QUOTE(MaxTheDragon @ Aug 9 2005, 05:14 AM)
I tried Rune essence merchanting once. It was too slow for me. I guess that you need a lot of patience with every form of money-making.
If you were p2p, i'd recommend my best way to make money, which is to collect Snape Grass on the Hobgoblin Peninsula, west of the Crafting Guild. Collect like 1k, and then you can sell it on the official RS forum (Herblore section), for 800 each, which is 800k. Again, this requires patience and it's going to be pretty boring. But that's actually the good part, because the lazy herblorists drive the price up, because they can't be arsed to collect it themselves.
But since you're f2p, you can try 8o8thekiller's ways. Iron Ore is said to be a great merchanting item.
The new Waterbirth Island has like, 20 grass spawns on it, so that seems to be a good picking place.