It's all about grinding and farming if you start with 0 FG.
Also, making FG is easier at the start of the ladder. Right now, most users stoped playing, so it's much harder to sell anything.
You can also try some "gambling" with unid torches, annis or jewels. You can farm these yourself, or if you have some FG, you can buy them unid and hope to get GG rolls that you can sell for a profit.
There's also gambling with NPCs in-game. There's always a chance to buy a GG circlet or something else, like tri-res boots or amulets. It still requires some grinding and gold farming but you mentioned you have a Trav barb, so making in-game gold shouldn't be a problem.
Alternatively, you can try trading items for runes on other dedicated trading sites, but I'm not sure if it's allowed to mention any specific sites here.
Also, try to play with more people in the game. Without going into the details, P3, P5, and P7 increase the chance of item drops.
Thanks! I'll try gambling sometime :D