lvling is tedious work without RAF or heirlooms (BoA). My lvling time is cut in half with BoA, no RAF yet tho. (went on around my workplace trying to "persuade" colleague to play WoW.. ). Went to ALL IT the other day, they sell WoW package -- Battlechest (vanilla + TBC), WotLK and Cata for RM299..

I first started out with a druid, with gathering profession (herbs and skinning). mainly because i hv no other toon and its the easiest way to gather a few gold at early stage. Flight form FTW.. If you really want to make lots of gold try Mining and Jewelcrafting. You can get gems from mining. However other mats for it such as sockets you'll hv to get it from AH.

WOW remote - another tool that make your auction house life easier

For me i only have two toons.. took me like 4 years just to get another one up but also thanks to RAF from 40-80 straight.. but leveling up now also isn't that long anymore.. i did 1-40 in like a week with slow leveling. so 1-85 should like take 2-3 weeks? depending on how much you play.. Just spend some time on your main do all the dailies and all raids then just hop on to your alt and start leveling. for professions its gonna be expensive if you dont level as you level up.

http://tarouwowguides.com/
but if you want a quick but expensive way to level up prof.. go to this guy he has good guides on where to farm and level up techniques.