Jackie, before you go to the bar again, how about some cash prizes?
Just small ones. To encourage bloggers to produce some decent writing. Not sure how rich Mr & Mrs Blogit are at the moment, but when a blogger returned from 18 months away yesterday, I wondered what happened to their 50% of subscription if they hadn't been reading anyone for all those months. That must be a nice little stash that Mr & Mrs B could get out from under the bed.
Here's the idea: You could pay a non-blogit established writer of your choice to judge a competition of, say, poetry or stories or real life anecdotes or religious essays - whatever. Blogit pays them a small fee as judge and then pays a small fee to the winner of the competition. Writers new and old would have a chance to earn more than their usual pennies. New Writers might stay longer.
I know Mr & Mrs Blogit aren't Bill Gates ( I don't think) but maybe you could talk them round over a few pints down the pub one night.
Tara.