Starting now

[sebatiger]

Just bought the guide and got myself up to level 10 today. I will post later on how good it really is when i get to 85. Only a few problems I have encountered, and that is that sometimes I do whatever it says but 3 times I was supposed to be a level ahead.

Anyway, great guide so far Hope to see a pvp and raid guide in the future.

[mzanker]

I've never been able to reproduce falling behind the guide in any of the starting zones. Even guildless without heirlooms (so no XP bonus) I always seem to be ahead of the guide, dinging a few steps before the guide says "you should be level n".

This is either with no professions or with just skinning (which doesn't give an XP bonus, AFAIK).

[cabby]

Correct, skinning does not give any XP, only Herbalism and Mining give you XP when you hit a node. Oh, and Archaeology gives XP too but you need to be 20 before you can start that one.

[Cartman]

Being slightly ahead of the guide is no problem. Better to be ahead than to fall behind (which could happen before Cataclysm if you had luck with item drops - but now I've never seen that).
If you encounter being behind the guide later on feel free to post it here so this can be looked into.

But normally the only time when you may be a bit behind the guide is in the starting zone where mobs are yellow but you need to kill some to get to level 5 or 6 to continue with the main zone.