Popular?

After (but not as a result of) my recent rant about Digg I managed to get a story into the 'popular' section. It didn't quite make it to the front page though. It seems that it needs to get a lot of diggs within minutes of it becoming popular for it to get to the front page. The lowest amount of diggs on the front page that I've seen is about 90-ish, while mine was no where near with 35.
At the moment, it's slowly creeping up (39 at the time of writing this) but it's way past it's chance to get on the front page.

While watching the digg labs stack for upcoming stories I noticed someone else who was also frustrated with never getting a story to the front page. He had come up with an idea which he thought would get himself to the front page. He gave out his mobile phone number (which will work up until the 29^th) for people to call or text and say whatever they wanted.
I personally thought this would go up to the front page as quick as anything. It shows all the signs of a last desperate attempt, destined to be answered by the digg users. But unfortunately it didn't happen, at the moment it's stuck around the 23 mark and I can't see it getting any higher.

Going by the rate at which the diggs came in for my story, it seems that digging goes in two stages.

1. First you have to get out of the upcoming stories, that happens anywhere between 30 and 60 diggs.
   
2. Once you do that you're at the bottom of the popular stories, which means it's even harder to get diggs. As all of the very popular stories are getting dugg a lot and not many people take any notice of the least popular ones.
   

The second stage is where mine failed. It's more or less like the first stage but on the bigger scale. There are so many stories in the popular section, it's very hard to get people to notice it.
It seems like the best times to submit a story is between 4pm and 2am (GMT). The reason being that the majority of digg users are in Canada and the US, and at those times people are just getting back from work/school and the first thing they'll do is turn on the computer and check digg.

The only problem with submitting at that time is there will be a lot more users submitting stories so you'll need to make sure what you're submitting is something people WILL be interested in. If it's something people MIGHT be interested in, the chances that it'll become popular are very slim and the chances of it appearing on the front page are even worse (obviously).

I've just realised this has turned into a guide of sorts. If anyone wants to take it as a guide, go for it. If this helps people then I'll know my frustration brought about results.