Some of you may have seen all the 'fuss' on the main forums about people making lots of cash via long-range smuggling out of Sothis (the system that just finished a CG to create a new rare good). It's unclear if these smuggling missions are fully intended, or an 'accident' but it's also clear that for now at least, FDEV are leaving them in the game. For how long we don't know, but it's likely they won't last for long as they were probably put in as a reward for the CG.
Here's a quick guide.
First, buy one of these and get it to Sothis - it's a long way from the guild home area (about 600LY) but it's worth it.
http://coriolis.io/outfit/cobra_mk_iii/ ... =.Aw1-kA==
That's a Cobra build for this. It's my opinion that it's the best ship for the job. Asp and DBE are also valid choices, and they have a longer range than the Cobra making some aspects of the traveling required easier, but the sheer speed of the Cobra (450km/s in this configuration) make it the best not only for sneaking into stations but also for evading fights when you are interdicted (and you will be).
Cycle though the bulletin board in Sothis in Open, Solo and Group - you are looking for high paying smuggling missions - the trick is to only take ones that pay at least 500k per tonne - that 2mil mission to carry 12 tonnes is a bad choice, skip it and look for better cr/tonne rates.
Unfortunately some missions are locked behind requirements of trade rank and reputation, but not all, I've seen missions paying 4mil to carry 6 tonnes with a requirement of mostly penniless and unfriendly. it'll just take a bit longer.
On the subject of Reputation, Sothis has 1 Federation aligned faction (who owns the station) and 3 independents. The station in Ceos is owned by one of the same independents and has the same Fed faction and one of the other same independents. Take all and any charity missions you see pop up for those 4 factions and build up your rep, this will open up more of the smuggling missions (as will completing the ones you get).
Once you've cycled through the Sothis board a few times, fly over to the nearby system of Ceos and repeat the same there. I find it takes approx 2 loops (Sothis -> Ceos -> Sothis -> Ceos), cycling twice through the 3 game modes at each to 'fill up' on missions, i.e. get 40 tonnes worth, which should be worth a total of around 25-30 million (my record was 36mil)
Now comes the fun part, you now have to travel about 400LY to drop off all the goods you're now carrying, and you're going to get a lot of heat, every system after you jump in you will get a mix of:
1) Cops announcing they want to scan you
2) NPCs saying they want to talk to you
3) NPCs saying they want your stuff
Number 2 you can ignore, they'll just drop a low-wake which you just ignore. The other 2 will try and interdict you. And with the Interdiction game being broken right now, chances are they will succeed. But just set 4 pips to engines and boost, boost, boost and they won't be able to catch you, nothing can keep up with the Cobra. If you start taking some shots, just drop a chaff to give you the time to get out of weapon range. Get your FSD back up and jump to the next system.
You will need to refuel using the scoop, you want to save this for the systems when you only get type 2 NPCs, which actually happens quite commonly.
At your destinations, you will need to sneak into stations (outposts are fine, no cops) - don't bother with silent running, just use the cobra speed to zoom in before they scan you. 95% of the time the cops won't even get a scan, and on the rare occasion they do, you've got 10 seconds to get into the slot, which is ample time.
You should be able to plot a route around your mission destinations with at most 3 hops between then, and usually just 1 or 2.
The total time to make your 30+ mil cr is around 2-3 hours. And only the last hour of that is actually running the missions, you spend more time in Sothis/Ceos picking the missions up.