I'm not really an experienced miner, but I have been mining for quite a while (5.0 or so), so I'll share what I know
First of all, there is no "miracle" method. Every miner has his or her own method.
Here are a few tips to avoid wasting money :
- "You found no resources" : this message
doesn't always mean there is nothing on a 50-meter-or-so radius around you. If there is something, it might be too deep or too big for your current skills, and you can miss deposits too (without any apparent reason but bad luck). Everything is random, but it strongly depends on your mining/drilling skills.
- The blasting radius : When you don't find anything, the best thing to do is to run ~100 meters towards the blast radius. You can't be sure there was nothing here ; but you have to cover as much area as you can with minimal waste. When you find something, well... a few miners will tell you to run ~100 meters as well towards the claim rod for the same reason. However, claims can be close to each other (sometimes as close as 10 meters). It's up to you.
- Skillgains : Well, most miners would die defending their skillgains theories. However, we don't have any clue about them, they might just be random skillgains just like any other profession.
- Record your findings : Notepad, pen and paper, trustworthy program... anything will do. Just make sure you know where you can find deposits...
because they respawn over time ! No one can tell where and when, however, they do respawn depending on players' money input (lootpool).
- Mass mining helps : A good mining trip is made of
at least 100 bombs / 200 probes. You can expect to make a profit (or at least break even) with this. If you go out with a few probes or bombs, you are likely to lose money unless you are very lucky.
Last but not least : if you find something, there should be other deposits around... And if you keep getting the "no resources" message, either try another area or keep cool. Bad luck happens.