Would it possible at all to add in a small experience bonus for people using tradeskills?
For example, forging, creating elixirs, cutting gems, etc.
Obviously not enough to make it a substitue for other forms of experience gain, given that things like forging are very mindless and can be done 'unconsciously', but something to add a little reward to the effort and time spent in it? I know tradeskills = gold anyway, but (apart from herbs, and maybe jewellery) you could probably spend the time questing or hunting and make more gold in the same amount of time, plus experience.

Just a thought, I might just be getting bored because I've been forging for the last hour

If you really could make more gold doing other things, you probably wouldn't be practicing your craft if you didn't feel some kind of obligation towards the people you were crafting for. I've heard this several times, but I really don't believe that it's true. I cook 1) when I feed myself, or 2) when I can make a lot of gold rather quickly, like stocking someone's shop. It takes, what, 5-10 minutes to forge a weapon? That weapon is worth 150-1500 gold profit afterwards, depending on stats. I can rat 150 gold in 10 minutes, sure. I can make maybe 250 gold in ten minutes in Astral, after figuring in the 20 sips per critter, and there's still a significant death risk there.