Higher rank means good opportunities here in the forum, but why its so hard to rank up?
Here's what I realized for almost 5 years here in the forum and still at a lower rank.

1. You can't please everybody here - Even if you create a good topic, you can't expect everyone to appreciate your work and probably will receive little to none merit since we all have different standards and qualifications before we gave out merit.

2. Being Inactive - Don't expect to rank up if you are not active especially on making good contents. I have my busy days and really not active but when I do have a task here, I always make sure to qualify for that but again, that's not enough.

3. Limited Knowledge - You can't share what you don't have, and making good topics here requires a good knowledge especially topics about helping people or a guidelines.


To cut this story short, if you really want to rank up and have a good reputation just do the opposite, stay active, learn more and expect nothing.
These are my mistakes, and I hope you won't do the same so you can be more successful here. Right now, I'm only learning with my experience and hopefully I can give something more helpful in the future.