I left FFXI for a while and started to come back only to hit a certain snag that I remember was the reason I stopped in the first place. I'm basically terrible at making gil in this game.

My highest leveled job is 52MNK and I needs me some Tactician Magician's Hooks +2. If I spent weeks upon weeks farming my usual stuff, I could probably manage to afford them, but chances are there are much more efficient ways of making money.

I've never really had the money to start crafting, although my cooking is in the low 20s at the moment, meaning I can make some things that can yield profit but not many.

Most of my other jobs are in the low-mid 30s, and my usual methods of money making are harvesting in Giddeus and farming beehive chips and the occasional beastcoin if I can get them. The problem is that most harvesting items are worthless save Red Moko Grass and maybe Fresh Mugwort and Saruta Cotton if I can sell it, and beehive chips don't sell for a huge amount either.

I know I could try mining, but I've been told that I need to be a smith to really make the best out of it, not to mention competition is high.

Are there any other good areas I can scour for something that sells?  From what I remember, there aren't really any BCNMs I could do that people would want to bring MNKs to do. I've tried farming black tiger fangs and giant bird feathers, but it takes longer to get a stack of either than the beehive chips.

Aiming high for your gear. I commend you for that. I suggest to start fishing. That's an easy and reliable gil maker. You could also do FoV (Fields of Valor) since when you complete your training from it, you get gil as well as exp and tabs. You're ripe for doing Beaucedine Glacier. But, you can always do whichever one is easiest. As long as you can get exp off the target mobs, you're set. Or you could level your other jobs using that and make gil that way.

BC wise, there are a few that you could just grab a couple of people like Under Observation and such. If you feel like taking chances, you could do the BCNM 50 Treasures and Tribulations. You just have to open the right chest to win. If you pick the wrong one, well...it's over, because it's hard even for a full party. Most of the drops aren't that great, but the rare ones that are, are pretty swell.

Hope that helps.

Check the AH in the starter towns and see what items from low level mobs are selling for the most.  I prefer Windhurst:

• Bat Wings from Bats...heh
• Onions from Goblins
• Remi Shells from Crabs
• Silk from Crawlers
• Light Crystals from Cardians {very low drop rate though}
• Yagudo Necklaces from Yagudo

...and a number of other things including crystals all sell for good change every once in awhile.  Just keep starting new jobs and lvling them up, don't even have to get new gear as the basic stuff will last you fine until lvl 12.  You can make alot of money pretty quickly; if you dedicate the time to it.

Fishing of course also sells very well...Moat Carp will never go outa style and you have the fishing guild right there to buy insect paste from on the cheap days.

With this game I have had some decent luck not putting all my eggs in one basket.  When you do  prices seem to drop and you have more supply than demand in most cases.  I have found that a lot of people get really frustrated because when they say they want to make gil they expect a single method to make millions of gil.  That isnt the case unless you have a high level craft or some other activities which still require a lot of time and effort to get to those points.  Making gil in this game is an investment and it requires time and effort.  moat carps, beehive chips, silk, crystals, minning "even if you only make 10k that is still 10k :)"  also farm cuttins off gobbues in pashlow marshlands or even blood from leeches and sell them to an NPC for quick profit "it isnt what it once was but its still a profit."  Also a lot of items that Vendors sell you can purchase and put on the AH for a profit.  Like I said may only be a few thousand total but its still profit.  Hope this helps a little and I would suggest getting into a habbit of take certain days or times and making that your gil making time it seemed to make things a bit easier for myself that takes out some of the hurt of when you need that scorpion harness or hauby. 

You are now getting into the good bcnm area (40-60). You can pull some impressive things out of those kinda of fights. Peacock Charm out of Under Observation, Utsusemi: Ni From a few differnt BCNM40-50s, Enfeebling/Elemental/Wind Torques out of Jungleman's Boogie and that Ant one in the Chamber of Oracles ... Centrian XIII maybe? and don't forget Up in Arms for the ever covented Kracken Club.

Taking some time off from your main job and leveling a non-scroll job is another way to go too. You can do FoV for some gil as already suggested as well as collect those crystals. I can easily pull down 100k a month on just crystals from just leveling You can also level THF to at least 15 for Treasure Hunter and either use that as a main or sub and farm stuff with that.

Another thing you can try is to craft and farm up your materials. It is a long long process, but if you farm up everything you make is pure profit. Usually more profit to sell the raw goods though, but if you go and raise your crafting level in the long run you can get more profit out of the craft. Plus you will be getting more than just the crap you are tyring to get so you can always sell that too.

