Sell them a base item and let them worry about the improvement materials. You don't need points in crafting to improve an equipment item.

Usually I make money selling mats, or an item with a particular trait for research. The only other way is to find someone who didn't want to spend the skill points and time to level a craft and make something to order. Work it out with them, and either have them supply the materials or agree to cover those costs.

Atirez wrote: »

However, it may be me but my luck with using tannings for improvement is not great so I like to go for the 100% chance to make sure. Now those tannings/mats cost money they have a value in the guild stores. However the cumulative total of all those mats and tannings is not represented in the price people are going to pay for anything I can craft.

1. If you don't make the chance 100% to improve, you have a 99% chance to fail, so it's not your bad luck. Unless you make a non traited item, then you can get away with less than 100% on the Tempers and only have a 50% chance of failure. In other words, always be at 100%.
2. Yes, they cost money, but rarely do I ever buy them in a guild store, unless I find a bargain. Where I get them from is Hirelings (still good on Tempers up to Purple, just less so on Gold Tempers), Refining raw mats and deconning. Note if you go the hireling route, get as many L2 hirelings as you can (meaning L12 in the craft). I have 6 hirelings in each equipment craft to keep the tempers flowing in a rate that is equal to how often I use them
3. To save your self some Tempers, it is a waste to go above Green for less than L30, above Blue if your less than L50 and if you go Purple in VR Ranks, then make the gear every 3 or 4 levels. You can make green armor every two levels for less than one set of Blue every 4 levels. Purple as you know is even worse.
4. I never upgrade anything I am going to make for someone else past Green unless they give me the Tempers to do so. No one is going to want to pay replacement cost, much less profit on Tempers used. I only give them Green as I have those coming out of my ears.
5. During Leveling I frequently have armor that is 4 to 10 levels below my character (mostly because I level so fast) and partially because, well, it's just fine to be under armored in this game for PvE. PvP, not so much.

I and my husband both really enjoy crafting, and mostly do it for ourselves or each other. It's interesting to note that early on in the game I could really tell when "I need new armor" because I was actually having to pay attention to my health bar. Doesn't happen as much now.

Now if I know I"m going to keep the item for a while (such as found sets that I can't make) I'll often improve it even to purple for lower level characters (10-15). Recently I had a sorceress character get "all new armor" (I tend to do that every 4-6 levels or so) and realized that her staves were 10 levels 'old'.

As people have pointed out, it's not really worth it to make and sell anything 'better' than green (most of the time). But at some point I would encourage you to take the time to look at a white or green item of higher level compared to a blue or green (same item same traits) of lower level to see just what the differences are.

OP, your title asks about making money from crafting, but you only discuss equipment crafting. I don't think it's a stretch to say not many make a sizeable profit crafting equipment. First of all, it's too easy to max those skills, so everyone and his brother can craft whatever, at least up to 6 trait sets. There is a good market selling tempers. Unless you gather like crazy, these will slowly accumulate until you have a surplus to sell. They won't make you rich unless you can get a lot of them.
If you want to make money, it comes from alchemy and provisioning, and enchanting to a lesser extent.

If you really want to make money, recipes, motifs, stacks of some mats, and hard to get equipment is the way to go.

This will vary with people also. You can make gold doing any crafting specialty or just by selling things you pick up. The more than you apply yourself in those areas the more gold you will make. Selling raw materials is always a great way to make money. You can also refine those materials and sell the things you get from them. People are always looking to buy materials from those who don't want to take the time to invest in crafting.

kelly.medleyb14_ESO wrote: »

You don't, you make money by selling raw mats to crafters.

1- buy the raw mats from someone as indicated above.
2- Make Armor/weapons from mats bought.
3- Sell Armor/Weapons back to said person who sold you the raw mats for 3x the cost of what you paid them....