SOE yesterday patched in timed (and untimed) tradeskill writs. You ask for a work order and select a difficulty - from easy to difficult in the tier you most recently completed, or a difficult work order in your current tier.
My two main crafters - Dina, a 40 tailor; and Dorah, a 51 jeweler; level largely to make stuff for guildies. I keep some common items on the broker but they rarely sell and never quickly. What I want most is for a system to ease the grind by giving me back the money I spend on fuel and taking away the crap I make purely for selling to the vendor.
The new tradeskill writs do that, as well as giving me guild status and faction with the Coalition of Tradesfolk. Dina can solo, but slowly, so doing writs instead lets her fulfill her writ obligations faster. Dorah, a necro, can solo fine, but doing writs as a level 51 gives more status faster than doing combat writs as a level 35. In both cases, tradeskill writs are far better than their combat counterparts for generating guild status.
Naturally, if what you’re wanting are the titles and items specific to a certain non-tradeskill faction, these won’t do you much good.
I’ve just been doing timed writs on the most difficult level. These give you about eight minutes to make six pristine items in your current tier. I usually finish with 3-4 minutes to spare. Dina needs 15000 status points each week to maintain her three room house in South Freeport. I can make that much status in half an hour - about half the time it would take to do the same with combat writs, and no traveling required.
A grind isn’t so bad when you feel you’re getting somewhere. Status and faction are immediate rewards, so even if you only get two recipes a tier, you’re still making good progress with something.