Hi all. I'm relatively new to the game. My character is level 23. I am broke and I wanted to make some money. After a bit of reading, I have found that it seems like the thieves guild and/or dark brotherhood quest lines would accomplish this goal. However, on my character, I've focused on smithing, one-handed, and shields and heavy armor. Would it be possible for me to act all sneaky and be successful at the aforementioned activities?

At the moment my smithing is just over 50 and I'm trying to make a full set of Orcish armor but the vendors in Whiterun hardly ever seem to have an ingot for sell. Does anyone have any suggestions on where I can acquire some on my own?

Also, I see people that post things like "I started a Breton spellsword character...". What does that mean exactly? As I said, I use one-handed weapons and wear heavy armor, although I'm starting to feel the desire to have some variety. Is Archery a good skill to focus on for my character?

Last question: How the heck do I fill soul gems? I need them for enchanting! The only way so far I've found to make money is make or find regular weapons and then throw a lifestealing enchant on them and sell to vendor. I have the spell "Soul Trap" but whenever I try to use it on a bandit it says something to the effect of "Soul too large". What am I doing wrong here? I carry all sorts of empty soul gems.

Thanks in advance for reading and any advice/info is appreciated. Happy exploring. -pc

you should use your smithing to earn money, look for mines and hunt for leather.
The Thieves guilds require stealth for the most part, you're not encouraged to kill people so that doesn't seem fitting to your class.
The Dark Brotherhood may work, you can assassinate people face to face but you'll have the hold guard on you often.

Look for Orc strongholds, most have an Orichalcum mine.

I encourage you to try archery, you should go for the faster firing bows (long bow, hunting bow, imperial bow) rather than the high damage bows (ebony, daedric...).
You should visit Angi's Camp, you can practice your archery and level up by completing the tests. http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Angi

To fill a soul gem you'll need either the Soul Trap spell or a weapon with Soul Trap enchantment. Then you need a soul gem, tougher creatures require bigger soul gems (petty, lesser, common, greater and grand) and the 10 playable races require a Black Soul gem, so if you're killing a bandit you'll need a black soul gem to capture his soul, all black souls are Grand.

Thanks for the reply...where could I find the Soul Trap enchantment?

Welcome to the forums.
1) I'm not interested in the thieves guild or dork bortherhood so I've never done those questlines. however you have smithing so you can easily make cash making gear and selling it off. Mine every vein you find and strip mine every mine you find. Money will not be a worry for long.
2) For the most part it is better in the long run to mine ore over buying it. There are several Ork enclaves in the game. They are all build around a mine. Be friendly with them and they will let you take however much you want.
3) Spell-sword: Quite litterally what it says it is. You have spells and use weapons. Archery would depend entirely on your playstyle.
4) Soul gems unless they are the black veriety (which tend to be rare) cannot hold a human soul. Keep a soul stealing weapon handy and use it on creatures. There is a better version of the enchantment called firey soul burn. There is only one weapon with this enchantment but you can disenchant it and place that on whatever you want. 10 fire damage + soul stealing. As it's a weapon crank the timer to 1 second to get the most out of the gem charges you place on it; the 10 fire is not effected by this.
edit: 5) The soul trap weapons are fairly easy to find. At your level they could start showing up at vendors.

First off... have a fishy stick!! They're delicious!!
http://images.uesp.net/c/c4/Fishystick.jpg


Secondly... ahh.. making money for a low level character. My best suggestion would be.. just resign yourself that you'll never have any gold until about 35th level. Unless you're shrewd and never buy anything like me. Do remember however, there will come a point in the game when you have more gold than Sheogorath.

For making gold, yes... the TG and the DB quest lines can do that, but you can make coin so many other ways in this game. Since you're actually working on smithing... I'd suggest heading to your local dwemer ruin and pick up as much dwemer stuff (see below) as you can. Bring it back to a smelter, and make dwarven armor. Enchant it.. then sell it.

Also remember, gems, gold and silver ingots can create jewelry, which can also help your smithing and gold pools.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Dwarven_Smithing#Dwarven_Smithing - Everything Dwarven

As I see it, this helps three different skills. Smithing, enchanting, and speech. YAY! You CAN.. make a sneaky character out of what you've said so far, but.. honestly, it's better off (in my opinion) if you start that from the get go. It allows you to build the skills quickly enough to be relatively successful in the TG and/or DB.

Greasepalms seems to have answered just about everything.. I was just expounding slightly with some other variants.. however.. the one question you asked about the Breton Spellsword.

Well.. to break it down, this is a Breton character (see Skyrim Races) and a spellsword build. It utilizes both spells and weapons to maximize damage and can be fun to play. If you're just brand new to the game, I'd suggest just staying on your course, enjoying your playthrough, until you feel confident enough in the controls and other functions before hitting up a second. It's a load of fun to just... be.. enjoy it. Don't let anyone tell you how or why to play the game. Just do it

You can find the Fiery Soul trap enchantment in Ironbind Barrow, it is fire damage and soul trap in 1 enchantment, very useful.
If you like following directions, this barrow is northeast of Whiterun, once you find Nightgate Inn there's a snowy passage that leads north, by then you should have the Barrow symbol on your compass and should be easy to find, to find the enchantment look behind the throne in the boss room, it is a battle-axe.

Thank you for the replies!

What is strip mining?

Making money is a piece of cake in this game. My one char carries 120,000 gold usually.

1. clear caves and Nord dungeons. Many larger dungeons are filled w/ hundreds of urns and they all have gold...not to menton the chests.
2. Loot every bandit, dragon and draugr for gold
3. Steal gold from people you don't like
4. Sell anything you find...esp jewels and potions and poisons you don't use.

I don't get the "I can't make money" plea from so many on this forum.