I think what you said was actually very reasonable. However, what about this? what if you added a little content? I am not saying your content isn't solid., however what if you added a title that makes people want more? I mean %BLOG_TITLE% is a little plain. You might peek at Yahoo's front page and watch how they create post titles to grab viewers to open the links. You might add a video or a related pic or two to grab people interested about everything've got to say. In my opinion, it might make your posts a little livelier.