Does anyone have tips on how to achieve this? am by no way looking for a quick/easy way of going about this just a push into the right direction is all.
Exactly as you said, there is no easy way to gain trust in a short period of time. You need to build it slowly with trades.
I've thought about taking loans that I don't need and just returning the BTC with the interest they demand etc but that's basically doing the opposite of what I'm trying to achieve (basically buying my rep).
That is not a good idea, as explained by Kluge in a sticky post in the lending section.
General good practices:
- Please refrain from requesting unnecessary "confidence loans" (a loan you don't need, but want to take out simply to show you'll repay). This was an issue a year or so ago, where scammers would take out incrementally larger loans, pay maybe .1BTC in interest, then take off with a 1BTC loan. A history of so-called confidence loans inspire more hesitancy than confidence.