As far as gold-earning goes... Other than games and posting there's not anything 'built-into' Menewsha to give you gold...

However, there are Charities that will help you get items you want (puados would be very difficult for them to get you, but Winter's Flight or just about any event item that's not from Valentine's, Easter or St. Patrick's '07 events is doable)....

Once your account is old enough (though I didn't check your join date), you can look into the Giving Back Auctions and bid in there... And of course there's the Quester's Raffle in the Quest forums that will let you pretty much win a rare item for free. (That's how I got my King's Crown and Female Welcome Set.) And even if you don't win, you get your gold back... You just need a Quest thread and to be active in the Quest forum to qualify. (And be a certain age old.)

Let's see... Selling is, of course, a great way to make large amounts of money. Whether it's buying low and selling high with gold, or purchasing CIs with real money and selling them to buyers on the Exchange, you'll make money if you keep a good stock of rare items. (The only way possible to 'make' money off of commons is to get the commons for free, after all.)

Contests are a good way to make money/get items, but you have to keep an eye out for the ones you're eligible for and so forth. There's a new "Contests" sub-forum in "Community Discussion", and people have page-contests in virtually any forum.

Events are probably the easiest ways to make money... If it doesn't pay off during the event, it'll certainly pay off later when you've collected extra event sets to sell at some other point when they've accumulated in enough in value to compel you to sell. :)

And then there are services.... Making MAC avatars for people, or banners, or telling fortunes or whatever. There's a small niche market there. The biggest 'service' is, of course, the art services. Pixels and so forth.

Yeah, our art forums move a little slower than some other sites, but I don't think that'll hold too much longer. We're getting a steady flow of new talent and those artists who stick around and stay active will have about as much business as they like. And as 'bigger' artists flow into the site, their fans are following their favorite artists here, and they'll also purchase from other artists. Most of the problem with the art forum being slow is that the artists give up too easily. XD;

Sorry for the rambling. XD; I hope this is useful at all. :)