I found in the beginning it may be a bit hard simply because it takes some time. What I mean by this is that the initial ratio you start with will allow you to download a small amount of content to begin seeding and earning "gold" from. You basically just have to keep seeding more as you get more room in your ratio to grab more without getting too low. I found that once you rank up and can get VIP from your gold you are pretty set on the site and never have to worry. I got to a point pretty rapidly where I no longer have to worry about my ratio.

I'd say MAM also helped me get into other private trackers and now I am some of the harder to get into ones like GGN.