What are some fast easy ways to get gold?

1. Loot good equipment (that you don't want to use yourself) and sell it.

2. The sheriff in each town offer reward for killing certain enemies (in act 1 its orcs, in act II its bandits).

just do some quest, kill some monsters and get gold. then go to the tavern and save. Then talk to a guy who will gamble with you, and save every time you win the game, and load the game every time you loose the game. After hours of bad luck and resaving and reloading, you will have a few thousand gold in your pockets :)

I don't know how random chest loot is, but there were some throwing daggers in the mines in act 1 that sold for 11k.