I would focus on other merited poster rather than the top segment to start with really, and see what they post about, the content and depth of their posts and so on (simply browse the forum or use the official merit stats to jump to merited posts, and profiles (but again, don’t focus on the top ones).
If I were to summarize it, if you really want to rank-up (I’m assuming further than being a Jr. Member), it mainly comes down to will, focus, effort and time. If one is here just for the bounties (and you may at the beginning until you realize how boring and belittling they are), then there is no way that person is going to achieve a decent rank nowadays with the merit system.
If on the other hand one enjoys the forum and what goes on in this virtual sub-world, then the focus of mind is different and one posts with the will to bring something to the table and not simply to the personal token wallet value enhanced slightly by the end of the campaign.
Having said that, focus on what you are good at, and take time to create your posts, giving them thought and depth, avoid in in general the superficial on-two liners that are empty of content. It is way better to just create one post or two per day, than to go on a spamfest rampage and produce twenty low quality/interest posts. The time you can place into the equation plays an important role in all of this, and may well be rather correlated to ranking-up speed.
I would read quite a bit too before posting, to get the idea of things before you start-off on the wrong foot. There are also rules on the forum (see Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ). I didn’t read them until months after joining, and they are pretty much common sense, but it is better to take a look at them anyhow (for example, posting multiple consecutive posts in row in a same thread in a short timespan is normally going to break rule number 32 …).