First and foremost - If you don't enjoy forum paperwork, mercing as a hunter isn't for you. Your one chance to avoid forum paperwork is to fly around, come across already ongoing fights and ask if either side needs assist in return for a couple of credits.
That said, makin a living out of merc business totally depends on how much you spend. I flew only 1 char, which was a merc working mainly for Sairs/Gaians for about half a year and nothing else. So all I spent was ammo money and cost of repairs, which meant by the end of the 6th month when I decided to make a couple of other chars, I had much more money saved than when I decided to go solo-char. It was actually enough to cover a CAU8 Ryuujin to start trading again. But if you're the type who like to make random chars here and there, buy capitals and other costy ships or items, unless you powermerc all day every day you won't get to make the cash you need out of mercing... And even then, if you spend the same time trading, you'll make much more cash.
So yeah, to sum it up - Going powermerc to make cash does work if you don't spend too much, but won't be as profitable as powertrading.
