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.
I think the best thing is that you should always expect nothing in return, yet you feel satisfied in contributing to the whole forum. It is like a real-life donation, you give everything but expect nothing in return. If you see someone returned the favor, then you will feel as if you did everything you could which is more satisfying.
The problem with most newbies is that they see this forum 'purely' as a way to earn. While that may be true enough, they fail to see the bigger picture and the purpose on why Satoshi created this forum in the first place- which is to discuss BTC!