which profession is more profitable, herbalism or skinning?

If you were going to ask me, I would say herbalism. I played WoW for 2 years, I had one 70, (5 epics, rest rares) and my brother had 2 70's. (I was a Nelf Hunter, floppy ears ftw). I went into all professions trying to make more money (I had 2000ish gold, but quit before patch 2.4) and I was skinning. Skinning is a PAIN to level up, so just go into Herbalism. However, if you are a LW, I would recommend skinning as it's agrivating trying to find skins for a reasonable price (well, on my server, Norgannon.) Because there wasn't enough gold circulating through Level 50-70 for most players. So basically...

Herbalism can make you 250-400 gold a day (I wake up at 8am, to bed at 1am, so thats 15 hours farming for plants, depending on the plant it can be from 1g-100g a stack.)

Skinning if you are in LW, and a Leather wearer (you don't have to pay for epics, you can grind things yourself, just spend a week grinding mats and you can save 500g+ depending on which slot the epic is for) But LW makes 150-300g a day because you have to kill to skin.

Good luck...leveling profs is a pain, I never got to 375 on anything. If you want to play WoW for free, and start off at L70 just play a WoW Private Server like WoWscape or ToxicScape, makes things more fun, there's custom gear and mounts :D.

 

As someone who has leveled Herbalism and Skinning to 375 and made lots of money (18000+g in less than 9 months), I would say Herbalism.

Here are some reasons:
- Most people who don't have 2 gathering professions logically go Herbalism + Alchemy or Skinning + Leatherworking. The stuff Alchemists make are bought and used up constantly whereas most Leatherworking stuff is used once in awhile and maybe not used again unless they start a low level alt. Some people use tons of elixirs and potions just to quest and level and people use even more if they instance and raid. So, a constant supply or herbs are needed.
- Unless you get lucky alot, you need to kill stuff to skin it. Sometimes you can follow someone around and skin their kills, but it isn't guaranteed. Also, you often get scraps skinning and not a full useable piece of leather.
- Herb gathering is faster. With herbs you often get more than 1 herb per node and you only have to gather the node once. With Skinning you only get 1 usable leather per skin attempt at most. Even though mining gets multiple ores often, it takes multiple clicks to get multiple ores.
- Once you can fly you can fly around and scan for herbs on your mini-map. There may be an AddOn that shows skinnable corpses on your mini-map, but I've never heard of it.
- You can get herb bags at much lower level than leatherworking bags and cheaper. You can get a 12 slot herb bag for a mere 10s from several vendors. To get a 20 slot herb bag only requires a 275 tailor (also don't need BC), but you need a 310 leatherworker for the 20 slot leather supplies bag (and BC, of course). There is a 28 slot herb bag available in-game but no 28-slot leather supplies bag.