OP, take note of posts like this one and ones from top-merited members.  That should give you a general idea of which posts earn merits--and in which sections, too.  As Coolcryptovator pointed out, posts in Altcoin Discussion rarely even get looked at, much less merited.

I would also suggest that given how few posts you've made in total, you're not doing too badly so far, even though you've been a member for the entire duration of the merit system.  You don't seem to make a lot of posts, so that's part of why you haven't earned many merits.