Quest are great for getting silver. If you don't have a required pet you can search the pet sales, or there is a quest pet borrowing place here. http://beastkeeper.com/thread/1363
Exploring islands is a good way to get materials and silver, you can find a place all about where to go for what here. http://beastkeeper.com/thread/5404
The pound lets you get one pet a day. Some of them in there are pretty nice. I suggest adopting for a unicorn, as they usually have Genetic power. The pound is under the Pets tab.
Hrm what else is easy for a newbie... Oh, if you are good at drawing you can make a custom skin and charge silver or gold for it. This will give a nice boost every once in a while. This is also under the Pets tab.
There are some forum threads that give away materials and blueprints to new peoples.
Golems are great, they make a material that you give them. They are built with golem schemes which are pretty common and can be bought cheap from item sales.
Sell any extra pets and items you don't need to get some silver.
If your male pets are good enough you can put them in breeding offers and players may pay to have him impregnate thier females.
Capturing wild pets are another way to get pets, and those sell in auctions pretty well.
That's all I can think of for now, hope it was helpful.