Also you can camp for your Kotes and Fuma. While you are waiting you can kill the Yagudo and crawlers get some gil and silk thread doing that.

begging works too especially if you are a mithra, other then that try fishing or camp some easy nm, like the one of monster signa, or the one of that lvl 30 ninja jacket. havent played the game for 2 years thou so i dont know if the items are rare/ex now

I like to use the word SUPPLEMENT.There is a way i use to make gil from several areas.Yes fishing can be IMO the best gil makes,but raising fishing skills is just horrible because they make each zone have fish you will catch more often that give no skill ups.The first levels will go by easy on moat carps,they are a constant catch but after that things get boring slow.

The way i suggest is this.Grab ten flowerpots,i dont know witch is cheapest i am not even sure at this point if pot and nation and rank matters enough to warrant anything other than buying the cheapest pots.

farm yourself some SILK from crawlers in the Sarutabaruta region.Or kill sheep in various locations and turn int osheep leather,that sells decent enough.It wont take long to be able to afford those flowerpots and an initial investment of 25k.You buy Tree cuttings for around 22-25k,don't buy higher,just wait out the price.Plant them in the 10 pots,and just wait ,examining them every day and a half or every day.After about 20 days you SHOULD be able to harvest them for at least 10+ saplings.You hope for 12.This will sell for around 85 k,so a 60k profit.If you can afford a mule or two,then you can compound this into 120 or 180 k profit for VERY little work.

The thing is this ,everytime you decide to start a new job ,go somewhere you can make gil,like kill crawlers for silk, or the sheep leather thing.You can try your hand at BCNM fights to attain loot,but the game has it at around a 15% value so expect a decent reward every 6/7 fights.There are some valuable loot drops from BCNM fights.You could also take your Saplings profit and fund leveling up Cooking.Be sure to utilize the cooking guild points at a low level[cheaperr/easier]to attain pts for acquiring Fish handling.Yopur goal is to make SUSHI,witch is pretty much the best seller in the game for profit,ESPECIALLY if you catch your own fish,but that would take a couple months to be able to do that.Not many people can afford the time to gain even one level a day fishing,it takes a couple to a few hours just for one level.

Depends on what avenue you want to take for your moneymaking.

There are some quests you could do. Seeing spots nets you 3k for every four ladybug wings you can turn up from Ladybugs in East Ronfaure (S), also Tiger's Teeth that nets you about 2.1k for every three black tiger fangs you can farm off of Tigers pretty much anywhere but most highly concentrated in Batallia Downs. There are also the obvious quests, teleport quests, Warp I & II, ninjutsu, etc, but that depends on you making sure you're never going to level those jobs, and usually people level ninja as a subjob and black mage to at least 17 for Warp.

As for farming, there are alot of profitable options I know of at least on my server. The fairly obvious suggestions are grain seeds from saplings or blood from leeches in places like the marshlands. My farming area of choice when I have some free time is to just do laps around the Champaign farming lizards, raptors, and cockatrice. Cockatrice drop giant bird feathers and meat, each sell pretty well in stacks, lizards drop tails and skins, which don't sell for a great deal, but gil is gil, and raptors drop skins of their own, which sell for a pretty good amount in stacks. The only problems would be a so-so drop rate but if you have time to spare, some patience, and the ability to survive running around the Champaign for a few hours farming mostly everything in site, you can rack up a good amount of gil from all the items combined.

Fishing isn't a terrible way to get some profit as well, you'll just have to work on your skill a bit before you get to more profitable fish, but from what friends tell me it's well worth it. And of course you could do what alot of lazy people do and create secondary characters to quest spells, ninjutsu, rare items, and other such things, to get alot of gil without the fear of having to buy it later on. Sometimes people mock it but I consider it a legit way of getting money. In any case, there are alot of ways to make money, but each one requires some patience.

The simplest way to get easy cash at mid-low levels? Raise your Windurst fame, and do a bunch of scroll quests there. After that, go to San d'Oria, get fame there and do the drain scroll quest. After that, head to Bastok and (you guessed it), raise your fame there and do the quest for the warp scroll.

The only one you might have a problem getting is the drain scroll, depending on what nation you chose to be a part of.

I did this to make money. Once I got up to level ~40-50, I started to do other quests for scrolls as well (teleport, ninjutsu, etc). By the time I got to level 60, I had a Haubergeon and two Woodsman Ring's for my Warrior, with quite a bit of money left over. I also had Sea and Sky by level 60 as well (which was my highest level job at the time), but that's a bragging-right for another time <_<.

Questing for scrolls is probably the best/easiest way to get large amounts of fast cash. Problem is that once you run out of quests, you really don't have a stable source of income, which is when things start to get shitty. By the time you run out of cash from questing though, you'll be well in to level ~65-70. By that time, you shouldn't have a problem straight farming Gigas in Lufaise Meadows, or whatever else you choose to farm.