It's been the secret to my "success?". Not much of a secret, though a lot of us have mentioned it in comments. I have a blast playing with them. Sometime if you're really bored look through some of my past submissions. :)
But seriously, is there a trick to getting a non-standard template meme thru the mods in less than 8 hours? Mine always start off on page 17 and just fizzle out with 19 views...
There isn't. one thing that helps on what page they fall on is to submit right away. Don't make it today and submit it tomorrow. For those of us who do a lot of custom templates it is our ongoing struggle to be seen!