MasterOfAllHeSurveyz
All Star
Break down the game.
The key is get to 1000 HITS as quickly and easily as possible. When you first sign up to MTurk, you're limited to a max of 100 HITS per day and can't get your first payout until after 10 days. So, to hit the 1K threshold, do those super easy 1 cent hits that contains easy, one choice shyt like "Which picture contains XXX?". While doing this, be sure to submit real answers to not get your HITS rejected. Try to keep your approval rate above 99%.
Second, sign up for a TurkerView API key (it's 4.99/month and worth it's weight in gold). It's a user-contributed ratings database for HITs. You use it as a guide to distinguish between good and bad hits. When you use an addon like MTS (Mturk Suite), the great HITS will be highlighted in green, the good ones in yellow and the "bad"* ones in red. Say for instance, that a requester has an easy trigger for rejections. Other MTurkers will post to TurkerView to alert others to avoid that particular requester.

Example of personal anecdotes from other MTurkers:
Back in the day, you had to use the GreaseMonkey/TaperMonkey addon to run scripts created to make work on MTurk easy and find the good hits. About everything you need is contained in the MTS (MTurk Suite) addon. You use Hit Finder to find HITs according to criteria you set e.g. only look for HITs that pay above $0.25 and a rating of 3.5. The Hit Catcher feature of MTS will accept HITs on your behalf and place them in your work queue.
There's more to learn, but that just the gist of it. There's a good book by Michael Naab on MTurking the right way on Amazon for $2.99. Some info inside is dated, but the concepts of MTurk'n the right way are not.
When you first sign up to Mturk, it takes about a day or two until you're approved. You'll receive an email to enter your identification details in Amazon like name, address and social. It's take about another day for them to verify you. Once that's done, you enter in your bank account details in Amazon Payments in order to receive money you've earned. I know there's a step in there somewhere where you have to put in info for the IRS.
Interview w/ Mike:
Mechanical Turk Review: How I Made $21,000 a Quarter at a Time
Mike's site:
How To Make Money Online With Amazon Mechanical Turk - Top Money Habits