Be contented with your rank, it's not about what you can earn, but what you can read and learn in this forum.

Sooner or later you'll get used to your rank and just focus on reading more and writing less here. With that, you'll never feel frustrated and forget about earning. Maybe that's the reason why the merit system was introduced.

But if you really want to increase your merit, I usually see people flock to Meta section, try your luck there, who knows, someone might like what you are going to say.