Find someone (either u trust, or is a very high lvl in rc) and offer to be his "miner". the way this works, u mine the ess, trade it to the rc-er, and you get back half of the ess you gave him as the rune of ur choice (usually nats or laws) you can then sell these runes, and make a profit, or use them and get your mage lvls up. Lol, i made over 10 lvls in a day doing this (from lvl 45 - 56) and it can also be very profitable. Also, if you choose, you can buy the ess from people off the street for about 15gp each, give it to ur rc-er, and get back a lot of money (30 per nature rune, which u can sell for 300-450, and 30 per law, which u can sell for 350-500--not a bad profit, if u ask me). However, don't be stupid when u do this. Find someone u know with high rc, and ask him, and don't give terribly large numbers of ess the first or second go--only 500 or 600. Once you have formed a trust, go up slowly, and bring in the dough.
I hope this helps
