Hi Allseeing,
We have this requirement for 2 reasons.
1. To prevent ourselves from linking with banned sites
2. To get maximum value from the links we are receiving, as we have designed http://www.rankpromoters.com to give maximum vale to our link partners.
Everyone in this industry was new at one point in time or another. As time goes by (this will happen very quickly) your site will establish pagerank and you will establish more contacts in the industry. Just keep working and it will pay off.
Please pm me with your website details. I will have a look at it. If it is penalty free, I have plenty more sites you can trade links with that will give you a nice pr boost.
Best Regards,
Ben