1. It is only hard if you are not able to make high-qualitied or contributive posts. If you can, you will get of merits from others. The other ways is create a new topic, which is informative, high-qualitied, of course, to get merits.
2. It requires a lot of time, of course for learning in order to be knowledgeable enough to make good post, which can help others to get out of their mess, the one of them will give you merits.
3. Of course, there are some alternative ways, which I don not want to mention there. You should stick to possitive approach, which is better for your self too.
4. Hope that my thread will receive merits, which in turn a good instance for you.