I'm new here. What's all about this merit count? How is it earned? I'm assuming it's linked to the quality/usefulness of your posts/replies? Their originality maybe? What are usually the subjects you'd get the more merit for posting about?
Keep participating in the discussion and make such valuable replies that you feel other members are not sharing the information if you have such good knowledge and information reply to the post then the chances of getting merits on your quality post will be high but I am not saying you will receive merits all the time because your post sometime not reaches the person who is merit source or who feel that this post deserve merit. Well, I would advise you not to run before merits make your posts quality good and merits will come whenever they come.
You can also make Informative threads that you feel really helpful to others and your thread may also be appreciated by your senior members if they feel you have really contributed good information on the Forum. I hope you are getting my sayings in conclusion I will say never run before earning merits or never use any shortcut of getting merits rather just focus on your post quality.