The guides suggest mining as it's the quickest way of getting credits, smuggling on the otherhand offers a lot of upfront cash but you may find it far more tedious than mining in its current state.
Since you're brand new I would advise holding off on the drug running until you get a feel for how Disco operates, it may sound a bit of a downer but getting to know the in's and out's of Disco will really help.
Smuggling requires a balanced repsheet to access all the bases that sell illegal goods, I'd recommend a freelancer restart which you can find here, this should allow you to go pretty much anywhere and gives you a section of the map pre-discovered.
At this point I'd suggest doing a little trading around the Houses, get to know the world, the factions and the players it'll give you a solid understanding of the mod before you dive into the murky underworld. Grab yourself a Sunburst if you haven't already, it's a superb little freighter that you can find on Planet Erie in Pennsylvania for 30k credits, the thing has a decent cargohold and is cheap as chips.
Have a read of the faction pages too, both official and unofficial, it's a good way to see how the various ID's and factions are divided whilst getting you up to speed on the story.
If you need help along the way feel free to shoot me a PM or for folks who actually know more about helping, one of the Angels.
