I'm relatively new to the game, and I noticed a whole horde of things that your character can do - herbalism, armor/weapon smithing, mining, etc. Which of those trades are the most profitable/useful? And how many do you recommend specializing in without being a 'jack of all trades' sort of character? Thanks for your help.

All of them are good, just make seperate noob characters to specialize in those and use them when you need to. Then have your main character who knows nothing about any of them fight stuff. If you do them on different accounts you can play both of them at the same time.

good idea man but when u max out all your skill sat around lv 31 u can get those