No five posts will do. No need to make new threads. Drop by the other intro threads in New Members and say hello. Get up to 5 posts and wait until 25 past the hour for the server to reset and upgrade you to full member.
You will find the verification link down next to the classified section, but I think you need 20 posts to get to it. Having a PayPal account will make things fairly quick, but it can be done without. I think they only do verifications once a week.