Best Profession for mages?Follow

well, to begin with, cooking is a "free" profession, so there really isn't a reason not to do it. basically, it will turn all the random drops into products that sell for slightly more, or are more beneficial than just the regular food and water that you summon.

As for your other two professions, I HIGHLY recommend taking tailoring as a first. the ability to make your own armor with stat bonuses is just to sweet a deal, then throw in being able to make bags and the such, it becomes fairly staple.

the next is a toss up. Skinning can be useful as your tailoring grows, as many of the higher tailoring skills require some leather to complete. If you don't have a freind that can skin, you are SOL unless you want to hit the auction houses.
Enchanting is my prefered second profession, but be warned, it is expensive any way you look at it. you must either lose money due to disenchanting (destroying for magical regents) instead of selling, or from buying magical regents from vendors (i don't recommend this. the prices are outragous, and the quantity is limited.) but, Enchanting is a nice treat for yourself and your guildmates, so talk them into sending some magic items your way, to help you with the strain. This also goes well with tailoring, as you can disenchant a fairly low-level / cheap tailoring item for magic, to help get you through the grind.
As for Herbalism + alchemy professions, i have never done them, but they seem like decent choices.
One option you might want to take a look at is Mining + engineering. If you are a gnome, you have a +15 bonus to engineering as a starting ability, so that can help swing your desicion. both my gnome mage and my friend's undead warlock have this as our profession, and it works out nicely, as engineering makes some very handy, versitile products. and as we know, versatility is good.
Hope this helps you out a bit, but remember to do what you choose. if you don't like your choice, you can always unlearn it and take up a new profession...

So far I've found that herbalism/alchemy has been very good for my mage. While it hasn't been the most profitable so far (if you're seeling your items) it is quite useful to have a few potions that buff you up, or healing potions in case you get in over your head while soloing. Other than that the only other professions i've tried are skinning/tailoring (for my hunter) and I don't think that would be of much use to a mage.

I started with skinning and leatherworking for some faster cash in the beginning. I figured that was probably the most beneficial "in the field" set of professions. Once I gathered enough cash to buy what gear and training I needed for a few levels, I went ahead and went skinning/tailoring. While I am almost always a little broke, I have decent gear and am able to support my training.

I am currently a lvl 40 mage with Herb/Alc. My alc is around 250 and is not very profitable at all. On the otherhand my Herbalism could be extremely profitibal with stacks of certain herbs going for over 2 gold, but I have to sink them in alchemy to raise my skill. I would suggest going Herbalism though. But not alchemy. Liferoot/Fadeleaf/Goldthorn all sell extremely well on my server and I could easily make 30g with what i got in my bank if i didn't need to save them for my alchemy. I say go herb/enchanting if you got buddies to give you magic items or what i do with my friends is go to instances 10 lvls lower than us and just destroy it and round of the magic items for the enchanter. Enchanting is very profitable later on.