I just created my account today after scrolling through these forums for a few months. I am a newbie who doesn't have the intricate knowledge of cryptocurrency so how can I contribute to topics if I have no knowledge on them? I am going to start researching and reading a lot in the next few days and hopefully get merited. Thanks for your suggestion! 
Mind you too that earning merits do not come quite fast for most users, though there are some exceptional users that have Bitcoin/crypto/any unique knowledge even before they ever became a user on this forum, thus earning merits could be easier for such users even in their early days in their forum, but the thing is that most users aren't like that, that is why it is usually a slow and interesting process for most.Having said that, since you are a newbie don't forget to take your time to learn, if you do not have knowledge to contribute to topics now, then don't, use this time to garner that essential knowledge. You also don't have to hope to get merited, or to post solely to get merited, just garner knowledge and contribute to the forum because you want to discuss/communicate on the forum and you'd definitely get merits.