My rating: 
– Website reviewed: Markco’s 20K Leveling Guide
Markco has been around with his gold guide, 20k Leveling Guide, for a long time. He announces it proudly on his front page:
“Wow legend, Gladiator Markco, has been making millions of gold since before you were gathering peacebloom and slaying boars in Durotar…”
Fact is, that we have been customers, or rather “subscribers” to his gold guide since Wrath of the Lich King, and even then, he had been around for quite a while.
Once upon a time, his gold guide was a precious advice. At the opposite of other gold guides, which will tell you: Buy this, farm that, sell this, sell that, Markco is teaching you the principles and the basic of WoW economics and includes very important details.
When you buy the guide, you get access to a “subscriber area” in which you can read different guides and see videos.
The guides are not only about gold, but also about PvP, Battlegrounds, etc.
The price for this is of $37 (down from $47, even though I never saw it at $47), and you get lifetime memberships.
According to the FAQ:
Q. Do you update the guide? Is it up to date for the latest patch?
A. Absolutely! 20k Leveling is the fastest guide to be updated. Every time a game update is released I am excited to do a podcast, post on my blog, and update the guide with all the lastest changes.
I have been out of WoW since patch 4.0 went live (Nimrasil staid a bit longer and actually played Cataclysm, I didn’t), and only came back in December 2012.
I found all my girls back right where I left them 2.5 years ago, from Argent Tournament to Silvermoon and (a very empty) Dalaran. Since I had given all my gold and stuff and guild to Nimrasil before I stopped, I was broke so the 20k Guide was a must for me. What was new? How could I get gold back (plz gold fast!)?
But… Big disappointment, the guide was almost similar to what it was when I left. The newest articles were speaking of patch 4.2 and that “patch 4.3 is live”… Well… Patch 5.1 is live at the moment and 5.2 is in the doorway!
Absolutely nothing has been done since then. So much for the: “Every time a game update is released I am excited to do a podcast, post on my blog, and update the guide with all the lastest changes“.
In short, the guide is almost useless.
It does have some economical principle that are still usable and, the guide explaining how to use Auctioneer is still okay to use, since the add-on hasn’t changed much since, and of course, the strategy for the different battlegrounds is still correct.
But you don’t have much use of “Getting Gold at Level 80“, “Flask Alchemy Strategy” (these things do not sell anymore) or most of the other tips.
Of course, the tips and tricks to PvP with different classes are totally outdated too and completely useless.
So $37 for a user guide about Auctioneer (that you can find for free different places) and a couple of advices about the Auction House is much too expensive.
If you are on Markco’s mailing list, like I was (until I unsubscribed a couple of weeks ago), you will mostly get ads for other products of doubtful quality, but nothing useful. Markco does not answer to your mails any longer either.
In short, by buying this guide, it would be $37 out of the window. Find a better use for them!