another market due to increase in supply.
Secondly - people will NOT like you for doing this. In America (in the corporate world), this is considered illegal. You ARE monopolizing a market and giving people no choice but to buy from you. You WILL get a negative reputation if you do this long enough - especially if you stay in a market for too long. So, you may not necessarily do this with your main character.
One Last Thing - this method eats up a lot of time. You will have to check the auction house at least twice a day to make sure everything is fine and at your price. You may end up doing this over leveling even. So, only go for this method if you want a challenge. Remember, you cannot just buyout all of a market and expect the worth to change in one day - it takes at least a week of monitoring.
A note to those trying to fight the monopolizers - if they are doing it correctly, you can't beat them by selling for less. Instead, sell for more. If the price of an item goes too high, then the market will crash. Suddenly, the prices will be within reason again. You can force this by having a base price at a price you think it should be and a buyout higher than what the monopolizer is selling for. This way, someone gets the item for the right price OR the monopolizer must buy the item at a loss.
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