Dani,
The featured blogs are missing the "views" and "comments" bits. I know that information is still available on the blogs page, but not on the homepage.
I often scan the featured blogs. If the topic doesn't interest me, I move on. However, if I see that there are numerious views and comments, I'll often be moved to read the entire thread, thinking there must be something interesting to have motivated so many comments.
It becomes a self-reinforcing phenomemon: the more comments there are, the more comments there'll be. Likewise with "views".
I suggest you consider adding "Views/Comments" to the featured blogs.