I find getting to the front page is hit or miss when I submit something from my blog. I only submit stories I think will be interesting to the community but it

I find getting to the front page is hit or miss when I submit something from my blog. I only submit stories I think will be interesting to the community but it is really surprising to me which ones make it past the "new" page. I submitted a story the other day which was dead on-topic for this community and timely and I thought would certainly make it to the homepage here but it got one vote and disappeared. Yet someone submitted a story from my blog some months ago that shocked me anyone cared at all. Finally yesterday I made an "offer" post. I was giving advice away for free and it didn't receive one single vote. The bottom line is that large groups are fickle and trying to predict the "what" and "why" about the homepage is difficult and largely unproductive.