Changes

Aside from marrying a Blizzard employee or becoming one yourself, you could try attending BlizzCon or other such conventions, since they've been giving out cards good for future beta test slots at such events. Admins of popular fansites and employees of major gaming info sites usually get beta slots as well; sometimes they even have extras to give out to site regulars. There's no way to increase your odds of being chosen from the public sign up period though, since the criteria Blizzard uses to pick such people varies, and is largely random.

This varies greatly. There's usually at least a month or two between sign up and the start of the test, and selected testers only find out when they get their beta key emails. Since these notifications are sent out in waves, some testers will necessarily find out long before others.

==Will I have to pay for the Beta?==