The canonical way to "work your way up" nowadays is to get into RED. Once you get to a certain user class, you'll find that there's a path to lots of categories. Getting into trackers takes a bit of dedication, but it pays off and does not require your ongoing attention once you're set.
1) know someone who is already on the inside, who has earned enough reputation to get some invites, or
2) Idle in some IRC channel for anywhere from a few days to a few months, and then pass some quiz/interview to make sure you know the basics of torrent etiquette and such