Merit is like Fight Club.  The trick to earning merit is to not talk about merit.  A lot of people for some reason act like guardians of the merit and will do things like ignore you for even mentioning it.  This post not receiving merit is a good example. 

If you want to earn merit, try helping people with questions or conversating in topics that you can share useful information that may not already be presented. 

You could also participate in my free merit threads and complete tasks that show you're an actual crypto user who cares about your privacy.