Skyrim- On Enchanting Effectively (Part Two)

You will, of course, run across some magic items which you wish to retain for your own use instead of disenchanting, and by all means go ahead- a good rule of thumb is that if an item holds a particularly rare and useful enchantment- say, the Silver-Blood ring which enhances your Smithing skill or a shield enchanted with a powerful Blocking property- then you should go ahead and keep ahold of it until another item with the same enchantment comes along; keep the better of the two and disenchant the other.  In this way you can ensure you keep ahold of good enchantments for your own use while still keeping your Enchanting knowledge in a state of steady growth.

The third item you need for enchanting is a piece of gear.  Be this a weapon, armor, robe, or jewelry, having enough items to enchant is usually a matter of having Smithing skill- and therein lies a bit of a dilemma.  The vast majority of Dovahkiin know Smithing so that they can craft and improve their arms and armor- but until they gain the particular Smithing perk that lets them improve enchanted gear, they cannot sharpen or harden their weapons or armor once the item has been enchanted.  Because of this, and the fact that at lower levels you are unlikely to have the overall resources needed for powerful enchantments, you may find that it benefits you more to leave the armor and weapons you are using unenchanted until you are about to sell them and change gear.  At this point, since you are no longer improving their quality with Smithing, you can safely enchant them to make them worth more when you sell them to a merchant, increasing your funds further. 

Additionally, you will likely find that you gather the resources for a large number of weak enchantments very easily- because of this, one of your best options is to have enough Smithing skill to produce large quantities of low-grade gear or, if you have a little luck finding ore veins, simple jewelry.  With the ability to produce hide gloves from one and a half pieces of leather, or two rings from one ingot of silver or gold (especially once you know the Transmute spell and can turn iron ore into silver ore into gold ore) you can generate vast amounts of gear to enchant and then sell, letting you improve both your Smithing and your Enchanting skills fairly quickly.  Keep in mind that weaker enchantments and less effective gear are not only easier to craft, but also worth less money, and will grant you smaller experience rewards than higher-end items and enchantments.  That said, with the ease of finding things that hold petty souls and the relative inexpense of petty soul gems, this may be the best way you have to improve your income and experience gain in these two skills in tandem.