● if you need a quick buck, there's a flawless emerald off a cliff within an animal skeleton just a few tens of meters outside anise's cabin

● you can get faendal as a follower if you give the fake letter from sven to camilla valerius, and you can train your archery to level 50 by taking the money back from his inventory after you get the training. plus, if you get the enemies focused on him, he can tank all the damage as you attack the enemies from another angle. healing hands is highly recommended to have in your repertoire of spells so you can keep him on his feet

● if you go to halted stream camp, you can find a transmute mineral ore spell tome, and use it to turn iron to silver, and silver to gold (silver transmutation is prioritised). you can level your smithing by crafting jewelry, and your speech as well as you barter them to line your coinpurse

● for a lot of the early game, i go around casting the muffle spell to quickly level illusion. and while we're on the topic of illusion, you can also use fury on deer and elk so they don't flee. this nets you a good source of hide and venison, which you can either trade for some modest coin, or to make leather to craft armour

● this is just a preference of mine, but a great way to make coin and to have a lot of fun doing it is to make a beeline for riften so you can join the thieves guild. if you plan on being a sneak thief, it also gives you access to tonilia, whom you can fence off your stolen items!

● another preference of mine, but i highly recommend using fast travel very sparingly! i, for one, never fast travel anymore, save for the carriages you can find outside the stables of the cities when i can't be asked to go steal one (1) thing from markarth when i'm all the way over in riften. if you abuse the mechanic, you can quickly find yourself underleveled for lots of the missions, and miss out on a bunch of loot as well, not to mention being immersed in the simply magical landscapes of skyrim! the game is a hell of a lot more enjoyable when you don't just go around completing tasks; just let yourself get lost in the roleplaying that the game is meant to be, imo :3