1. Make sure you and your adviser make a good match. Don't rely on reputation alone.
2. Look beyond the reputation of the institution you are applying to, ie. student satisfaction
3. Apply many scholarships
4. Conferences: go, see, present, network
5. Publish, publish, publish!

6. Have a social life. You need some balance in your life, it will only benefit you in the long run
7.If you feel you have been judged unfairly, given an unfair mark, been treated ill by a prof, report it. It will not only help you in the long run, but the others that will come after you as well.
8. Have multiple advisors.
9. Be selective and picky about your thesis topic. Consult many people both in and outside your institution.
10. Don't let negative people hold you back.
11.(spell check also helps ;)

It also depends on what your masters is in. A lot of what you said above doesn't really apply in science masters. If you did publish as a masters student, you must be damn clever in our field.

I did a science masters, and got a paper published

You can always publish by writing a book review or being a second author. Or is it way different in the science realm.

Science is weird. I knew I should have gone and been a translator.