Are there any clear instructions as to how to config the free. The demo area looks almost nothing like it. I've uploaded and filled in what I could but I can't find any instructions for how it links to the front end and where. Very confusing.

The demo area does not contain the demo for basic edition. It contains the demos for our commerical add ons only.

The basic version is very simple and can be done wth little help. In your case, you need to create a menu item using Joomla manager for JV-LinkExchanger and then access the JV-BE page using that menu item.