Well, I am a master TK, so making money is easy as far as missions go.  I think what I am going to do  now is wait.  I have 3 medium harvesters mining ore...when that is done, I'll stock pile it and set those 3 harvesters to mine gemstone and grind out architect with gungan stone heads.  That way I can do all of my grinding in one fail swoop, and in the process of waiting for enough resources, I'll be able to d some more reading and get more information on the profession before I advance.

It seems what people do nowadays is just grind out a profession to master and then experiment with it afterward to see what it is like.  This is especially true with the crafting professions.  If you are not a master of a profession then most likely your goods are not sought after.

For those of us that started architect when the game was new, it was fun to go through the tree's and make new things as you advanced.

If you have never crafted before, then I say you should take the time to actually work with the profession, not just grind it.  If you have crafted extensively before, then grinding is ok imo.  Crafting in this game is all the same, its just different ingredients that go into the products.

Structure modules and wall modules are definitely the way to go as far as gaining xp quickly and usefully.  It's not as much "grinding" because you will use tons of these further on in the architect profession.  There's no need to use "practice mode" because you will wish you had the items later (provided you have the storage for them).

As far as architect goods not really being sought after until master, I disagree.  I started in the profession (admittedly many months ago) making only furniture and then housing.  You don't have to be a master in order to make these items well, and there's more of a market out there for these items than people may realize.  I also didn't know the value of materials until quite a ways into architect.  Save the high UT/SR/HR materials until you're ready to work on harvesters.  You can find the important stat in your schematic, which may sound like an obvious thing but I had been crafting for almost two months before I learned how to affect the quality of my items (and have had to teach other players the same many times as well).

I also agree that a good way to go is find a community in need of an architect, and establish relations with other communities that may only have one. 

And you can never have enough metal and ore.  A good rule of thumb is to focus on mining steel and carbonite ore.  In most cases it doesn't matter what kind you use, but these two are the more prominent specific types (although the ore is really not as much of a factor as steel).

I guess the one thing I know now that I wish I knew when I was a novice is:

That when a really high stat material you use shows up, e.g. 999 OQ, then you should jump on it and mine as much of it as you can.  Knowing what I know now about how materials can go through a drought, if I was a novice again I would make sure to mine as much of the good materials as I could.    Then that way I wouldn't run out or have to worry about scrambling to get them again in the future.  When I first started out I think I was too focused on getting enough ore as I could to fill orders that I wasn't paying attention to various high quality materials and lost out because I didn't mine them when they popped on our server.

I agree with Pawlin.  When I think of what I grinded with, I sometimes have to fight down the desire to bang my head on my keyboard....repeatedly, and with force

Try to look on other crafter forums as well, also your server trade forum.  Get a really good idea of what others are doing, looking for, stats for other professions resources etc.  Also keep a weather eye on SWGCRAFT.COM.  Gring stuff is available all the time, but if an exceptional resource spawns, take a break from grinding & suck the ground dry of it.  You can always sell it later for profit if you can't use it, or you will have a stash if you decide to change professions later.  I gave a guildie some 988 OQ 952 SR AmGems, when he was jedi-grinding arch.   I had no need of it (doesn't matter to architects), and had not done what I suggest now.  I could be selling it now, without my Armorsmith touching it, for enough to buy Naboo from the Emperor

Everything here is good. Yes, make structure mods and walls - - - you will never have enough of them...some day, you'll be cranking 500 (or more) structure mods from your factory just to keep up with the walls you will need (for harvesters, houses, factories and other structures)

Resources.  Well, you basically need 3 main types. 

 + Any aluminum for most of the furniture (maybe 2% of your total resoruces).  There's a few other small resources like reactive or inert gas

+ lots of junk/grinding ore and metal for the structure mods and walls (quality doesn't matter) (maybe 70%)

+ top - High Qual (960 +) steel and ore. This is for your Heavies and their subcomponents.  Need great subcomponents (maybe 30%)

Don't mind my percentages - they're just guesses.  One thing to note when harvesting ore, it's seems you can never find ore in high concentrations above 65%......wouldn't it be nice to find a 92% spot!!

Good Luck, enjoy and welcome to the Architect profession

Oh, I forgot to add this.  You will definately want the best:

+  Structure and Furniture Crafting Tool

+  Structure and Furniture Crafting Station

Things I wish I had known from the start.

1. Don't confuse High Quality with a high OQ stat.OQ is meaningless to an architect and the only stats that matter are HR,SR,UT.